{"id":31304,"date":"2013-08-31T12:12:53","date_gmt":"2013-08-31T16:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=31304"},"modified":"2013-08-31T12:13:33","modified_gmt":"2013-08-31T16:43:33","slug":"birth-of-the-living-dead-night-of-the-living-dead-documentary-horror-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=31304","title":{"rendered":"Birth of the Living Dead: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD DOCUMENTARY HORROR REVIEW"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Geno McGahee<\/strong><\/p>\n

First Run Features & Glass Eye Pix<\/em>
\n Documentary by Rob Kuhns<\/em><\/p>\n

I am a huge fan of the 1968 classic \u201cNIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD,\u201d despite the fact that I\u2019m not a huge zombie fan. George A. Romero changed the face of horror with this raw horror flick that made its way from obscurity to the big screen and then into movie history. A new documentary \u201cBIRTH OF THE LIVING DEAD\u201d digs into the past of this film, relating the impact of the movie to the events of the time. <\/p>\n

Immediately we are brought into the early life of Romero and his work on the Mr. Rogers show, which was very interesting and amusing. The transition from his early work on the show to filming commercials to deciding to make a movie is very interesting. Like most filmmakers, Romero had an idea for a film but decided to make a horror movie because it was the easiest route to getting a deal and making some progress in the film world. He wrote \u201cNIGHT OF THE FLESH EATERS\u201d and began filming his ghoulish movie on a budget of just over 100 grand, not believing that he\u2019d ever finish it.<\/p>\n

The most interesting elements of this film was the process of making an independent horror film and the inside stories. The connection is made and then constantly repeated of race relations of the time and the film itself. With the main character being African American and race riots happening all over the place, focus shifts from the horror movie itself to this storyline and it is interesting, at first, but repetitive and grasping at times.<\/p>\n

A lot of time is spent on people that you couldn\u2019t care less about, if you are a horror fan. There is a teacher in the Bronx that shows films to his young students and talks about the impact of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and it\u2019s just filler. This really isn\u2019t a horror documentary. It attempts to tie this horror film to the world around it and the viewer will get it in about two minutes without the continual references. I am not sure that this film will satisfy the fans of Romero\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

BIRTH OF THE LIVING DEAD has some good elements to it, but those chosen as subjects for interviews and opinions are confusing. I wouldn\u2019t call this movie a failure, but if you are looking for a real inside look into the movie that you love, you won\u2019t find it here. The shift in focus from the film to the chaotic times, mixed with the questionable interview subjects makes this a disappointment. I recommend it but it was pretty uneven.<\/p>\n

Rating: 5.5\/10<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Geno McGahee First Run Features & Glass Eye Pix Documentary by Rob Kuhns I am a huge fan of the 1968 classic \u201cNIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD,\u201d despite the fact that I\u2019m not a huge zombie fan. George A. Romero changed the face of horror with this raw horror flick that made its way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[9081,9080,605],"class_list":["post-31304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-birth-of-the-living-dead","tag-night-of-the-living-dead","tag-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31304"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}