George A. Romero will go down in history as the father of the zombie genre.
His 1968 feature film Night of the Living Dead was the first zombie movie ever, and it set the rules many TV shows and movies follow to this day.
The following Romero movies include Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead. Hardcore zombie enthusiasts will argue that the best zombie movies were produced and directed by Romero.
But, Romero is not that impressed by the latest zombie TV shows and movies. In a recent interview with Indiewire Romero bashes The Walking Dead.
“All of a sudden, here came The Walking Dead,” he told Indiewire in a recent interview. “So you couldn’t a zombie film that had any sort of substance. It had to be a zombie film with just zombies wreaking havoc. That’s not what I’m about.”
“Now, because of World War Z and The Walking Dead, I can’t pitch a modest little zombie film, which is meant to be sociopolitical. I used to be able to pitch them on the basis of the zombie action, and I could hide the message inside that. Now, you can’t. The moment you mention the word zombie, it’s got to be, ‘Hey, Brad Pitt paid $400 million to do that.’”
Romero has a long history of adding political messages in his zombie thrillers. If you look back at his zombie movies there are discussions of inequality, social media, and consumerism mixed with zombies.
But, Romero has a long history of critiquing The Walking Dead. Romero said in the past the show is “a soap opera with an occasional zombie.”
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