Review: Fan of the Dead: The Zombie Fan's "Road Trip Movie"

Text and live photos © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2018
Live photos © Robert Barry Francos / 2018
DVD cover from the Internet

Fan of the Dead: The Zombie Fan's "Road Trip Movie"
Directed, produced and written by Nicolas Garreau
Cheezy Flicks, 2008
60 minutes, USD $12.99
www.cheezyflicks.com
www.fanofthedead.com

I have no memory of where I was when I heard about the killing of Robert Kennedy or Martin Luther King, but I know exactly where I was when I first saw George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968). It was at the Walker Theater in Brooklyn, during a revival showing in the early ‘70s. During whatever the opening film was, the three tough Bensonhurst guys behind me kept kicking my chair and harassing me; but I refused to move. Then NotLD came on, and by the time it was over, we were all sitting together.

[Karl Hardman, who played Harry Cooper in the first film; he appears in this documentary (d. 2007)]

The director / producer / writer of Fan of the Dead, Nicholas Garreau, is fascinated by all things George A. Romero. We watch as he plans a three-day journey from his home in France, and chronicles his journey to the Pittsburgh area, which is to Romero as Maine is to Stephen King or Baltimore to John Waters. In those short days, he plans to seek out locations that Romero used in his films.

While the main focus of this documentary is the original Romero trilogy of NotLD, Dawn of the Dead (1978) - which Garreau calls by its European name, Zombie - and Day of the Dead (1985), he also seeks out the Night of the Living Dead remake (1999; Romero screenplay) and even one segment of Creepshow (1982). Most likely it was time constraints that kept him from searching for the locations of Martin (1977) and The Crazies (1973), not to mention lack of said zombies.

[Kyra Schon, who was little Karen Cooper in the first film (her character in on the shirt in the background); she appears in this documentary with Karl Hardman, her real father]

Garreau, whose musings to his hand-held camera are translated from French by a narrator, is a true fan-boy, and I use that term affectionately. He is both bemused by what is happening and the people that he meets, and giddy with excitement: in the words of Ed Grimley, – "It's like waking up on Christmas morning and finding an entire fort, y’know."

The chapters are broken up into days, with titles of the films whose locations were visited on that day. Most of this is essentially a road trip as he travels from location to location, and his honest exhilaration is catching. His giddy look at lamp posts, elevator doors, and where houses used to stand, is catching, and you just want to say, bon pour vous. When he finds the now iconic basement from the first film (nowhere near the house indicated in the film), you, the viewer, almost want someone there to high-five.

[Marilyn Eastman was Helen Cooper, and a cameo as the zombie who eats the bug off the tree in the first film]

The centerpiece of the film is a trip to the Pittsburgh Comic Convention, where Garreau interviews some of the actors who played both major and minor roles in the trilogy, and then he goes on a tour of the mall in which the second film is set, let by one of the film’s stars, Ken Foree (who was also excellent in Stuart Gordon’s From Beyond, I would like to add). This sightseeing expedition is accompanied by some of the same actors, who narrate for the fans who signed up for the tour (hell, I would have gone). The viewer can tell how much the actors (including Foree and David Emge, two of the four main leads) are enjoying not only the attention from the fans, but getting to share their experiences (e.g., “This spot is where…”). Garreau has obviously made a good impression on them, as they acknowledge him by name more than once.

Garreau’s extensive knowledge of the series is evident as he wanders through graveyards indicating the actions of a scene by the names on the stones which appear in the film. And yes, he does say the line, “They’re coming to get you Barbara” at the appropriate spot, as I’m sure many others have. As I would.

[Make-up artist / actor / director Tom Savini]

I’m just sorry he could not use some of the footage from the films to compare then and now (especially since the first NotLD is out of copyright and readily available), so unless you’re a fan on Garreau’s level, I would recommend viewing at least the three original zombie films (68-85) before watching this. Certainly, I recognized the cemetery and mall that was central to the first two, but I’m less familiar with the third one, so the locations seemed less of a bonus to me (though I intend to re-watch Day of the Dead, and then watch this documentary again. As for the remake of NotLD, well, Romero was the screenplay writer, and it was directed by Tom Savini, so it seems a bit out there, but what do I know?

This is a love letter to George Romero’s work, and both to and for his fans.

The bonus tracks include a photo collection of the trip, and some older psychotronic trailers (such as “Horrors of the Black Museum”), snack intermission shorts, and some regional restaurant ads that were shown in theaters. All fun stuff.

Originally published in FFanzeen.blogspot.com

Would a Zombie by Any Other Name Smell as Meat?…

Text (c) Richard Gary, 2012 / Indie Horror Films Blog

Images from the Internet

As with many others, I am a fan of the whole zombie genre, which seems to have picked up steam again over the past few years. But I am having terminology issues.

Growing up, pre-Night of the Living Dead (1968) [NOTLD], zombies were a whole different breed. They were slow and lumbering, undead, and usually Haitian. While there were horror films based on the characters, such as Bela Lugosi’s White Zombie (1932), mostly they were used as comedic fodder, as was with Bob Hope’s The Ghost Breakers (1940, infamous for the Willie Best line, “Feets, don’t fail me now!”). Of course, as most zombies were black, since they originated in the voodoo culture of Hispaniola, they were seen as derogatory and existed to be made fun of in a white colonialist stereotyping Hollywood way. Just the double-entendre title of the Bowery Boys’ Spooks Run Wild (1941) alone is an indication of that.

Early zombie

Even as late as the mid-1960s, zombies kept their kitsch appeal and were mainly used in comedies, such as in Ray Steckler’s ridiculously bad (in a good way) cult classic musical, The Incredibly Strange Creatures That Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies (1964), or, as they called a re-release when it played a midnight show at a Brooklyn theater where I worked during the mid-‘70s, Teenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary.

Of course, NOTLD was a paradigm shifter, changing the image of clumsy voodoo servants and mindless murderers who followed the orders of their masters into clumsy flesh eaters free roaming the countryside (and malls, natch). This became the standard for years, through the likes of Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (1973) and Return of the Living Dead (1985; including sequels).  While just a bit more limber in these later films, a sheriff from NOTLD said it best with “Yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up.”

However, once again things took an evolutionary leap with the Brit flick, 28 Days Later... (2002; not to be confused with Sandra Bullock’s 2000 mind-numbing-zombie-like-inducing 28 Days). In this flick, a virus turns people into violent and swift flesh eaters… but they’re still alive! This story is almost copied in another, more recent British release, The Devil’s Playground (2010), which actually inspired this column.

Slow zombies

Films like 28 Days Later... ignited a familiar question asked of horror fans recently, “Do you favour slow zombies or fast zombies?” An example of this is the documentary, The Walking Dead Girls! In fact, if you search the Web with this question, you will get many links on the topic. But I have an issue with this. First, let me admit that I like the viral running around fast eating people films; in some ways they are more exciting, though sometimes the editing and shaky camera used by seemingly everyone who does a story like this can be annoying, even if it doesn’t produce motion sickness. At least with a slow creature (or horde, as sometimes happens), you get to see the people get ripped to pieces (a nod to Tom Savini here), rather than a quick shot in edits, often in shadows or the corner of the frame for shock value. Give me a full-on, non-CGI appliance so we can to see some action, rather than shake it (apologies to the Flamin’ Groovies).

Essentially, the definition of a zombie, as is stated in part by Wikipedia, is “an animated corpse brought back to life…” In other words, from the voodoo to the flesh eating kind, a zombie is basically the dead arisen. However, in the later, faster versions, the attackers are not dead, merely infected, making them – er – hungry. We need a different word for this situation.

Fast zombies

My idea is to call them ghouls. Yeah, it’s an antiquated term that brings up memories of the likes of Eerie and Creepy comic magazines from the ‘60s and ‘70s mostly (where they seemed to be always in conflict with vampires, but I digress…). Again, Wikipedia describes ghouls, in part, as “…consuming human flesh, often classified as but not necessarily undead…Ghouls are perceived to be unintelligent and are primarily driven by their instinct to feed.”  Where my idea of using this definition falls short, is that in literature ghouls usually feast on dead flesh, while our infected humans (and zombies, apparently) prefer their tidbits still squirming.

Surely we can come up with a term that can differentiate between the classic risen dead chompers and those living foodies fond of animated flesh, or at least yet uninfected. 

Certainly, I don’t have all the answers. “Cannibals” seem to fall short as well, because in culture, with many of them it’s a matter of choice. Living people infected by a disease that makes them need to feed (there’s a tee-shirt slogan for ya) is not a option. “Biters” seems too mild, and “Flesheaters,” while a great band, also doesn’t give enough information.

The term zombies will always bring ‘em in to the theaters, or the television screen in the case of The Walking Dead series, so the odds that the appellation of zombie (or its alternative of zombi) is here to stay. Follow the fan base and surely the wallet will follow.

And look, no mention of braaaaains. Oh…never mind.