The Wonderful World of Romero
Article by Bindi Lavelle

Zombies, one of horror's most popular creatures and a regular feature in late night conversations on how to survive a zombie apocolypse. The modern fasination with these members of the undead can be traced to George A. Romero.
Romero's best known works, Night of the Living Dead, followed by Dawn, Day, Land and Diary of the Dead, Served to moved zombies beyond the rhelm of cheap thrills by combining high drama with imminent threat, creating a dark social commentry; in these films the humans can be just as, if not more frighting as the zombies.
In the first installment of this series, Night of the Living Dead, we see seven strangers barricaded in a farm-house together. Tension steaily builds as the group forms an uneasy dynamic. Selfishness and cowardice dominate the struggle for survival, culminatting in an electrifying conclusion.
The later films also center around strangers forced together for the sake of survival while introducing new qualities to the forefront. The enviroment of this world allows for the exploration of human emotion at its extreme.
Zombies serve the dual purpose of being both foe and counterpart in these films. Zombies contrast the humans, they are void of self-awareness, personality and intelligence, they are stripped down to the primal urge to feed; however they also reflect the humans, who in this setting have been reduced to the service and preservation of their base needs. As a foe, the zombie's most fearsome strength is in its numbers, the ability to act as a horde consuming the landscape, forcing the living to fortify and scavenge.
The work of George A. Romero, has utilised zombies beyond mundane tools of magicans and mad scientists; these films have taken a simple creature and used it in a rich and complex manner to produce remarkable films.