Night of the Living Dead: Behind the Scenes of the Most Terrifying Zombie Movie Ever [Paperback]

Joe Kane (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 31, 2010

"They're coming to get you, Barbara. . ." These five words unleashed a terrifying movie classic on an unsuspecting public in 1968, stunning audiences with endless nightmares. George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead raised the bar for onscreen violence. Moviegoers were bludgeoned with horrific scenes of zombies blood-feasting on human body parts. Nothing was taboo. A six-year-old child nibbling on her daddy's arm! Plunging a garden tool into her mother's heart! More blood spewed onscreen than ever before! And yet, people returned for more--in hordes. The zombie movie phenomenon had officially been spawned. This is the true story of the flesh-eating classic that started it all.

Special Features

• Dozens of photos too shocking to be seen until now

• Stomach-churning details behind the groundbreaking FX

• Compelling, revealing interviews with cast and crew

• The legacy of Night of the Living Dead for today's horror directors

"George Romero's zombies. He influenced a whole culture." --John Carpenter

"A new standard for horror." --Variety

"It's nice to see Joe Kane -- aka The Phantom of the Movies -- emerge from the video aisles with another book. . . it's a goodie. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE MOST TERRIFYING HORROR MOVIE EVER covers George Romero's 1968 classic from idea to influence." --Bookgasm.com

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This chatty but valuable piece of cinema history offers a complete study of the creation and consequences of one of the most famous horror movies ever made, George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. After briefly covering the predecessors of this zombie masterpiece, the book proceeds to describe concept, casting, scripting, cinematography, and doing everything on a budget that would not pay a modern equivalent’s catering bill. We also have analyses of the movie’s role in elevating the status of zombies in American popular culture, including both movies and, lately, the print media. We even have a look at the Living Dead Festival for the movie’s numerous and tenacious fans, and a “Where are they now?” for the people involved (some departed, none of these known to have returned). Most valuable, perhaps, is a complete screenplay. In equal measure entertaining and informative, this one belongs in sf, fantasy, horror, and pop-culture collections alike. --Roland Green

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Citadel (August 31, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806533315
• ISBN-13: 978-0806533315
• Product Dimensions: 1.2 x 5.9 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #648,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A little misleading November 21, 2010

By kylerobert

Format:Paperback

Only the first quarter of the book is about the original 'Night of the Living Dead.' Many chapters are about other George Romero movies. The cover suggests the whole book is about the first film. After the early chapters, there are only intermittent paragraphs about it.

The information and reminiscences are wonderful, and they come from the principal players and crew. I learned a lot about the movie, and the photographs are fantastic!

I just wish more of the book was about the first classic, not the tangential movies covered in the rest of the text. These portions of the book seem irrelevant, especially the blurbs about other zombie movies.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't put it down! September 28, 2010

By Glenn L. Greenberg

Format:Paperback

I read this book in one week--which is quite an accomplishment for me because I'm such a slow reader--and I enjoyed it a whole lot!

It was chock full of interesting details and anecdotes about one of my all-time favorite horror movies--some of which I already knew, and many of which I didn't. And I love that it covers ALL of Romero's work. PLus, it discusses the many films that had an influence on--and were influenced by--NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

Joe Kane, aka The Phantom of the Movies, knows his stuff. I was a regular reader of his column when he wrote for the Daily News in NYC back in the 1980s. However, I was very surprised to see that "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things" was not mentioned once throughout the book, since it's such a blatant rip-off of Romero's zombie flicks. I doubt that Mr. Kane is unfamiliar with the movie--maybe he just didn't want to give Bob Clark any space for some reason????

Anyway, I recommend this book highly to all fans of horror and the work of George A. Romero.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining look at "Living Dead" franchise September 17, 2010

By Daniel Cziraky

Format:Paperback

B-movie expert Joe Kane (a.k.a. The Phantom of the Movies) puts his touch on the tangled tale of making 1968's "Night of the Living Dead." Through interviews with the primary participants (some posthumously culled from previously printed sources), Kane recalls the struggles of Pittsburgh, PA-based The Latent Image, Inc., a commercial/industrial film production house, to come up with a viable concept for a feature film they could shoot on a shoestring budget. After discussing John Russo's idea of "ghoulish people or alien creatures ... feeding off human corpses," George Romero then came up with forty pages of story that was basically the first half of what would become NOTLD's plot. Once the story was in place (Russo would complete the screenplay), the major hurdle of actually making their first full-length feature loomed large. While the making-of section contains much that's been previously revealed through various print and video sources over the four decades since NOTLD's release, it's the aftermath of production where the story gets truly complex. Continental Releasing lost the film's copyright, then reneged on royalty payments, and lawsuits ensued until they finally went bankrupt. Kane follows the paths of the various sequels by Romero and Russo, as well as the remakes (beginning with 1990's NOTLD) and rip-offs (NOTLD 3D, anyone?). Kane's writing style is conversational, so you never feel lectured at while he tells the tortured tales of the film's four-decade odyssey.