▲ George W. A. Romero
Author: Huang Fufang, our special guest author
Nowadays, zombie movies and games are very popular, and many young people are addicted to them. But 50 years ago, this genre didn't exist until 1968, when a young boy opened his mind and worked with his friends on the movie Night of the Living Dead, which opened the curtain on zombie movies.
This young man is the American director George W. Bush, who is known as the "father of modern horror cinema". A. Romero.
▲ Poster of Night of the Living Dead
Born in the Bronx, New York, the son of a commercial artist, George was influenced by art from an early age. As a teenager, George's favorite thing to do was to take the subway to Manhattan to rent movies. In terms of hobbies, George is different from most children, and young George's favorite is those strange and chaotic films, this type of horror film did not have a certain influence at that time, and not many people watched it. But for George, these films are too creative to open his mind, and the "world of horror" in his mind is gradually formed under the influence of these films.
At the age of 11, George watched the movie "Song Final Dream Back", which made him firm in his dream - to pursue a film career. In his eyes, the film is intertwined with reality and magic, with something strange and terrifying, unreal, even absurd, but closely related to off-screen audiences. Some of the techniques in the film fascinated George, who realized that movies can also be fun, that they can extract human emotions and blend them into the film to make a real impact.
▲ Poster of "Song Final Dream Return"
Since then, George has stuck to his dream of pursuing a career in film. He began his film career while attending Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In order to accumulate experience and capital, he first tried to shoot TV commercials and short films, and when the time came, he and his friends set up a small film company called "Ten People Images". His best work, Night of the Living Dead, was raised during this period.
The creation of Night of the Living Dead was the result of george and partner John's brains. At first, they intended to write a light comedy where reality and magic intertwined, but the evolution of the plot was completely different from what they originally envisioned. John added an idea to the script that aliens would feed on rotting human corpses. Then he pointed out that the corpses that could be eaten should not be those buried in the grave for a long time, and only the skeletons remained; George, on this basis, opened his mind and proposed that these corpses should be dynamic, just like the "Haitian zombie legend" that once swept the United States, which was exciting enough; later, John simply proposed that these corpses could eat the living, and would also take the initiative to attack the living and infect healthy humans; and finally, George hammered out and called these guys "ghouls". "Night of the Living Dead", which established George's indelible mastership in the history of American cinema, had a complete idea in the open brains of the two partners.
On October 1, 1968, Night of the Living Dead was first released at Pittsburgh's Fulton Theater. For the audience, the show gave them an unprecedented sense of fear, which brought great harm, but also brought great impact. A large number of audiences came and left the theater in a hurry, and "zombies" became a hot topic in the streets and alleys of the United States at that time. Criticism is constant, harsh and angry: Where is the conscience and social responsibility of pittsburgh junk film makers? The Film Times, known as the vane of movie-watching, also praised it as "the pearl of horror movies", even those fiercely worded opponents, and had to admit that it opened a new door to horror movies.
Night of the Living Dead was popular in the United States for a decade, translated into more than 25 languages, released in Europe, the Americas and Australia, hailed as the "Best Film of 1968", won the 1969 European Film Box Office Champion, and was later selected as one of the "Top 100 Best Films of All Time" and listed as the 93rd in the "Top 100 Films" by the American Film Academy.
George's brains opened up, creating the glory of Night of the Living Dead. Mueller said: "Everything that is perfect is the result of innovation. "'Night of the Living Dead' is the best proof of this.