Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero's Visions of Hell on Earth [Hardcover]

Kim Paffenroth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2006

Winner of the silver medal in popular culture for the 2006 ForeWord Book of the Year Awards. This volume connects American social and religious views with the classic American movie genre of the zombie horror film. For nearly forty years, the films of George A. Romero have presented viewers with hellish visions of our world overrun by flesh-eating ghouls. This study proves that Romero's films, like apocalyptic literature or Dante's Commedia, go beyond the surface experience of repulsion to probe deeper questions of human nature and purpose, often giving a chilling and darkly humorous critique of modern, secular America.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A fascinating, insightful tribute to the man who started it all. --Max Brooks, author of The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead

Finally, a scholar who takes zombie movies seriously. In his nonfiction masterpiece, Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero's Visions of Hell on Earth, Kim Paffenroth explores how legendary filmmaker George A. Romero uses the living dead to criticize American society, covering topics from racism to materialism, from individualism to theology. Paffenroth describes and analyzes each movie in separate chapters, and makes comparisons to Dante's Inferno. But most disturbing, he indicates parallels between Romero zombies and humans; I've long known the sharp teeth that can undercut our hearts and consciences, but nothing has exposed our fangs quite like Paffenroth's deft scalpel of analysis. A must read for zombie fans and for those elitists who demean horror movies as thoughtless escapism--Paffenroth has taken a huge step in proving these critics wrong. --D.L. Snell, Editor/Contributor, The Undead: Skin & Bones

The author provides terrific insights into an underexamined facet of American popular culture: the zombie films of George Romero. His grasp of the zombie myth and his analyses of the films should inform all future work on the subject. --David Wellington, author of Monster Island: A Zombie Novel

About the Author

Kim Paffenroth (Ph.D. Notre Dame) is Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 195 pages
• Publisher: Baylor University Press (October 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932792651
• ISBN-13: 978-1932792652
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #430,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am a graduate of St John's College, Annapolis (1988), Harvard Divinity School (1990), and the University of Notre Dame (1995). I work at Iona College. I am married with two wonderful children. I am blessed to be able to write about the things that interest me and share my ideas with others.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Teeth that Bite Us September 21, 2006

By D. L. Snell

Format:Hardcover

Finally, a scholar who takes zombie movies seriously. In his nonfiction masterpiece, Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero's Visions of Hell on Earth, Kim Paffenroth explores how legendary filmmaker George A. Romero uses the living dead to criticize American society, covering topics from racism to materialism, from individualism to theology. Paffenroth describes and analyzes each movie in separate chapters, and makes comparisons to Dante's Inferno. But most disturbing, he indicates parallels between Romero zombies and humans; I've long known the sharp teeth that can undercut our hearts and consciences, but nothing has exposed our fangs quite like Paffenroth's deft scalpel of analysis. A must read for zombie fans and for those elitists who demean horror movies as thoughtless escapism--Paffenroth has taken a huge step in proving these critics wrong.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A (slightly) new take on zombies. December 6, 2008

By Robert P. Beveridge HALL OF FAMEVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Kim Paffenroth, Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero's Vision of Hell on Earth (Baylor University Press, 2006)

I have to say that just about the last book I ever expected to see would be a religious deconstruction of George A. Romero's zombie flicks. And yet that's exactly what we have here; divinity student Paffenroth (who has since graduated into horror-writing himself) offers up a dissection of Romero's films that is quite unlike any other I've ever seen-- he's looking for the religious side of Romero's messages about life, the universe, and everything. And while Paffenroth does make some of the same mistakes a number of other amateur film critics do, especially when discussing Night of the Living Dead (there's this odd belief among amateur film critics that the casting of Ben Jones was some sort of attack on the evil empire, rather than a last-minute casting decision because Jones happened to be the only guy around who could act well enough--the guy originally cast for the part was white, and the racial element of the film is entirely accidental, as has been repeatedly stated in more scholarly discussions of the film), it's hard not to be impressed with Paffenroth's logic. The guy's obviously done his homework. Most of it, anyway.

Paffenroth opens his chapters (each is dedicated to a specific film; he considers Romero's first four zombie films and Zack Snyder's 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead for comparison purposes) with a summary of the film he's looking at, and then a pretty standard deconstruction of Romero's criticisms of contemporary society. (This is where the whole overrating of Ben Jones' stature comes into play, obviously.) Where Paffenroth differs from most critics is that he's looking at all this through the lens of being a divinity student. I don't mean to suggest that he's tossing in altar calls at random places, but the Christian viewpoint on things is different than the viewpoint one is likely to find in most film criticism. I grant you, sometimes it's a pretty subtle difference, and critics of the book (metacritics?) who have had a tough time seeing the difference between Paffenroth's take on Romero and that of any hundred others who have written articles about the similarities between zombies and mall shoppers are worth reading; you may find yourself having the same difficulty. I don't believe that makes this book one iota less worth reading, but your mileage may vary. ****

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoughtful scrutiny of the underlying artistic expressions driving Romero's pop culture horror films. January 5, 2007

By Midwest Book Review

Format:Hardcover

Kim Paffenroth (Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Iona College) presents Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero's Visions of Hell on Earth, a literary exploration of director George A. Romero's hellish zombie horror films such as "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) "Dawn of the Dead" (1978), and "Day of the Dead" (1985), as well as the more recent "Land of the Dead" (2005). Written with scholarly rigor, Gospel of the Living Dead inspects how Romero uses Christian imagery from the Bible and Dante in the macabre examination of the dark sides of human nature - both living and unliving. Romero's zombie films comment upon man's cruelty and inhumanity to man, as well as the degeneration of the social contract into the strong devouring the weak into ruthless individual anarchy. A thoughtful scrutiny of the underlying artistic expressions driving Romero's pop culture horror films.