So some of the mistakes I have talked about in this article are mistakes we would not have made later in our careers. We didn't know as much then as we know now. But we were all young and this was our first feature movie. And we were solidly behind him as director.

Without George, the movie would not have existed. Also the way the escape attempt unfolded, the way Harry turned on Ben, etc., etc.īy the way, just to make myself perfectly clear, none of my comments here are meant to disparage the excellent work done by George Romero. Many other important ideas, in addition to the idea of the attackers being recently dead people and flesh-eaters, were mine alone, such as the killing off of our hero, Ben, by the sheriff and his deputy. I re-wrote his first half of the story, putting it into screenplay form and doing considerable re-writing, and then I went on to write the second half of the finished screenplay. George and I very much collaborated on the screenplay. So if anybody should get credit for inventing the so-called 'modern flesh-eating zombie,' I have as much claim to that as anybody does. And you probably don't have the 'Zombie Genre' as we know it today - the genre that has launched the careers of so many famous filmmakers and has thrilled so many dedicated fans.

Without those two key ideas, you don't have NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (NOLD). To begin with, I was the one who came up with the idea that the 'attackers' in our story should be dead people and that they should be after human flesh. The folks who think that only George Romero has the right to 'mess with' our movie are badly mistaken. At long last I am going to respond to the misinformed people, the so-called critics and the plain nut cases who have railed against my writing and direction of 18 minutes of new scenes in the 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

Return of the Living Dead by John Russo