George A. Romero, the man whose name is inextricably linked
with the living dead, has passed away. He was – and is – one of my favourite
filmmakers, and a great source of inspiration. Indeed, the man and his work are
a big part of the reason why I wanted to get into filmmaking in the first
place.
The impact Mr. Romero had on me during my formative years
cannot be accurately calculated, but it was significant. After initial exposure
to his cinematic legend via all manner of references in movies and TV shows to
some evidently landmark film called “Night
of the Living Dead”, my first real encounter with the man's work was
through a magazine article in SFX. We were on a school trip to Paris and had stopped at a service station
where a small sub-heading on the front of a magazine caught my eye. I'd
recently become aware of Romero's name and his gore-ific Living Dead films, and – at the brink of entering my teen years –
these flicks held a mysterious sway over me. They intrigued me, and they even
felt somewhat illicit to my young mind. I bought that magazine and devoured the
career-spanning article about the man and his work time and again for years
afterwards, and I still own that same copy to this day...
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