George A. Romero: In Praise of a Horror Legend

George A. Romero never set out to become a Hollywood figure. However, by all indications, he was very successful. The director of the ground-breaking Dead trilogy was born February 4, 1940, in New York City. He grew up in there until attending Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's renowned Carnegie Mellon University. After graduation, he and some friends formed Image Ten Productions in the late 1960s and they all chipped in roughly $10,000 apiece to produce what became one of the most celebrated American horror films of all time, the classic “Night of the Living Dead” (1968).

Shot in black and white on a limited budget of just over $100,000, Romero's vision, combined with a solid script written by him and Image co-founder John A. Russo - along with what was then considered an excess of gore, enabled the film to earn back multitudes more than what it cost. The story of a group of survivors trying to survive a night in a cabin surrounded by flesh eating zombies became a cult classic by the early 1970s. Not only did it deliver on the scares, it was also a poignant social commentary on racism. “Night” was inducted into the United States' National Film Registry in 1999. To this day, this film has not lost its bite. (Pun intended.)

Almost all of his films were shot in or around Romero's favorite city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1978, Romero returned to the zombie genre with the one film of his that would top the success of “Night”, “Dawn of the Dead” (1978). Shooting in the Monroeville Mall during late-night hours, Romero crafted a cleverly written and thought provoking film which, (this time around) was a social commentary on consumerism.