Overview

George A. Romero never intended to become a master of horror, but Night of the Living Dead made him a legend of the genre. Raising the Dead dives into the expansive, extraordinary body of work found in Romero's archive, going beyond his iconic zombie movies into a deep and varied collection of writings that never made it to the big screen. From the early 1960s until his death in 2017, Romero was a hugely prolific writer, producing scripts in every conceivable genre, from arty medieval allegories to wacky comedies to grand-scale science fiction epics. Though he had difficulty funding non-horror projects, he continued to write in whatever mode his imagination dictated, and he rarely abandoned his ideas. Themes, story ideas, and even characters were re-purposed for new scripts, evolving and transforming with each new iteration and, sometimes, finding a home in a horror film. But in order to accommodate ideas that began in such different contexts, Romero would have to change the horror genre itself: a zombie movie could become a savage satire of consumerism or an excoriating critique of militaristic or capitalist hierarchies. The horror genre became what Romero made of it. Based on years of archival research, the book moves between unfilmed scripts and familiar classics, showing the remarkable scope and range of Romero's interests and the full extent of his genius. Raising the Dead is a testament to an extraordinarily productive and inventive artist who never let the restrictions of the film industry limit his imagination.

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9780197686478

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Reviews

"The best book on Romero I've ever read -and I've read them all. This is the study I've always dreamed of, one that upends what I know, educates me, and challenges me. Hart's miracle is taking what should be bittersweet subject matter -Romero's voluminous unproduced work- and making it nothing short of inspiring. * Daniel Kraus, New York Times bestselling co-author of The Shape of Water and The Living Dead * Raising the Dead is a brilliant read. Part biography, part film history, this meticulously researched look at the filmography of a horror giant will delight any Romero fan. Adam Charles Hart has managed the difficult task of turning academic nonfiction into a book that is immensely readable and totally entertaining. It resurrects the history of this influential, revolutionary filmmaker beyond just his zombie movies—a must for any fan of the horror genre. * Lisa Kröger, Lisa Kröger, co-author of the Stoker award-winning Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction * This is the book that both fans and serious students of horror have long waited for! Simultaneously an incisive critique of Romero's work, of the society Romero himself took a scalpel too, and a cerebral love letter to one of the truly great directors, in any genre, of the 20th century. Hart reveals to us not only Romero the auteur but also Romero as a worker hamstrung by the industrial film complex. By examining both the films he made and did not make, we meet a ""failure"" who just happened to produce some of the most consequential films ever made. * W. Scott Poole, author of Dark Carnivals: Modern Horror and the Origins of American Empire * Adam Hart's aising the Dead is more than just an indispensable study of George A. Romero's entire oeuvre - it's also a passionate argument for the importance of considering a filmmaker's unproduced works right alongside their finished films. Hart's style renders the book just as accessible to casual readers as academics, and his extensive research will produce gasps from those of us who thought we knew everything about Romero. An invaluable new addition to the library of horror film studies. * Lisa Morton, author of The Art of the Zombie Movie *"

Author Information

Adam Charles Hart is the author of Monstrous Forms: Moving Image Horror Across Media.

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