Ah, the 70′s. The days of big hair, Disco, Drugs, and Satanic Rituals that bring back the dead to feast on the living!
It may be hard to believe, but Zombies were not always the result of a nuclear accident, virus or plague. Back in the day, all it took to raise an army of Flesh-Eaters was an evil spell!
In 1974 an 87 minute gore-fest about a bunch of teenagers who go to a remote island and use a satanic ritual to raise the dead was shot for right around $70,000. These days, that kind of budget is chump change! (Gotta love inflation!) The film was called Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things, but underground (pun intended) the film also was known as Revenge of the Living Dead, and it’s Italian title was The Siege of the Living Dead!
George A. Romero: The Godfather of the Modern Zombie
Let’s be perfectly clear: Romero didn’t make Zombie Movies. Romero made THE Zombie movies! Romero made movies that are so wicked they got remade a decade or two later, and were just as wicked! Epic Classics like Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and The Crazies were just a few of the Zombie Masterpieces of Romero’s impressive resume.
Turns out Romero is ready to change his style a bit and stray away from the “…of the Living Dead” series for a while to direct the Fangoria produced remake of Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things.
That’s not all, Practical Effects Wizard Tom Savini has also signed on to the project, which is great news for horror fans. You may remember Savini from his work on the 90′s remake of Night of the Living Dead and his many cameos in horror films through out the years.
This is good news for Zombie fans out there for a few reasons:
- Let’s face it, the last few “…of the Dead” movies have not been up to par with what we expect from THE GEORGE A. ROMERO
- Savini is a genius and everything he touches is gold
- The budget will surely be more than $70,000!
Tell us your thoughts below! What are you expecting, successful mastery or fantastic flop?
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Im not a fan of Remakes, lets face it they always tend to ruin it, but if Romero gets his act together and gives us pure genius w/ Savini we make have a fantastic remake in our hands…
“may” not make
I agree, usually they do fluff remakes…however to give some credit they (meaning the movie industry in general) have made some improvements with some good ones – the Friday 13th remake for example I thought was a great improvement over the original and anyone I’ve referred to that has said the same so far.
Also bought Savini’s remake of Night of the Living Dead today…haven’t seen the remake, so unsure what to expect…but I’m expecting something fairly good as Savini’s at the helm.
In a way magic zombies, or more precisely magic undead, were used in the Evil Dead franchise of movies and stories/games and what not…so I’m not so sure they’re under-used. However, I’ve yet to see a more modern treatment of that genre of zombie/undead. Magic zombies would be via the use of necromancy and necromantic spells, which can back-fire horribly and usually do since most people don’t realise those spell books contain spells to eventually turn the necromancer (the person useing the book to summon the dead) into a member of the undead themselves (usually a powerful lich king or some such).
Tom Savini had already been in a George Romero zombie movie – Land of the Dead, although it was only briefly…too brief for my likeing as I like Tom Savini’s work.
Also I recently stumbled onto a movie about 2 weeks ago in my local shop (the movie wasn’t all that new but I hadn’t heard of it before) and it starred Tom Savini much to my pleasant surprise…the movie was called Forest of the Damned, and although it isn’t a zombie movie I don’t think zombie fans will be disapointed as the same type of flesh being ripped apart gore is in that.
I think my favorite quote in that movie has to be when Tom Savini says “who the hell are you? Houdini?”, after finding the captives had escaped his handcuffs…lol. Definately worth a watch.
As far as this new movie goes, I’m expecting somewhere between Land of the Dead and something like Forrest of the Damned combined with a Dawn of Dead/Evil Dead flavour…if that makes any sense…heh. I know Romero didn’t have anything to do with some of those, but I think you know what I mean by “flavour”. I’m not expecting anything new exactly as I think most of the really cool stuff has been done in some way or form somewhere already…which leaves the left-over crap…and I’d rather George Romero and Tom Savini didn’t use the left over crap and just made a damn good zombie movie instead regardless of wether it’s been done before or not. As long as it’s enjoyable, has the gore we come to expect, a fairly good story, a resonably good cast and the occasional laugh…and, of course, Tom Savini starring in it…then I’d be happy. (maybe Romero should also have a cameo…that’d be a blast). Perhaps Romero could be a necromancer and Tom Savini is a survivor that blows his head off and says a wacky catch-phrase shortly after…lol.
I’ve also learned over the years to never get your hopes up about any movie, no matter how much you love the genre or whatever about it, that way there’s less chance of being disapointed…and never ever believe the hype! (referring to the advertising, clips and what not that makes a movie “seem” good).
oh yeah…one last thing, I hope George Romero don’t do the bullet in the head thing to kill the zombies…that doesn’t work on magical ones since it’s magic and evil spirits/demons that keep them going. Only counter-magic possibly combined with faith can defeat it. (that, of course, could include enchanting a weapon with counter-magic…but that requires runes and engraving to work and takes a lot of time…so the main characters of the movie had better find such a weapon rather than make it, they’re usually bladed weapons such as a sword, but I guess arrows and cross bow bolts would work just as well). There is, however, a drawback with someone summoning magical undead – they can be warded against with magical glyphs and wards, thus making any such area a no-go area for them…heck you could even leave the front door wide open and they couldn’t come in provided the place is warded properly.
also, damn good video interview of Tom Savini, made me laugh when he commented about that annoying sound being “crickets”…lol. And I totally agree with Tom Savini about the fast zombie thing….I want one of those bumper stickers!!!…hehe. Tom Savini shouldn’t have an inferiority complex, he does damn good work and should be proud of the work he does.
I also agree what he was saying about variation and not having to be just good at one thing…unfortunately as you go to university etc they try and get you to specialise and do things a set routine. I only took my art and design up to Foundation Art level and was advised by someone to apply once I finished that as they preferred the rawness of that level as opposed to the rigidness if I went to university..unfortuantely I didn’t go as costs and affordability made it impossible, but my point is I know exactly where Tom Savini is comming from on that point…rigidness is a bad thing with creative stuffs and stifles any creativity out of you (on the other hand you also need a measure of discapline too or you end up with a mess).
Big hair in the 70′s? With the exception of the long-haired afro, I must respectfully disagree.
Romero as the “Godfather of the modern zombie?” Again, I am confused. If he’s the Godfather, who is the father? Russo, maybe?
In any event, I am pretty stoked for Romero to tackle this. Magic zombies are way underutilized. Let’s hope he doesn’t get bumped a’la Resident Evil.
Born in 81, all I have to go off of is the Fros!
Just added a link to the Video with Scifiworld also… soon it will be embedded on this article too… Gotta love technology!
I need link on an interview from Romero or some thing real to believe in that .
Granted! Click on the very first “Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things” Link for the Horror.co link or the word Fangoria for an IMDB blurb!
Cool then