A full day with the living dead!

“They keep coming back in a bloodthirsty lust for human flesh!” It was on the movie poster back when George A. Romero in 1968 (!) founded the modern zombie genre. The geeks among you will notice that there were ZOMBIES IN THE SUGAR CANE FIELD before. But because no one has ever seen it, we stick to the usual commercial theory. By popular request, we present you “A Full Day With The Living Dead”: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978), DAY OF THE DEAD (1985) and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1990).

‍NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) is not only considered one of the most influential horror films of all, but also as the origin of the zombie film. The story is quickly told: In a remote farmhouse, the living dead gather outside, while inside, there is more and more conflict among the living. Especially because of this: For the first time in the history of zombie films, undead appear who eat human flesh, transmit the undead-disease through bites and can only be killed by bashing in the head. Socio-critical and political topics are also heavily represented in the film. However, to illuminate this in depth would go beyond the scope.

Romero fans had to wait ten years until DAWN OF THE DEAD was released in 1978. The zombie epic was 127 minutes long in its US theatrical version, 139 minutes as Director's Cut. We don't have that much patience and serve you the Argento Cut in return. It is just under 2 hours long, is more action-packed and there is also more Goblin to listen to. In German-speaking countries, the film was also available back then under the title ZOMBIES IN THE DEPARTMENT STORE (ZOMBIES IM KAUFHAUS) and that would immediately complete the content summary.

Just seven years later, Romero continued his original zombie trilogy with DAY OF THE DEAD (1985) and only in 2005 the franchise went on with LAND OF THE DEAD. But we didn't know that back then. Society has collapsed. Zombies are everywhere. A few surviving military and scientists have entrenched themselves in a bunker and are trying to find a solution to the zombie problem. However, another problem is just as central: people and their different views. A ticking time bomb in a high-security bunker.

Let's finish our marathon just as we started it. With NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1990). Romero himself has rejuvenated the script of his classic and assigned the directorial work to effect legend and horror fanboy Tom Savini. In terms of content, they focused heavily on the original and only worked on the characters and the dramaturgy a bit. It is self-explanatory that Savini has raised the splatter and gore levels considerably. Unfortunately so firmly that a large part of it fell victim to 21st Century Fox's censorship and has been lost forever. In spite of everything, the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD remake is a more than successful film. Still it would be interesting to know what Savini would have done without a studio morality guard.