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Living Dead

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"Living dead" redirects here. For other uses, see Undead.
File:Night of the Living Dead affiche.jpg
The original poster for Night of the Living Dead.

Living Dead is a blanket term for various films, series, and other forms of media that all originated from, and includes, the seminal 1968 horror film Night of the Living Dead conceived by George A. Romero and John A. Russo. The loosely connected franchise predominantly centers on different groups of people attempting to survive during the outbreak and evolution of a zombie apocalypse.

After the film's initial success, the two creators split in disagreement regarding where the series should head, and since the film was in the public domain, each were able to do what they liked with the continuity of their projects. Romero went on to direct five additional Dead films focusing on society as the living dead begins to evolve, while Russo branched off into literary territory, writing Return of the Living Dead, which would later be loosely adapted into a film of the same name and have its own franchise, and Escape of the Living Dead.

The term may also refer to the reanimated human corpses that feast on the flesh and/or brains of the living seen in the films.

Romero's Dead series

  1. Night of the Living Dead (Romero, 1968)
  2. Dawn of the Dead (Romero, 1978)
  3. Day of the Dead (Romero, 1985)
  4. Land of the Dead (Romero, 2005)
  5. Diary of the Dead (Romero, 2007)
  6. Survival of the Dead (Romero, 2010)

Labeled Trilogy of the Dead until Land of the Dead, this is considered by most fans as the one true series[citation needed]. Each film is laden with social commentary on topics ranging from racism to consumerism. The films are not produced as direct follow-ups from one another. The films' only continuation is the epidemic of the living dead, the situation advancing with each film, but with different characters and even moving the time ahead from the last to the time in which they were filmed despite the world's progression being the only interlocking aspect of the series. They are different stories telling how different people react to the same phenomenon ranging from citizens to cops to army officials and back again. There are no real happy endings to the films as each takes place in a world that has gotten worse since the last time we saw it, the number of zombies ever increasing and the fate of the small amount remaining living always in the balance.

The fifth film, which premiered on September 8 at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, and was released on DVD May 20, 2008, does not continue the depiction of the progress of the world; instead it goes back to the beginning of events from the first film, but is nonetheless contemporary as the sequels are. Romero does not consider any of his Dead films sequels since none of the major characters or story continue from one film to the next. Only the premise that there are zombies is the same.

The latest film, titled Survival of the Dead, had its premiere in 2009.

File:Survival of the Dead TFW.jpg
Survival of the Dead Headliner Poster of the Texas Frightmare Weekend 2010

Dead series remakes

  1. Night of the Living Dead (Savini, 1990)
  2. Dawn of the Dead (Snyder, 2004)
  3. Night of the Living Dead 3D (2006, Broadstreet)
  4. Day of the Dead (Miner, 2008)

The films that originally made up Romero's trilogy have all have been remade in order. However, these remakes do not follow on from each other and are entirely different films. This is because they were all made by different people and have no real link between them.

The official Night of the Living Dead remake, released in 1990, was produced for two reasons. First, a rival company was planning a remake which Romero did not want to see happen without his involvement. Second, it was seen as an opportunity for the original creators to finally get some money back from the name Night of the Living Dead. The film saw another team-up with Tom Savini and Romero, though not in the same roles, as Savini directed the film based on a script by Romero.

The Dawn of the Dead remake also received mixed feelings, with common criticisms such as the altering of the "rules" by having the zombies running rather than the standard slow lumbering. However, reviews were generally favorable, with Romero himself stating that it was "much better" than he had expected, but he considered it an action movie rather than a horror film.

The Day of the Dead remake took a different approach, and received bad reviews.[citation needed] It had little in common with the original outside military characters and some character names.

Dan O'Bannon and John Russo's Living Dead spin-offs

There are currently two distinct franchises utilizing the Living Dead moniker. The first was Return of the Living Dead, which originated as a novel written in 1978 by Russo. It was later adapted to a film by Dan O'Bannon, which spawned its own series of movies, with a total of four sequels. This could be seen more as a spin-off of Night of the Living Dead rather than sequels, as the first movie treats Night of the Living Dead as a movie that was based on real events.

Having purchased the rights to Russo's sequel, O'Bannon discarded Russo's script in its entirety and rewrote it, retaining only the title and changing the "rules" significantly. His alterations to the canon include the zombies' fixation on brains alone (whereas Romero/Russo zombies will devour any part of a living human), the ability to move rapidly and communicate (despite physical defects which would render such activity impossible), and the ability of 2-4-5 Trioxin to resurrect any deceased life form, regardless of how long the decedent has been interred.

Then, in 1998, Russo went back to the original Night of the Living Dead to reshoot extra sequences into the film. This version, which was officially named Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition, added a subplot, alternate opening, and new score. Children of the Living Dead was then produced as a direct sequel to Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition, as it followed up on scenes that were newly inserted.

Romero's versus O'Bannon's zombies

While the two kinds are similar in appearance, there are certain distinguishing details:

Infection

  • Romero's original Night of the Living Dead explains that an unknown phenomenon causes re-animation of the brain. Instead of being spread like a plague by contamination, the phenomenon presents itself in any human that has recently died from any cause (except those which destroy the physical structure of the brain). The first animated corpses appear in many locations simultaneously, quickly reaching pandemic levels. Characters speculate about the cause of the phenomenon; suggesting at various times an airborne virus, divine punishment, radiation from a satellite returning from Venus, or that "there's no more room in Hell". Bites from these reanimated creatures are uniformly lethal, by mechanics unknown, however they do not "spread the infection" of zombification as often erroneously described by fans of the films. Rather, the bite kills, and then the body is reanimated by whatever unknown factor is causing zombification; death by other means would have the same result, a bite is not necessary. It is suggested in Day of the Dead that the immediate amputation of bitten limbs may prevent victims from dying, but while the treatment is attempted, its success is never conclusively demonstrated. Survival of the Dead shows that, in the rare instance of a living person biting a undead, that person will become infected.
  • The state of zombification seen in O'Bannon's "Return of the Living Dead" series is induced by the chemical compound Trioxin, an extremely toxic substance found in a gaseous state at standard temperature and pressure. Depending on the film in the series, Trioxin zombies may or may not be able to contaminate living humans with Trioxin via bite. Very small amounts of Trioxin are sufficient to have full effect, and bodies need not be fresh to be re-animated. Both factors were illustrated in the first two films, wherein Trioxin seeped through several feet of earth to reach graves several decades old and animate the occupants (Return of the Living Dead even depicted a near-skeleton coming out of its grave). If a zombie corpse is stored for too long in a sealed container, the decomposition process will generate noxious gases containing trace amounts of Trioxin, so the drum can only be safely opened in a sealed lab environment. The requirement of Trioxin exposure makes containment to a specific area or group of people somewhat easier than Romero's plague (though the extreme tenacity of the zombies may mitigate this advantage).

Memory

  • Romero's Zombies have very limited to no memory of their previous life. But they all remember how to walk, and how to use their hands for several tasks (such as opening doors or holding something or someone). They recognize many objects such as cars, houses and other structures, and they recognize the doors to enter in them. As characters state in Dawn of the Dead, the zombies are in the mall since it is "an important place in their lives". They also kept the instinct of eating and biting. In Day of The Dead, the zombie dubbed 'Bub' is experimented on and trained by the scientist Logan and recalls how to use a razor, telephone, and a book. When Capt. Rhodes walks in the room, Bub salutes him, fires an unloaded pistol at him, and later in the movie shoots Capt. Rhodes. In Land of the Dead, the undead retained some memory of their past lives, allowing them to use tools they remember operating, and even display emotion, giving some of Bud's intelligence to other zombies.
  • The zombies in the Return of the Living Dead series retain their full memories as of their time of death, whether or not they were reanimated immediately or after long interment.

Intelligence

  • Romero's Zombies initially lack full cognitive function and act only on a single drive: the need to seek and consume living flesh. Night of the Living Dead depicted zombies eating animals as well as humans. It should be noted that the zombies have no true physiological need for flesh, nor can their expired digestive organs derive sustenance from it at all. This was discovered by Dr. Logan (aka Frankenstein) during his many experiments on "living" zombie specimens and reported to Sarah in "Day of the Dead". The animated dead retain vague impulses derived from former living behavior. For instance, zombies often return to specific locations they frequented when alive (examples from the original Dawn of the Dead, hordes of zombies are compelled to congregate in a shopping mall, and one zombie knows where to find the secret hideout containing its still-living former companions). Lacking immediate victims to hunt, zombies will often fumble through crude motions reminiscent of life activities, often when prompted by a familiar artifact such as a telephone or car. With stimulus, it is possible for some specimens to begin to remember more of the common activities they performed while alive and achieve a basic functioning intelligence. In Day of the Dead, the zombie nicknamed Bub was "educated" into docility by Dr. Logan, learned (or remembered) how to operate a handgun and even developed a childlike affection for its instructor. In Land of the Dead, the zombie known as Big Daddy developed sophisticated cognitive function on his own, felt affection and empathy for his fellow zombies, could teach other zombies how to use objects (including weapons) and devised crude strategies for bypassing the defenses of the living humans who had destroyed many of his fellows. The more intelligent zombies like Bub and Big Daddy retain their hunger for living human flesh, but can put off immediate gratification if doing so offers a chance for more significant reward later.
  • In O'Bannon's universe, if bodies are still in good condition when they are reanimated, then the resulting zombies really are capable of the same things as normal living humans. Basically, they are like normal humans but with an uncontrollable need to eat brains, which ease the great and constant pain felt from their own decomposition. Depending on their own intelligence, from the previous life, they can actually resist their need for eating brains to the benefit of survival and to elaborate some "brain hunting" tactics. This goes as far as posing as a normal living human like a cop signaling cars to stop on the side or like someone calling friends or people and asking them for help, basically anything to attract and trap new living fresh brains when they get close enough. It is also worth noting that, as seen in Return of the living dead part 2, these zombies will act communally, for example waiting to open a gate for all the other zombies rather than simply taking the brains for themselves.

Locomotion

  • Romero's zombies are slow and shambling. In interviews, George Romero has attributed this quality to rigor mortis, and to the poor condition of their ankles. A sheriff in Night of the Living Dead sagely suggests that their limited mobility is due to the fact that "they're dead, they're all messed up." In Diary of the Dead (2007, post Dawn of the Dead remake) the director of the student horror film tells his living dead actor (a mummy, in this case) not to move fast because "if you run that fast your ankles are going to snap off." When that character later becomes an actual zombie and shambles after a victim the director says "See? I told you dead things move slow!"
  • O'Bannon's Trioxin-contaminated zombies can run if not physically injured and display quite normal mobility if not too decomposed. They have the added advantage of remaining mobile even if significant body mass is lost. Several times, zombies who have lost their legs remain agile and quick through the use of their arms.

Locution

  • In Romero's series, zombies never get much beyond basic grunts and groans or even screams. The aforementioned zombie Bub makes a praiseworthy effort to say "Hello Aunt Alicia," but the result is largely incomprehensible. Big Daddy in Land of the Dead was able to crudely laugh after finding a jackhammer.
  • In the Return of the Living Dead series, a zombie can speak normally (even if its lungs, trachea, and facial muscles are largely missing) but any conversation will tend to lean towards their attraction to the listener's brain, how good it must taste and the speaker's overwhelming desire to consume it. There is a glaring exception to this in Return of the Living dead 3, involving a very fresh corpse that had not even been buried yet.

Termination

  • Romero's zombies will remain animated until their brains become severely damaged, or the head is removed from the body demobilizing it (although in Day of the Dead a shovel cut head still functions, because the brain was not damage by the attack done by one of the characters). Zombies can also be burned as shown in Night of the Living Dead. A zombie's mobility may be hampered by structural damage, but such damage will do nothing to reduce the "life force" driving the body. Body parts severed from an undead brain will become inanimate.
  • In contrast, a typical O'Bannon zombie simply cannot be deactivated short of complete destruction. Any severed body parts will still remain animate, resulting in two or more moving parts. Therefore, decapitation produces both an animate head and an animate body wandering around still trying to catch a living human. There are only two known ways to permanently kill a zombie. One is completely burning the body (as seen in the cremation scene from Return of the Living Dead), though burning the body releases Trioxin-laced smoke into the air, which can combine with clouds to create Trioxin-laced rain. Another way is electrocuting the undead until they cease to move or squirm. See Return of the Living Dead Part II. In the third film scientists invented an endothermic chemical dart that freezes the brain, incapacitating the zombie, but its effective duration is wildly unpredictable. As of the fourth and fifth films in the series the zombies are easily destroyed by attack including attacks that do not damage the brain.

Unauthorized sequels/remakes and parodies

There are also some other films that have been released as sequels to various films in Romero's Dead series, most likely to ride on the name recognition that Romero's films enjoy. They have been produced due to the various mix-ups with the copyright and ownership of the movies, Romero himself owns only Dawn of the Dead from his first four films.

These include:

  • Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane
  • Zombi 2 (known as Zombie in USA) (Fulci, 1979) is a film that was already in production when Dawn of the Dead was released, but was renamed to be a sequel upon its release (Dawn of the Dead was titled Zombi in Italy). This movie has a history of official and unofficial sequels itself. See Zombi series.
  • Hell of the Living Dead (known as Virus in Italy) (Mattei, 1980).
  • Day of the Dead 2: Contagium (Clavell, 2005), while billed as a sequel as Taurus Entertainment holds the original's copyright, it has no actual ties to the original Day of the Dead or the series (although the prologue is set in Pittsburgh, 1968).
  • Night of the Living Dead 3D (Broadstreet, 2006) is a remake/reimagining of the original film made in a 3D format. The original's status as public domain made it possible to produce this film without the involvement of either Romero or Russo.

There have also been ultra-low budget parodies such as:

Also, there have been films that pay homage to the genre:

  • Shaun of the Dead, a film about an unmotivated slacker who must cope with a zombie uprising, in London, while trying to sort his life out with a very British sense of humour. Simon Pegg notes in the interview on the DVD Release of "Shaun of the Dead" and on interview on BBC Radio 1 prior to the films release that they sought after George A. Romeros blessing and acknowledgement or the film would not have been released. Simon Pegg comments that George in fact loved it so much, we [Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright] were asked to be in the film "Land of the Dead" as leading characters, but we said no, no way, definitely got to be zombies!" Shaun of the Dead features numerous references to not only Romero films, but several other horror/science fiction movies too.
  • Fido, a film taking place post-zombie apocalypse in a small safe town which appears as an idyllic 50's small town. In this film zombies are kept as slaves or pets, until something goes wrong.
  • Dance of the Dead, a film about a high school prom in Georgia is unexpectedly interrupted when a graveyard, next to a power plant, becomes the sudden source of resuscitated cadavers. As zombies march on the high school, a motley group of dateless teenage outcasts take on the zombies and save the day.

The ...of the Dead title has also been referenced in other works, such as the episode of Doctor Who, "Planet of the Dead" and more overtly in the upcoming novel of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood, entitled Bay of the Dead.

Romero, it has to be noted, is often positive of derivations of his work, stating that any new film in the horror genre is a step forward, whether completely original or a 'copycat'. Even going as far as putting the star and director of 'Shaun of the Dead' in his film 'Land of the Dead' as zombies.

Living Dead in other media

Although the majority of the Living Dead media has been films, there has been times when related projects have been released in other media. Specifically, there have been a handful of books and comics books that take place in the Living Dead universe. As with the films, some of them are officially endorsed while others unofficially use the universe.

Books

  • Night of the Living Dead (1974) by John A. Russo, a novelization of the first film.
  • Return of the Living Dead, by John Russo (1977). A stand-alone sequel to Night of the Living Dead, with few similarities to the eventual films of the same name.
  • Book of the Dead (1989) and Book of the Dead 2: Still Dead (1992), anthology books meant to take place in Romero's universe; not authorized by Romero himself.
  • The Zombie Survival Guide; Complete Protection from the Living Dead (2003), by Max Brooks. Reviewed as, "This book lays out everything you need to know to protect yourself from flesh-eating monsters" on amazon.com

Comics

  • The Death of Death was a story by Romero that appeared in issues #1-6 of DC Comic's Toe Tags from late 2004 to mid 2005. It was drawn by Tommy Castillo and Rodney Ramos, with covers by famed horror artist Berni Wrightson. Romero's story is actually based on an unused script for a sequel to his Dead films; the miniseries therefore follows his similar tropes: Extreme gore, social commentary, evolving zombies, and the heroes riding off in the end into an unknown fate.
  • Escape of the Living Dead (2005), written by John A. Russo, a sequel to Night of the Living Dead, and it explains that the zombie hunters were able to kill most the zombies, but a few had been kept "alive" in a military base for study, but they inevitably escaped and started it all over again.
  • The Walking Dead, (2003) an ongoing account of a zombie-apocalyptic world written by Robert Kirkman. Robert Kirkman later stated that his series would have been called Night of the Living Dead, since it was in the public domain, as a way to get more recognition. The first page of the proposal had lines taken from Romero's film, and the story was to take place in the 60s. Publisher Jim Valentino suggested Kirkman to change the title to something else, as it made no sense to create something under the title that couldn't be owned. Kirkman later said that Night would have been "the most inaccurate title [The Walking Dead] could have had".

Documentaries

  • Fan of the Dead, filmed in 2003 in Pennsylvania with a 2007/2009 DVD/Blu-ray release date in USA/Canada (Cheezy Flicks), France (Bach Films), Italy (Millennium Storm), Germany (CMV Laservision), Spain/Portugal (Manga Films) and Great-Britain (Arrow Films). Directed by the French filmmaker Nicolas Garreau. The film is a 52 minutes documentary road-movie revealing the filming locations of Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead (1990) with exclusive interviews with the cast of the George A. Romero's trilogy. Nicolas Garreau went to Pennsylvania to find and explore all the places where the films were shot: house, cemetery, mall, private airport, military base, underground facility, etc.

References

  1. ^ Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead;
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