Struggling With Modern Technology

Latent Image indeed had their own equipment they could make a feature film with, and getting your hands on the tools is always a big hurtle for filmmakers. But the equipment Romero had to work with then came with its own set of hurtles.

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"Night of the Living Dead" was shot with one camera, an Arriflex 2C, which was a lightweight camera you could hold in your hand. The only problem was when the film was rolling inside it, "it sounded like a f***ing Sherman tank!" Romero said. "So when you need to shoot dialog, you have to put the camera in a blimp. The blimp weighs 75 pounds. You had to have an umbilical wire running to the tape recorder, which used 35-millimeter tape. Not even 8 millimeter tape, forget the sh-t that used to go in the car (eight tracks). And the tape recorder was the size of my sofa!"

Of course back in the day there weren't CG effects, and make-up wizard

Tom Savini, who started working with Romero in the mid-seventies, had to create realistic effects on a miniscule budget. "Tom is a force on the set," Romero says. "You get to the set, and in two minutes he's got some sort of solution."

For the scene in Dawn of the Dead where a zombie is stabbed in the ear with a screwdriver, Tom painted a soda-straw sliver, and put it on the end of a prop screwdriver. Savini would often have tubes underneath whatever weapon was required for a scene, whether it be a screwdriver or a knife, that pumped stage blood. Once the soda straw entered actor John Harrison's ear, which was padded with wax for safety, the blood would start pumping from the weapon, giving the illusion it was coming out of his ear. "People tell me that's the greatest 'gag' they've ever seen in any of my movies," Romero says. "I'm telling you, it was two minutes and done."

On "Land of the Dead," Romero worked with KNB, the current kings of gore effects who studied under Savini. He also used CG in several instances, but tried not to rely on it too much. It was used in one scene where a character's head is ripped off and is hanging halfway down his back "because we couldn't create it on the set. People in the audience gasped, it works."

Romero primarily used CG to add more zombies in crowds, and to put a building where he needed it on a skyline. He also had to use it for another effect that couldn't be created with conventional make-up, a zombie with a huge gaping hole in its head. "It just looked so CG, I hated it," he says. Not being a big fan of CG myself, I told Romero the effect came out much better than I expected, and I actually liked it. "You did?" said a surprised Romero. "Well that's your problem."

As much as he hated it, Romero left the scene in. "We had to keep it because it was in the storyboards. They couldn't get past this zombie if they couldn't drill him," he said. "When you see something that can't possibly be, then you say, 'Okay, somebody did that with a [CGI] effect.' In my mind, it takes you out of the whole movie. We had to leave it in because you had to get rid of that guy. What are you gonna do?"

Romero also keeps a "what are ya gonna do" attitude about another aspect of modern technology: video games. In short, Romero doesn't play them and doesn't very much like them. A number of zombies games have been made in recent years that have in some way shape or form been inspired by Romero's films. Some have been great, such as Resident Evil 4 and Dead Rising (which is incredibly similar to "Dawn of the "Dead"). Others have been not so good, like Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler's Green, which was adapted from his film "Land of the Dead."

How does Romero feel about his films being turned into video games without his involvement? Not good. "Of course it pisses you off, but I don't feel like I'm part of that. People ask Stephen King all the time, 'How do you feel about Hollywood ruining your books?' And he says, 'My books haven't been ruined, they're on the shelf right behind me. You can read them if you want to.'" Ironically, another one of Romero's movie's that was turned into a video game was 1993's "The Dark Half," which was adapted from Stephen King's bestselling book. Capstone published a Dark Half PC game, and although the title is rare and has become a collector's item, it's also considered one of the worst games ever made.

The PC game version of "The Dark Half" from Capstone, which is extremely hard to find and also considered one of the worst games ever made.

Truth be told, Romero has had some involvement with the video game industry. In late 2004, video game publisher Hip Interactive announced plans to produce a series of video game's based on Romero's zombie films, the first of which was titled George A. Romero's City of the Dead. In the press release, Romero was actually quoted as saying he was excited about the opportunity to work in the video game medium. Romero's old friend Tom Savini was brought in to supply the voice of one of the game's heroes, and the developer Kuju Entertainment created a demo version of the title that got a positive reception.

But Hip Interactive declared bankruptcy soon after the announcement and the whole project collapsed. City of the Dead was cancelled and - unlike Romero's zombies - hasn't been revived. The experience has soured Romero on working in video games. "They don't ask me to do games anymore," Romero said. "Well, they do every once in a while, but there's no money in them. If I wanted to go do a video game, I would try to do a video game, not a movie."