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George A Romero: The Pocket Essential
Homepage of the Dead is pleased to be offering four copies of the new book 'George A Romero: The Pocket Essential', by Tom Fallows and Curtis Owen.

The dead walk. Putrid corpses claw their way out of earthy graves and stumble towards civilisation. They are bloody, rotting, and hungry for human flesh - and it's all George Romero's fault.

With 1968's Night of the Living Dead Romero unleashed the modern zombie onto cinemas, annihilating their voodoo roots and resurrecting them as passed away friends and dead loved ones. Its sequel, the zombies in a mall masterpiece Dawn of the Dead, took Romero's apocalyptic nightmare further. Its frank depiction of bloodshed changed horror cinema forever and paved the way for such recent offerings as Shaun of the Dead and 28 Days Later.

But there is more to Romero than just the living dead. He reinvented the vampire in Martin, took on the American military in The Crazies and has collaborated with horror legend Stephen King on both Creepshow and The Dark Half. Even today films like Land of the Dead have proven Romero to be a fearless anti-establishment filmmaker. He's a maverick, a man who frequently directs outside of the Hollywood mainstream, allowing his films to work as both chilling frightfests and impassioned comments on the American psyche.

This Pocket Essential examines Romero's work up to and including his latest Diary of the Dead and explains why filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese often refer to him as horror's greatest living director.

COMPETITION: George A Romero: The Pocket Essential

Competition Closed!
The winners were Trevor Papp, Mario Aguirre Jr, Michelle Grieger and Nick Thomson.
The question for the competition was:-
'How many pages are in the book?'

The answers available were:-

140 (Received 3% of the votes)

160 (Received 96% of the votes)

180 (Received 1% of the votes)

The correct answer was of course the 160. Well the answer was only a click away at the website.

Further Information
The body of the book focuses on the four distinct periods of his 40-year career: -

Blue Collar Monsters
- Night of the Living Dead (1968)
- There's Always Vanilla (1971)
- Season of the Witch (1972)
- The Crazies (1973)
Weird Fantasies & Tales of Fear
- Martin (1976)
- Dawn of the Dead (1978)
- Knightriders (1981)
- Creepshow (1982)
- Day of the Dead (1985)
Hollywood Horror Show
- Monkey Shines (1988)
- Two Evil Eyes (1990)
- Night of the Living Dead (1990)
- The Dark Half (1992)
Back from the Dead
- Bruiser (2000)
- Land of the Dead (2005)
- Diary of the Dead (2007)

Each film is split up into the following sections: -

Ripping Yarn: Gives a brief overview of story and character.
Making a Monster: Looks at the making of the film.
Face of Death: Delves into the visual style.
The Splatter Factor: Examines the special effects.
Digging up the Dead: Review of the film.
American Nightmare: Looks at the political dimension.
From the Vault: Interesting facts.
Undead or Alive: Overall verdict that is marked out of five.

There are also two concluding chapters: Children of the Living Dead which focuses on the films that have been inspired by Romero, from Lucio Fulci's Zombie 2 (1979) to such British classics like 28 Days Later (2002) and Shaun of the Dead (2004). The No More Room in Hell segment looks at the projects Romero could have directed, from the notorious Diamond Dead and Resident Evil to more obscure titles such as Before I Wake, Mongrel: The Legend of Copperhead, Unholy Fire and Goosebumps.

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