George A. Romero's Dead series
George A. Romero’s Dead Series
The Australian Cinematheque celebrates Halloween with an event screening of George A. Romero’s landmark zombie apocalypse series – Night of the Living Dead 1968, Dawn of the Dead 1978, Day of the Dead 1985, Land of the Dead 2005 and Diary of the Dead 2008 – celebrated for its social commentary and its genre-defining episodes of gore and horror
Night of the Living Dead
Fri 31 Oct 4.00pm / Cinema A
35MM, BLACK AND WHITE, MONO, 96 MINUTES, USA, ENGLISH /
DIRECTOR/CINEMATOGRAPHER: GEORGE A. ROMERO / SCRIPT/EDITORS: GEORGE A.
ROMERO, JOHN A. RUSSO / PRODUCTION CO: IMAGE TEN, LAUREL GROUP, MARKET
SQUARE PRODUCTIONS, OFF COLOR FILMS / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS:
‘Made with a local cast and crew for less than $200,000, much of its
appeal emanates from its no-stone-left-unturned grossness and its
tongue-in-cheek story line concerning recently dead bodies that return
to life to kill the living in order to eat their flesh. The first
horror film to feature an African-American actor (Duane Jones) in a
leading role, Romero’s film shattered the conventions of the genre
while raising prescient questions about race in America.’ Harvard Film
Archive
Dawn of the Dead
Fri 31 Oct 6.00pm / Cinema A 1978 R 35MM, COLOUR, MONO, 126 MINUTES, USA / ITALY, ENGLISH /
DIRECTOR/SCRIPT/EDITOR: GEORGE A. ROMERO / CINEMATOGRAPHER: MICHAEL
GORNICK / PRODUCTION CO: LAUREL GROUP / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: UMBRELLA
ENTERTAINMENT / SCREENING FORMAT: DIGITAL BETACAM
‘In George Romero's satirical film about consumerism, Dawn of the Dead
1978, an American shopping mall becomes the site of battles between the
zombies who have overrun the country, four human "survivors" who
exterminate the zombies and appropriate the mall for themselves, and a
gang of marauding bikers which, in the movie's violent climax, seeks to
take over the mall.’ Stephen Harper
Day of the Dead
Fri 31 Oct 8.00pm / Cinema A 1985 R 35MM, COLOUR, MONO, 97 MINUTES, USA, ENGLISH /
DIRECTOR/SCRIPT: GEORGE A. ROMERO / CINEMATOGRAPHER: MICHAEL GORNICK /
EDITOR: PASQUALE BUBA / PRODUCTION CO: DEAD FILMS, LAUREL ENTERTAINMENT
INC / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: UMBRELLA ENTERTAINMENT / SCREENING FORMAT:
DIGITAL BETACAM
‘In Day of the Dead society has irretrievably broken down, and a
disparate group of soldiers and scientists hide deep underground in a
military bunker. With hordes of zombies on the outside, tensions inside
reach crisis point, climaxing in a stand-off between the survivors as
the military base is overrun by the living dead. George A. Romero's
message is an allegory based around the destruction of one society and
the formation of another. The living dead and their human antagonists
are merely the hook on which the allegory is hung.’ National Museum of
Photography, Film & Television
Land of the Dead
Sat 1 Nov 6.00pm / Cinema A 2005 MA 15+ 35MM, COLOUR, DOLBY DIGITAL, 96 MINUTES, CANADA / FRANCE / USA, ENGLISH
/ DIRECTOR/SCRIPT: GEORGE A. ROMERO / CINEMATOGRAPHER: MIROSLAW BASZAK
/ EDITOR: MICHAEL DOHERTY / PRODUCTION CO: ATMOSPHERE ENTERTAINMENT MM,
EXCEPTION WILD BUNCH, ROMERO-GRUNWALD PRODUCTIONS, UNIVERSAL PICTURES /
PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: UNIVERSAL PICTURES
‘George A. Romero paints with his boldest brushstrokes yet in Land of
the Dead, blurring the line that separates zombies from humans while
sharpening the one that divides society’s haves from its have-nots. The
film unfolds in and around a luxury high-rise called Fiddler’s Green
that has become the last outpost of moneyed (and white) high society.
The Green towers above a Hooverville-like slum inhabited by those
deemed unworthy of admission. But as Land of the Dead begins, the
oppressed flesh-eating masses show unprecedented cognitive signs, and
these once-fearsome adversaries now seem to represent all of the
world’s displaced, disenfranchised people, from the streets of America
to the contentious cities of the Middle East.’ Scott Foundas, LA Weekly
Diary of the Dead
Sat 1 Nov 8.00pm / Cinema A 2007 MA 15+ 35MM, COLOUR, DOLBY DIGITAL, 95 MINUTES, USA, ENGLISH /
DIRECTOR/SCRIPT: GEORGE A. ROMERO / CINEMATOGRAPHER: ADAM SWICA /
EDITOR: MICHAEL DOHERTY / PRODUCTION CO: ARTFIRE FILMS, ROMERO-GRUNWALD
PRODUCTIONS / PRINT SOURCE: VOLTAGE PICTURES / RIGHTS: MADMAN
ENTERTAINMENT
‘Jason and a small crew of college students are in the Pennsylvania
woods shooting a low-budget mummy flick for their film-school project.
Their faux frights are replaced with real ones when news reports
indicate that the dead are returning to life. Attacked by ravenous
walking corpses at every turn, Jason obsessively films the madness, an
unflinching eye in the midst of chaos, even as his friends die around
him. In Diary of the Dead, George A. Romero rewinds and takes the
audience back to the start of his legacy of horror, using the device of
Jason’s “documentary” to explore the mass panic of a world gone mad.’
Toronto Film Festival
