Hi everyone, my name is Drew McWinney and welcome to a very special 80s all over. I'm joined as always by my co-host Scott Weinberg. Hi everybody. Who is joining us as always from Philadelphia and Scott, I'm going to just start by saying that when we when you brought up the idea of doing doing this episode, it was a little, the only hesitation I had is I have such big feelings about this that not speaking on it so far has been the only way I've actually processed it But this is going to be our attempt to pay some small tribute to the enormous work and life of George Romero Yeah George Romero is by all accounts by anybody opinion that matters is a true Titan of the horror Business. Wait, let me start. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Yeah, George Romero, without question, one of the finest horror filmmakers ever. Even if you don't like horror, you can just look at what he did from an independent filmmaker standpoint and find a lot to admire. If you want to talk about social relevance and taking a brave stance on issues that were difficult at certain times, he was a brave man, he was a smart man, and he passed away at a ripe old age. So we don't want to wallow or be miserable or depressed. What we want to do is bid a fond farewell to a great man and celebrate his work and you know and share maybe a few anecdotes about his his films and the man himself so you know it was an honor to meet the man a couple of times but I think before we go into the personal anecdotes I know Drew was met him as well had met him as well let's just start back at the beginning Drew I know this episode this start the beginning, Drew. I know of course this is a podcast dedicated to 80s films, but we can, of course, cannot discuss George Romero without starting in 1968 with the legendary Immortal and eminently unwatchable, and eminently rewatchable night of the living dead. Drew, when's the first time you saw Night of the Living Dead? Tell me the story. It was television and I didn't know what it was. And we came in literally about 20 seconds too late for me to know what it was. It was in that era where if you didn't get it at the beginning on UHF channels, there might not be another ID of the film until the very end or until later when you could find the TV guides. Right. It's like hearing a song on the radio like, what is the song called? Oh God. And so we came in and they were in the cemetery and it was me and was my next door neighbor friend. And the UHF channel that we had, there were several of them. And this was one of the ones that, when they showed horror films, they weren't edited. And it was always crazy to me that UHF could do that. Just air kind of whatever they wanted. And it wasn't bound by any real rules the way network was. So like occasionally, you would see things on there that were really explicit and insane. Night of living dead, I think, could probably err on TV unedited now. But it felt, especially seeing it like kind of coming in correctly and a little bit grainy and a little bit static-y and not knowing what it was, it just felt like a nightmare I was having. Yeah, to me it was, I was kind of interesting, but different, is that I had seen it probably, like you on a UHF channel, and Philly, It was probably channel kind of interesting but different It is that I had seen it probably like you on a UHF channel and Philly it was probably channel 48 or 29 and I remember from the early scenes and this is you'll know what I mean instantly I went oh I know this Oh wait, I'm coming to get you Barbara. I've never wait I Because I had, I'm coming to get you Barbara in probably four or five other movies,

but I hadn't seen this film yet. So my brain went, oh, this is the movie that every but all, that's in all the other horror movies. I didn't get why it was in other horror movies. I didn't get the public domain issue and all that when I was a kid. I just thought, oh, if this is a movie that other filmmakers keep putting in their horror

movie, it must be good.

And I watched it and it just blew my mind it blew my mind. I Absolutely loved it. It kind of has an appeal like you say a visceral feel almost in the same way when I quote unquote Discovered for myself Texas chainsaw massacre. You're watching a film and it almost wrong. Like you discovered something that might be real and you might, you shouldn't, maybe shouldn't be watching it, you know, it's that kind of foreboding, ominous creepiness. It's just beautiful. I love it. Well, and I thought, I think that one of the things that distinguished Romero and it's true from Night of the Living Dead on, and it's one of the things that I admire and respect about him most deeply is that he is an example of what regional filmmaking should look like at its best, which is a guy who wasn't about movie stars and wasn't driven by the same commercial demands of studios, his work, even towards the, even throughout his life, I would say, continue to be driven by where he lived and how he wanted to work. And he would just make the movie. And it was never for him. I never felt like George Merrow was ever chasing the giant version of anything. I always felt like he was just looking for a way to make his movies his way on his terms. And, and that first film, Night of the Living Dead, is so unusual for its age, from the casting of the lead right down to the execution of everything. And because it had that weird hand made low res feel to it, I think that's part of why that nightmare got inside people so much and then really stuck with them. Night of the Living Dead lingers. Yeah, I think for a lot of independent horror films, that, you know, they're all very different, but Night Living Dead, Texas Chainsaw and Asgard, even Blair Witch Project, even paranormal activity. You look at these fiercely independent and not just independent, but low budget independent films. They all have a very, they could all be described as gritty, but if you think think about those four films there's not much about them that is similar they're all very different in a gritty hand like you said hand held low res we're gonna go in the backyard and make a movie but these were the talented people who ran into the backyard and made a movie anybody could anybody can go into the back the woods behind their house and make a movie, but not everybody could do it and produce something as entertaining and as impactful and socially relevant as Night Living Dead. If the film was just a great zombie film that pretty much invented a subgenre, invented the entire modern zombie genre, if it was just that, that would be enough but the the fact that you can still find real resonance and real pathos and real interesting themes about Black vs White and the brutal ending of Night of Living Dead. Brave, brave, balzy, darkly entertaining movie. I think it deserves every ounce of praise. It's ever received. And yeah, like you said, I don't think at this point or even ever, unlike a lot of young filmmakers, I don't think George Romero ever said, oh, night living dead. Tomorrow I'll be directing Superman movies. I don't just don't think that was him. I think that he was always the kind of filmmaker who was just, I'm happy to be a homebody and if my movie can make enough money so that I can end up making another one in four years. Great. You know, and and you know, not a lot of filmmakers are content to take that route, but God bless the ones who are good at it because you know, they get podcast episodes dedicated to them. Well, and I think it's one of the reasons that he was so influential is he made other people

feel like they could do it. They looked at his work and they saw how low fire it was and they took all the lessons from it, which was that, you know, you could go out and do this. I don't think a lot of people understood how smart and carefully crafted Romero's writing was. it's one of the most underrated things about him is just the way he thought about storytelling.

Even the films, if I really, really, really don't like and there's several of them, I have to respect as he had a point of view on how to get into something and tell a story. And would, and his point of view was always so strongly chosen that that is what makes him distinct and clear and unique as a filmmaker. Yeah, I and you you touched on a good point. If you were to just list all his features and I did I typed them all out right in front of me just his features and you were to be brutally honest and you'd seen them all you'd say hey less than half of them are what you'd call really good, or above average. The man made some subpar films, but they almost every one has some really smart, interesting clever ideas. Sometimes they were an executed all that well for whatever reason, but I never got the impression in any of his films that he was lazy or going through the motions. These are all films that really interested him. And so even if I don't love, say, season of the witch or the crazies all that much, they're interesting, compelling films because they're fiercely independent and they're 100% remaro up and down. Yeah. And he did when he made Don of the Dead, what happened,

what I felt like happened to him as a filmmaker was he kind of clicked into place all those things

he'd been playing with and trying to do and and it feels to me like Don of the Dead remained one of his

most perfect creations because everything worked together, the social commentary and the local

filmmaking and his casting the people he wanted to and making it on a certain budget and doing it as explicit as he chose to and not worrying about ratings or how he was going to get it released. And all those things that kind of made Romero who he was, the use of that mall, which is such a brilliant location and which has become literally a, you know, it became a pilgrimage spot for people while it was still open and operating because they loved so much what he did with it. He did. He all of it came together. And so I think he hit the 80s probably feeling like the most confident George Romero, the George Romero ever was. It was interesting. And yeah, well, I want to get to the 80s, but we both have to share our, we both have it on to the dead story, right? All right, mine was probably 12, 13, 14, and I had seen most of the horror stuff. I had not seen this one, I don't know why. And there was some get together at like a friend of mine's

house that I didn't know him very well, you know, with your when you're a kid, there are friends you're really tight with. And then there's like that outside satellite of kids you like and you're friendly with and they'll be on a baseball team once in a while, but you don't eat dinner at their house and they're not really tight. And this guy was having a get together. We're gonna play some computer games. This was way way way back in Apple 2C times and

Play some computer games watch some was way, way, way back in Apple 2C times.

And play some computer games, watch some movies,

probably watch movies all night.

Might be a stay-o. Like we were too old to call it a slumber party, but we were probably gonna stay up all night while at our movies. And so I went and they broke out dawn of the dead. and I was like, oh, this is one of the few I haven't seen.

And me and these five guys, we watched that movie

over two hours, 13 or 14 years old.

I don't seen and me and these five guys we watched that movie over two hours 13 or 14 years old. I don't think we spoke Once we it was like something religious I mean if you if there had been a camera in that room you'd been like these kids are being brainwashed by something right now that's weird and Not friends with any of those kids anymore, but that was a good night and And now you know why? I mean, good God. No, no, for me it was somebody of an older brother or a friend of ours told us that we had to go see something with them. I think I was 14 and we had to go with them. We would love it. It would be amazing. And the reason they wanted to take us was it was a midnight screening of dawn of the dead at a mall.

And they didn't tell us ahead of time much about the movie. I knew the movie only from certain images and I vaguely knew that it was setting them all and but I didn't get what the whole thing was. So on our way in, it felt one way.

On our way out at two in the morning

and a closed mall, we're here to walk from the theater

all the way through the mall to the parking garage exit. It was the scariest like 10 minute walk I'd ever taken after movie and I loved it. It was the best feeling in the world. What was the big impact moment in that screening? Like when the shotgun blast did that like, because I've never seen it with a big crowd. Yeah. Well, any, any, every major, Savini Gore moment in that movie, when you see it with a crowd, gets a huge reaction. It's this big like audible. And that was part of what that was, that was part of my evolution as a Gore fan and a horror fan. I think they're

...