Paul R. Gagne's book on George A. Romero, charts his career from it's beginnings as a kid with a camera, to being an ad man to doing his debut "Night of the Living Dead" and through the subsequent highs (Dawn of the Dead, Creepshow and Martin)and lows (There's Always Vanilla, Jack's Wife) and everything else in between (Day of the Dead, Knightriders, The Crazies, television series' et al.) up until about 1986 or so.

After a historical background, the book is divided up into a film by film basis and each chapter covers the origins of each project, the inspirations behind them, how they were done, anecdotes from various participants and then conclude with Romero's point-of-view on the particular venture. It's a nice comprehensive format and makes for good reading.

The book also contains a chapter at the end on Savini's work and how it was achieved, a comprehensive filmography, discography and possible future direction for Romero which at the time of purchase (1988) were probably a bit more accurate. Also of note are the large amounts of photos within the text (B&W), and the very nice colour spread in the centre. A very well written and well researched biog/filmography on one of films less understood and less represented auters.

For those who do not believe that horror icon Romero is an artist passionate about his work I submit this book as a testament that he in fact is. Although hopelessly out of date by now (it ends with a mention of Monkeyshines being his next movie) it still remains a vibrant look at the independant spirit that brings all of Romero's work life. Required reading for Romero fans (both fair weather and die hard). Highly recommended.

This book is the definative story of the films of George A. Romero. In fact, it's the only book that's soley dedicated to his films. Gagne recounts Romero's humble beginings at Image Ten Inc. working with John Russo, Bill Hinzman, and Russ Streiner. He concludes with Romero's production and writing credits for 'Tales from the Darkside'(The book was published in 1987). The book is very well written, researched, and contains information not published elsewhere. Gagne's writing-style is straight-forward and insightful. Obviously, Gagne is a fan and writes with great care and affinity. This is a magnificent book and is a must for all George A. Romero fans.

this cassette is the next best thing to watching or reading any of romero's work. truly the best in the living dead trilogy

I just saw the movie on the weekend, and the comic book rendition is a lot more fun. These small comics are fast paced, giving the stories a lot more punch. And, besides, only in the book do we get The Creep!

If you can enjoy gross out horror tales, this one is for you.

The conceit of "Stephen King's Creepshow," the 1982 horror anthology film directed by George A. Romero, was that these were the stories in a horror comic book. The implicit homage was to the great E.C. horror titles of the 1950s (remember this is before "Tales from the Crypt" popped up on cable TV), an idea reinforced by the fact former E.C. artist Jack Kamen did the cover art for this graphic novel version of the film that was based on a comic book. The chief attraction here for me was not that Stephen King wrote these stories, but rather than Berni Wrightson was the artist for the five adaptations collected in this volume. That is why I bothered to pick this book up in the first place; I had seen the movie and while it was fun it was nothing special. "The Crate" was the best episode of the bunch and "Something to Tide You Over" had some nice moments. But I had the illustrated version of "Frankenstein" that Wrightson did and a toney table top book "The Studio" that featured his artwork along with another favorite, Barry Windsor-Smith. This is why I was really expecting something special and why I was rather disappointed with this volume, because I do not think Wrightson delivers his best work. Part of the problem might be the coloring, which I believe was done by Michelle Wrightson, but for the most part it seems clear that that these five stories are no where near the artist's best work. Again, I think "The Crate" is probably the best of the bunch (although I really thought this was where Wrightson would go to town with the monster) and "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" is halfway decent (even offering echoes of the Swamp Thing). "Father's Day" and "They're Creeping Up on You" are the first and last stories in the book and neither is an improvement on the original film stories. Stephen King has done better and so, in case you are missing the thesis of my review, has Bernie Wrightson.

If you like horror comics and anything by Stephen King, then you will LOVE "Creepshow". This book ties in with the movie and it's some of Kings best work. Wrote in the best "Tales From the Crypt" style, its a rollercoaster ride of terror and laughs. "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" is one of my faves, both in the book and the movie.(Steve King is a GREAT actor, isn't he?)The illusrations are by the brilliant comic artist, Bernie Wrightson and when paired with King's flair for the macabre, well; you can't go wrong. So buy it, buy it, buy it! You won't regret it. (FYI: Stephen King's son, Owen was the boy who got even with his dad for throwing away his comic book, in the movie. heehee, everyone needs a good voodoo doll!)

Dawn Of The Dead is truly one of the most influencial movies to come out in the last twenty years. But for all the films (splatter, cannibal, zombie, whatever label you care to attach to) that this movie inspired or just plain ripped off (we're talking close to a hundred films, folks), not ONE film comes close to Romero's take of the reliance of society's commercialism and the ultimate downfall of our dependency for it. These issues usually don't pop up in horror films.

It also has one of the best and influencial soundtracks ever utilized in a horror movie. A full score written for the movie by the soundtrack specialist group Goblin and tracks from the DeWolfe Music Library edited together as only George Romero can make a perfect match to what is on the screen. There are no punches pulled here.

Unfortunately, Anchor Bay's 20 Anniversary Edition DVD is a letdown. The picture and sound quality is the best I've ever seen and heard, but it's a full frame picture with some information lost in the 1.66:1 letterboxing.

The DVD supplements are truly disappointing. A theatrical trailer, a Monroeville Mall commercial spot, and a few alternate scenes used from Dario Argento's European version (another story in itself). Ironically, these scenes are presented in the correct 1.85:1 matting. Weird. At the very least there should have been an audio commentary from George Romero, makeup effects artist/actor Tom Savini, or even from a film historian, say Tim Lucas; this would do the film justice.

As it is, I'm still giving this DVD a four star rating; it's too important a movie to be ignored. I think it would do some so called "horror movie directors" some good to revisit this classic film. Frankly, it puts a lot of today's horror movies to shame.

"Dawn of the Dead" is the only movie that I have seen in recent years which genuinely frightened me. My brother and I rented it on a Friday and started it late at night. We decided to watch the rest of it the next day. But, I won't forget watching the first part: the fear that thousands of zombies are going to rush out of somewhere and outnumber the heroes. Or that a ton of zombies will leap out from around a corner. The story concerns two SWAT cops, a TV news producer, and her boyfriend -- the TV station's news helicopter pilot -- getting out of Philadelphia when dead bodies turn into zombies and start killing the living. This film is atmospheric and claustrophobic. And Romero's idea of using a shopping mall as the setting of the core of the story was a true stroke of genius -- where better to confront the human condition of materialism, selfishness, and a whole ton of nasty zombies? The film was made in the late 1970's for a slim $1.5 million. But, it was put to good use -- showing that Romero knew how to stretch a dollar, making it go a long way. My only complaint about the movie is the gore, which is actually what the film is most famous for. These scenes come at the beginning and end of the film. (The end is where the zombies feasting on live humans kicks into SERIOUS overload) These scenes show too much and go on far too long, but I guess Romero wanted to show just how threatening the zombies could really be. Too bad he's not doing that "Resident Evil" movie. But, that's okay. Stick with this film. It's the real thing (no pun intended).

This is without a doubt the greatest horror film of all time. Scary, horrifying, funny, intelligent, humorous and atmospheric, George A. Romero pulled out all the stops and created a sequel that well and truly rises above its predecessor "Night of the Living Dead". I first saw this in 1988, and it was the first film I ever saw that not only made me want to see the sequels and prequels, but find out everything about the people who made it and how they went about it. In short, in started my love of film-making, as opposed to movies, but anyway back to the film...

A co-production with Dario Argento, "Dawn" picks up the story where "NOTLD" left off, depicting the collapse of society as imminent and establishing the four main characters (Two SWAT troopers, and two television employees) who decide to flee the city and wind up holing up in a large shopping mall beseiged with the living dead.

Watching the zombies staggering around the aisles and escalators is pretty obvious symbolism, but is still pretty potent viewing. Particularly when combined with Tom Savini's splatter FX and Goblin's superlative score (one of the best soundtrack's of all time in my opinion). The acting is realistic and the production values astounding for $1.5 million or so.

Unlike most reviews I have seen here, I totally disagree with the comments about this 127 minute version. This is the version that Romero wished to release, THIS IS THE DIRECTOR'S CUT, and he fought the MPAA tooth and nail to get it! The 140 MINUTE VERSION IS A ROUGH CUT and while it does have extra gore and extrapolation scenes in it, none of them add that much with the possible exception of one shot of Peter riding a trolley through the empty mall. In addition to which, that edition being an unfinished version misses out on much of the Goblin music that adds so greatly to the atmosphere of the film. It is certainly worth seeing and even owning, but I would not say it is any better than this version.

The extras are not fantastic I agree. The other Anchor Bay version (140 min) has two trailers on it, instead of just the one we get here. The bits from the Argento version are interesting, but nothing special (although it's interesting that Argento version has slightly less gore, a lot less humour and more talking!!), I liked the Monroeville Mall ad it was pretty kitch and funny. Extra scenes would have been great (but then Anchor Bay can't sell two versions), A featurette would have been cool (but you'll have to dig up "Document of the Dead" for that), a commentary would have been the best (but I guess Elite had the rights and George couldn't be bothered again), I think 5.1 would have really added to the film, but the Mono is clear and is all I've ever heard, so I'm not going to let it annoy me too much. I have seen this film in the cinema (both 127min and 140min) and both were matted at 1:66:1 like this, so that's cool with me as well. As far as I'm concerned this is the best film Mr Romero has ever done (surpassing NOTLD, Creephshow, Knightriders, Monkey Shines and Martin), and was and is and probably will always be THE BEST HORROR FILM EVER CREATED. Much respect to George A. Romero and thank you for the only film I have seen over 100 times and still find fresh.