George A. Romero’s Best Movies (Land of the Dead)
(Photo by Universal/ courtesy Everett Collection. LAND OF THE DEAD.)
George A. Romero‘s first movie, Night of the Living Dead, released in 1968, walloped the country with its black-and-white dread and gore; infused with progressive casting and social commentary, it single-handedly created the modern-day zombie genre. His final movie — Survival of the Dead, released 2009 and eight years before his death — had, well, not quite the same impact, but discloses Romero’s lifelong commitment to the zombie revolution he spearheaded. The movies he made in-between these two Deads represent a visionary’s rocky but tenacious journey through the industry, frequently compromised or pigeonholed, but true to a drive to shake up the conventions of horror.
Night of the Living Dead took the space-age hopes of a nation on the cusp of landing on the moon and cut it to ribbons, fashioning an ambiguous backstory of a downed space craft whose radiation transforms the freshly deceased into mindless flesh-hungry shamblers. Romero was keen to quickly climb out of the horror genre pit, releasing rom-com There’s Always Vanilla in 1971, and then drama Season of the Witch in ’73, whose distributor chopped out 40 minutes and marketed as softcore. Both films have gone little-seen since.
With his talents apparently unwanted outside of horror, Romero returned to the genre and filled out the rest of the ’70s with his best streak of movies: virus-based The Crazies, vampire deconstruction Martin, and the legendary Dawn of the Dead. With this Night of the Living Dead sequel, Romero took a maximalist approach: More social commentary, more characters, more action, and, of course, much more gore. The effects had people literally blowing their tops off. It remains a top 3 zombie movie you must see.
Dawn‘s success gave Romero enough cred to make one last go at it outside horror: Knightriders, a 2.5-hour personal drama about a troupe of Reniassance Faire-esque moto-performers. Romero, still one of the biggest names in horror even in the ’80s age of the slasher, collaborated with the biggest name in literary horror, Stephen King, for anthology Creepshow. 1985’s Day of the Dead took aim at the human psychological breakdown that came with living in the undead post-apocalypse, concluding his ultimate at-the-time trilogy of zombie cinema.
Romero then entered big studio production with Monkey Shines for Orion Pictures, which balked at the movie’s initial long runtime, and were desperate for a hit. (They didn’t get one.) He collaborated with Dario Argento for 1990’s Two Evil Eyes, each adapting Edgar Allan Poe, before making Dark Half for Orion, which was still desperate for a hit. (They still didn’t get one.)
It’d be seven years before Romero’s next film, Bruiser. And then five years after that for Land of the Dead, a highly credible return to zombie land after two decades away, working with his biggest budget ever. He would stay among the Dead for the rest of his career, following Land with found-footage reboot Diary of the Dead, shot in his native Pittsburgh area, where he set a majority of his films. Survival came out two years after that.
In 2019, The Amusement Park was released after a single festival screening in 1975. Originally made between The Crazies and Martin, Park ended up with the strongest reviews of Romero’s films. And now, we pay tribute to the godfather of zombies by ranking all George A. Romero movies by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo
97%
95%
92%
90%
75%
80%
72%
67%
66%
61%
63%
62%
58%
55%
29%
