Birth of the Living Dead

Movie Title--  Birth of the Living Dead

Release Year--  2013

Running Time--  1 Hour and 16 Minutes

Director--  Rob Kuhns

Cast--  George A. Romero, Mark Harris, Gale Anne Hurd, Chiz Schultz, Larry Fessenden

The story of the cult classic film "Night of the Living Dead", it's director George A. Romero and how it came to be made and what it stands for.

I feel like this film should not be written about in my normal synopsis/option format so I have decided to write this in a different way.  I will still give my opinion in the end but as this film is about the film "Night of the Living Dead" and the people that made it, I feel like writing out a long synopsis would only give the film away for those that have never seen the film.  I am going to take the synopsis part of this review to discuss some of the topics that helped to develop the undertones of the film.  I hope you enjoy this week's shake-ups.

George A. Romero was born in the Bronx and attended college in Pittsburg, PA.where he starts his first production company "The Latent Image".  He and his partners worked for a while for Mr. Roger's Neighborhood and produced a few short films for Fred Rogers to use on the show.  Romero then went on to make beer commercials and after doing a few commercials he was asked to do a commercial in 35mm, so, he and his partners sacrifice their profits and purchase a 35mm camera.

Once they had the 35mm camera, they started to think that they could produce a movie, so Romero writes a script about a teenage couple in the medieval times called "Whine of the Fawn" but he could not get funding for it, so it fell through.  When that happened, they decided to make a horror film, something that would be easier to sell commercially.  After reading the book "I am Legend" by Richard Matheson, Romero got the feeling that the novel was about revolution, so he designed the characters in his new script to be undead and that was to be the revolution in his film.  

Romero, along with 9 other people started a new production company called "Image Ten".  Romero found a farmhouse that he thought would be a good filming location and the ten investors of "Image Ten" all put in $600 each to rent the farmhouse and buy the film that would be used to film.  Romero writes his script initially as a short story and he then had to adapt it into a screenplay.  They started shooting before it was completely adapted over, so John Russo helps to finish it once production began.

Because of such a low budget a lot of the cast had multiple jobs, a lot of people having to work behind the scenes AND on the screen.  Romero himself was a cinematographer, editor and director.  The scenes in the film with the police and news casters were the actual agencies that cooperated with the team and helped them to film the footage that they need.  One of the news casters was also a meat packer and he brought things like livers and intestines from the shop to be used in the film, so the shots with the zombies eating entrails, they are actually eating entrails.

The hero of the film is Ben played by Duane Jones an African American man.  The script was not written for a man of a particular race but Jones came onto the set and they liked him so much they made him the lead.  There was a decision not to change the script just because the lead was now a black man and to just leave it as they had intended to write it.  This was still a big deal in the 60's because he was a black man saving a white woman and to some people, that was frowned upon.  

The reporting in the film was meant to feel very real in order to make the film feel as real as possible.  They wanted the film to in a sense reflect the times and that is what fuels the undertones of the film.  The film is made to feel like there is no help from anywhere.  There is no answer to why this is happening and Romero is quoted as saying "The only explanation he needs is that there is no more room in hell, so God changed the rules.", therefore with no explanation why this is happening, the government and military agencies have no clue how to tell people to protect themselves, leaving the characters on the screen as well as the viewer feeling very hopeless.

This caused people to feel very unsafe.  It put the thought in people's heads that something like this could happen and there would be no way to stop it.  Romero wants the viewer to feel uncomfortable about who the people you root for is; in this film is good guys, not good guys and the living dead.  The victors of this film are the kind of people that in any other film a typical viewer would not cheer for.  It was made to feel like although there is an actual force to be dealt with, it wasn't just being dealt with by the typical good guy that always succeeds.  

After approaching different film companies, Walter Reade invested in the film and released it in 1968.  In New York, "Night of the Living Dead" was released in a theater that was known for grind house films, which are on the low end of the film scale.  In the 60's, children were dropped off at horror film matinees because they were confident that their children would be alright but when this film was shown, people were running from the theater terrified.

When "Night of the Living Dead" was being shopped around, it's title was "The Night of the Flesh Eaters" but once it started being shown it was changed to "Night of the Living Dead" and the copyright came off of it.  Romero and his associates sued but that folded when Walter Reade went out of business.  To date, there is no way to calculate how much money "Night of the Living Dead" made off ticket sales in Europe.

Romero is credited with being "the father of the zombies" because although there had been mentions of the undead and zombies in the past, the modern zombie as we know it today was created by George A. Romero.  Gale Anne Hurd, a producer for "The Walking Dead", modeled the show's zombies off Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" zombies.

Before seeing this film, I had no urge to want to see "Night of the Living Dead" but now that I have seen this documentary, aside from having the ending spoiled (this film goes from start to finish telling the undertones of each part), I want to sit down and watch the film.  There really is so much about this film that as a young adult I would never have realized.  

Anyone that is going to watch this film, I suggest that you watch "Night of the Living Dead", then this documentary and if it peaks your interest, watch "Night of the Living Dead" again to see what you may have missed the first time around.  If I would have realized that this film would have spoiled the ending of the film I would have watched "Night of the Living Dead" first.

Watch this film and then come back on Saturday for the actual "Night of the Living Dead" film and Don't Forget the Popcorn!