A Farewell to George A. Romero

Written by John Edward Betancourt

When I was eleven years old, I came to understand the true power of horror films. Because that summer, after plenty of begging, my parents finally let me watch George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead without their supervision. Now you see, in my household for many years growing up, horror films were watched with mom or dad present and when the red stuff started to flow, we were asked to close our eyes or turn around to be spared those images. But being a bold kid, and having watched a few horror films on late night cable without their knowledge...I thought this would be just another scary movie and another awesome time. Boy...was I ever wrong. The power that I came to understand about this genre on this day, was that the right kinds of horror flicks, could completely and utterly terrify you and that's what Dawn did to me. 

I was uncomfortable with every single moment of this film, and the gore that flowed like water on the screen, forced my own brand of 'censorship' when I would find myself looking away to lessen the power of seeing someone's entrails being pulled from their belly. But the terror it instilled didn't end with the film fading to black. That night, I couldn't sleep a wink. Every time I closed my eyes I would see slack jaws, and vacant eyes and blue skin rushing toward me and to make matters worse, any rustling noises I heard outside froze me in my bed because I was waiting to hear the raspy moan of the living dead outside my windows. That movie scared me so much, that I actually stayed away from zombie flicks for years simply to never have to face their horrible visages again. But something happened my senior year of high school that helped me learned that not only can horror films rock you to your core...but that they can also tell incredible stories. 

Because around this time, the Internet was gaining steam and me being the horror fan that I am, I found the forums and sites talking about all the VHS classics I enjoyed through the years and one forum was focused on the brilliance of Romero's work. Of course I raised a skeptical eyebrow over such ideas considering my experience with his work...but naturally, I read what the forum had to say and found myself suddenly curious about this film again. People called it brilliant. People were saying it understood society in the 1970's and present day and having discovered my love for film in high school, I was intrigued by all of this and decided to give Dawn a second chance and my goodness...did it blow me away. Everyone was right about the brilliance, the commentary, everything and suddenly, it was a film I could not get enough of. I went out and bought a copy of it, I poured over every single scene and it wasn't long before I was sharing it with everyone I knew. I had simply never seen a horror film this intelligent and it wasn't long before I was pouring over the rest of George Romero's work and collecting everything from the Dead saga I could get my hands on, even adding the exact VHS tape that terrified me all those years ago to my collection.

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I share these memories today, simply because of the fact that I'm still stunned and reeling over the fact that George A. Romero passed away yesterday after a battle with lung cancer, and I feel it's only right to share these things because George's work in the genre, not only transformed the face of pop culture and helped to make the horror genre the pop culture Goliath that it is today, but because his work influenced and touched so many people. Many of my artist friends speak constantly about their love of George and his work and how it got them into art so that they could create their own brand of unique nightmares and send shivers down spines the way that George did. He was simply an inspiration and he most certainly inspired me as well.

Because shortly after discovering the intelligence and prowess of Dawn of the Dead I came to realize that films and stories can be more than just a reflection of their genre. They can entertain, they can make us think and they can move us in ways we never knew imaginable and Romero's work is what influenced me to get into creative writing. So to say that his loss doesn't hurt, would be an outright lie. This man was a hero to me, a maverick who often said 'fuck it' and did things his way because it was more important to tell a good story over anything else and that attitude and that mantra brought him the right kind of success and I know I'm not alone in thinking that the motion picture industry won't be the same without him, because his kind of genius is a rare find.  

Few writers have ever had their pulse on society the way that George did, and few have ever been able to teach us about our world and make us see things in such crystal clear fashion the way that George did. I'm just happy that he was able to live long enough to see the joy he brought to fans around the world, and witness the horror phenomenon he helped create and I also hope that George was able to indulge in the irony of making the living dead as big as the NFL since some fans out there are similar to his special brand of zombie in that they're unrelenting and ravenous when it comes to consuming the wealth of zombie related horror available to them, but they never quite understand why they're enjoying it so...or where this bevy of treats comes from. Either way, at least we know that his work will live on, thanks to the wonder of the digital era, but George will certainly be missed regardless. So, thank you George for telling such incredible stories, thank you for the nightmares that changed my life and may you forever rest in peace. 

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