They’re Coming to Get You

It’s Halloween—that time of year when I start craving horror films like junk food. Of course, I watch horror movies year round, actually gravitate to them before I do most other films—but something about the seasonal weather change and the holiday, kick the addiction into overdrive.

I’m not talking your average horror movies here. I refuse to risk what little viewing time I have on some BS like Paranormal Activity 19. There are so many new horror movies popping up these days that I have two choices—either wait, and let time dictate their worthiness, or rely solely on an established director’s reputation.

Side notes and conflict: I love Guillermo del Toro, and I really want to see Crimson Peak at a theater. But there are so many CGI effects in the commercials that it looks as fake as the last Jurassic Park movie. And then there is American Horror Story which uses less CGI, but more in-your-face horror and gore than anything I have ever seen on television. But its excessiveness undermines its credibility, and people like me start growing bored and listing all the proven sources that the series is “paying homage” to—re: Ripping Off.

Yet another side note: I am passionate about The Walking Dead, so much so that I could probably dedicate a blog to nothing but the show. Everything excluding the concept of it is original and expertly executed. But TWD is not what I had in mind for today’s blogpost. No. I am here to talk about the granddaddy of all things zombie: Night of the Living Dead.

I gave up a few Octobers back on trying to catch great horror movies on television. Granted, there are occasional gems broadcasts on channels like TCM, AMC, and the like, but most air closer to the 31^st, and rarely will your schedule line up with the film you really want to see. No—as I said before, this time of year I don’t squander time on lesser performers. I break out my own DVD collection. I’ve had time so far to watch six classics (in my mind, at least), and I started the whole shebang off with George Romero’s seminal film.

I first saw Night of the Living Dead on VHS in the early 1980s. I’m fairly certain I saw it after having seen its sequel, Dawn of the Dead, at a midnight movie showing at the Kingston Four in Knoxville, TN. Videotape was a relatively new market then—movie rental stores privately owned and expensive—and title availability was nowhere near as deep as the selection we have today. I read Fangoria magazine regularly, long anticipating the movie’s iconic black and whites stills to lurch forth from its pages and on to my television screen. I simply had to see the movie that was banned in (pick a number) countries!

It did not live up to its expectations. Not then.

The print was horrible, the acting and dialogue stilted. Nothing was all that shocking—certainly not enough to garner its reputation. The lead female, Judith O’Dea, was so annoying that I wanted Ben to toss her out the front door and feed her to the zombies, sparing us all the melodrama.

But later that night, when the lights were out and I was trying to sleep, the film kept creeping back into my subconscious. While watching shadows dance in the dark cross my ceiling, I couldn’t help but wonder: What if it happened right now? What would I do?

Since then I have seen the film countless times. I own more than one remastered version, pristine prints, juiced-up audio, and extras galore. I became a dedicated fan of Richard Matheson (yet another blog topic), writer of the classic, I Am Legend—a book about a man alone in a world of vampires—which George Romero has often said was the inspiration of the film.

My obsession with Night of the Living Dead has gone so far as that I have written a zombie apocalypse novel myself (Will to Live: The Dead Next Door, to be published in 2016), knowing full-well that the market is inundated with such pulp, and filled to the brim with some of the worst writing ever.

So, why—why has this b-movie concept of cannibal corpses taken root and grown in me for the last 3+ decades? Why has the idea now germinated in the masses, making shows like The Walking Dead immensely popular? What is it about dead folks eating the living that keeps bringing us back for more?

I cannot say for others, but I came to my own answers while writing the aforementioned novel. It is not a new revelation, nor a glamorous one. In fact, it likely hearkens back to the Neanderthals: We are obsessed with our biggest fear—our own mortality. What happens to us when we die? Night of the Living Dead is not only a metaphor for that age-old question, it is the living (ha-ha) embodiment of that confrontation. No, we won’t rise and eat people—but we will wither away and deteriorate like the shambling corpses in pursuit. Death is always chasing us, and it will always catch us in the end.

I don’t want to leave you on such a downer. So, I also have a theory about my obsession with apocalyptic fiction—not necessarily zombie apocalypse, but definitely the collapse of civilization that that particular sub-genre resides in—however, you might not like it either…

Remember when you were a child, and your parents used to nag you about how things were better when they were growing up? Well, that trait is inherent is us as well. Face it. Wouldn’t it be nice if the world were a simpler place, like when we were growing up? Think about it—no constant communication, no Wi-Fi, no computers, no cellphones, and no Facebook.  Do we really need six hundred channels on the TV to choose from, reality TV, and TV on demand? Everything now is at our fingertips—there is no mystery, no anticipation. Have we become spoiled, complacent, perhaps vulnerable?

Wouldn’t it be nice to just read a book without having to worry about the all the current, frivolous interruptions in our daily life? I think so.

…Maybe worth killing zombies for.

Shameless Plugs:

I don’t write poetry often, but I have a creepy-cool Halloween poem for free: click here. Please vote and/or comment on it.

The first two chapters (soon to be a third) of Will to Live: The Dead Next Door are free as well: click here. Please vote and/or comment on it.

Stories available for purchase are on Amazon: click here. Thanks in advance for your purchase and please, please, please write an honest review.

Happy Halloween!

TWS