George A. Romero is dead.
No magic dust from a Venus Space Probe will bring him back. But the ideas he introduced, the generations he's inspired and he works he's left behind will never die.
He was a personal hero - a true renegade who disavowed the studio system and transformed the genre on his own terms.
I've seen lots of mentions of zombies the past few hours (and rightfully so). But any cinephile would be remiss to ignore some of his other films.
Martin (1978) is a fantastic contribution to vampire mythology with his trademark social satire.
Knightriders (1981) explores a traveling group of renaissance performers, and it's fun as hell.
And of course, there's Creepshow and The Crazies. Check 'em out. But we should also pay attention to the films that inspired him to make movies to begin with.
He was a big fan of The Archers films of the 40s. Most Famously, they did The Red Shoes (available on Criterion) and The Elusive Pimpernell. But the movie that inspired him to break into the industry was The Tales of Hoffman (1951) - an adaptation of a ballet, no less.
What always struck me was Romero's complete humility about the breadth of his work and it's impact. He never thought he was a big deal. But when you ask anyone the genre has ever touched, they'll be the first to tell you he was. John Carpenter, a master in his own right, referred to him as "the father of modern horror movies."
It's a shame he struggled so hard to get projects off the ground the past decade because, if nothing else, they would have been unique. That's something we don't get much of in theaters anymore.
That bootstrap mentality of making movies - that anyone can do it against all odds - is the message from Romero that will stick with me more than anything else. It can't die from removing the head or destroying the brain. It's more infectious than a virus that raises people from the grave. And unlike living tissue, it lasts forever.
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