George A. Romero always looked like a brilliant person, someone who tried to do something different with his movies. His movies, including the “Night of the Living Dead“, “Dawn of the Dead“, and the “Day of the Dead“, all were unique in their own sense. They started the genre of the now-common “Zombie” word, even though the word “Zombie” was uttered only once in all those 3 movies combined; only once in the 2nd movie “Dawn of the Dead”, and that was it. Zombies stayed with us after that, with movie after movie copying the concept and coming up with different versions of these “things.” “Resident Evil” series [and even the original Japanese games and the concept, Bio-hazard] is no different, and the ending of the movie “28 Days Later” also shows that it was all inspired by series, and it’s ending is also taken from the main concept of “Day of the Dead.”

The ending of the “Day of the Dead” is considered by many to be something that was not typical of Romero style; it ended in a twist, a surprise that came quickly, as quick as the start of the movie [which was perfectly normal, however, and Romero's style for both the sequels]. Therefore, many people consider the first two movies to be far superior to the 2nd sequel because of this negative thing. However, this “negative” thing exists because people wanted more from Romero. What he gave wasn’t bad; it was perfect. There is nothing wrong with the ending of “Day of the Dead”; people just wanted more minutes of it, a little bit longer ending, probably a minute or two more, maybe even five more minutes, with Romero explaining things step by step. The fact is that other things along with the twist, the surprise twist at the end of the movie included, had to be added because of the limited budget of the movie. I will talk here not about how scary the zombies were, or the budget of the movies or their main storylines [not in this article], but how interesting and scary the original concept of using a black actor in all the movies as the main character and one of the main characters, along with white actors, was during the previous decades, and even today. Yes, all the movies had black people [or a single black individual] as one of the main survivors along with a white character, and no, George A. Romero is not black [image above, as of today, and below, from the '60s]. By the way, if you notice something here that is incorrect, or something I may have missed or misunderstood, please let me know.

Now George A. Romero, after a long time of waiting, is releasing the latest and supposedly last of the series, Land of the Dead. In this movie, the entire land [or the world, concept wise] has been overrun by the zombies, and only one city stands to defend itself from these “psycho humans.” One thing unique about his first Zombie movie, “Night of the Living Dead” [in black and white], was that he had a Black actor become the main character in the movie, at a time when such a trend was not the case, and such a trend isn’t successful even now [how many "black" actors get referred to as being "American" and not "African American" at the Oscars, do you think?]. He continued the tradition with Dawn of the Dead, and then the Day of the Dead. He chose them mainly because of their talent, looking for the best actors available at that time, and that also meant looking at everyone equally. These movies had different characters, both “white” and “black.” I put those words in quotes since I myself do not like to use those words as a reference, but I need to put them there for the point to get across.

I haven’t seen Land of the Dead, and I won’t be able to until the day it come out. It comes out within 2 weeks from today, which is good. Something I noticed from the trailers is that the main zombie, that we keep seeing again and again, and the zombie that is always in the front of the zombie “marches”, is a “black’ character. Romero has done this on purpose, continuing his tradition of using something different in his movies. We will have to wait and see if there is a main character in the movie who is Black, or if the main zombie is black, or something else.

The first three movies all had main characters who were “black” and from different “fields.” All these men had their weaknesses, and they were not alone; they tagged along with other people, all white, who also tagged along with them, so that they could survive together. First one was a man of rationality and someone who didn’t give a damn about authority, and acted to keep things under control, and was good at heart. Released in the same year when MLK was assassinated, 1968, the movie “Night of the Living Dead” showed us the start of the horror as it all began. “They’re coming to get you Barbara” and “They know we’re in here now” ; this movie is where these classic lines came from, and they have been copied over and over, along with many other lines from the movie, in movies and real life and in different sub-cultures. In the movie, we are shown our main character, a black African American named Ben [played perfectly by Duane Jones], a religious person in many senses, slapping a white women Barbara [played perfectly also by Judith O'Dea] and “beating the living daylights”, as some call it, out of a white man. We also see Barbara being the perfect “companion” to Ben, with Ben tries his best to keep everything under control, and give hope to all the people, specially Barbara. That is what the move did; spin a ball in a society, a black colored ball, at a time when the blacks had everything to fear and everything to lose, and they were not welcome anywhere.

“Color isn’t the enemy; something else is! Let’s stand together, regardless of our color, and fight!.” That is the controversy that Romero stepped into and created, and he continued deeper and deeper into it, knowing exactly what he was doing. We didn’t get naked women in typical horror shows, nor did we get people getting attracted to each other romantically because they had a few minutes break while the zombies took a break too, nor did we get the black guy to be chopped off first as was and still is typical in most of the horror movies. No, in this movie, you had no breaks. You had a “black” man ordering around “white” people, and some of them actually agreeing with him, and he was the most rational of them all, and he did try his best to ensure everyone was safe.

All of the 3 movies have a black person in a group of white people, and a guy and a girl together, with the guy being black and the girl being white. It was the defining moment in movie history; a couple on big screen, and both of different colors! On top of that, no romance between each other, and nothing else other than a bond of understanding and friendship, and respecting each other and watching each others’ back. Not only that, but the “black” guy was also right in almost all the decisions he made, and handled the situation better than others! That was the world Romero showed, whether intentionally or unintentionally, where Black was no different than White, Purple, Green and Blue. How many horror movies can you name today that have no sex, no nudity, no “racial profiling”, and have pure chills? Not many, I am sure, even if you think hard enough. You should know that the remake of 1978 “Dawn of the Dead”, which is the 2004 version called “Dawn of the Dead” also, is not an official Romero release. Therefore, the zombies in the original series do not run as if they are in the Olympics. The zombies in the Romero movies walk slowly, sometimes very slowly. The remake does, however, do a good job on its own and create a creepy atmosphere too in its own way, using new special effects.

The ending of the first movie also showed clearly the prejudice that Romero wanted to show, and that he himself saw in the world around him. In the end of the first movie, we see that people are going around hunting zombies like hunting rabbits [which is not recommended]. Anyone they see and anyone they confirm to be a zombie, they shoot to kill. If they see a small kid, they walk up and try to talk. If the kid tries to bite, “bang” and the kid was dead. If they see a woman, they walk up and try to see how she acted, and if the woman tried to bite, “bang” and the women was gone. However, when they see our main man, Ben, hiding in the house, the last survivor of the whole fiasco that occurred during the entire night, the “white men” shoot him on sight. They don’t check whether he’s a zombie or not. They do not check whether he has been infected or not. They merely shoot him, and drag him out and burn and torture all the dead zombies [and our poor Ben], and all the living zombies. The way the zombies and killed and tortured mimics the way that the lynching happened. That is what Romero showed, and Romero showed this ending in a way that we realize that the way the humans acted toward Ben, who can be considered an angel, and toward the zombies, was not a moral or human thing to do.

If you haven’t seen it, I suggest you go rent the “Night of the Living Dead.” Forget the chills and “Oh it’s so old and it looks funny now” thoughts. Simply rent it to see the atmosphere it creates, and how it feels like if you were there at that time, in the 60’s, and how even today, the film holds it’s own ground as being a masterpiece, sometimes overshadowed in superiority, very slightly, only by it’s own sequel. I will talk about the other two sequels later on.