George A. Romero's brief

George A. Romero has directed quite a lot of productions through the years and is a well known director of horror titles, although he has also director romantic and comedic titles.

Below is a brief history of Romero's directing life to date.

George A.Romero

George A.Romero is an American Director, Filmmaker, Actor and Writer.

Born February 4th 1940 he grew up in New York city until he began attending the renowned Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

As a teenager he recieved an 8mm camera as a birthday gift from his parents and soon after he was filming everything in sight.

After finishing high school he moved to Pittsburgh to attend the Carnegie Institute of Technology where he studied Art, Design and Theatre. After graduating with a BA in 1961, George Romero formed the company 'Image Ten Productions' with a handful of friends, to produce industrial films and television commercials.

Early Works

During the late 60's Romero co-wrote and directed a production entitled "Night of the Flesh Eaters" which has a budget of roughly $114,000 that was collected by him and a group of friends.
Soon after the title was re-named to "Night of the Living Dead" after a dispute with the distributor. A black and white finalised version was released during 1968.

The film quickly became a cult classic among horror fans and aficionado's as it was one of the very first horror films to actually show the depiction of blood and gore. Before this time it was quite rare to view a film which contained such a high concentration of graphic violence.

It was eventually picked up by Walter Reade's Continental Films for distribution. It premiered in Pittsburgh on October the 2nd 1968 and was instantly met with outrage and controversy. However in spite or even due to this the film was a hit on the drive in film circuit as its gruesome and terrifying reputation grew.

Following the success of his first production Romero went on to direct a romantic comedy feature entitled "There's Always Vanilla" in 1971.

Although this production was not as straightforward as his previous picture, with the script writer leaving halfway through the actual shooting as well as not seeming interested in the production from early stages.

In 1972 he also directed a horror drama entitled "Season of the Witch" which like his previous endeavour was poorly received.

Although his last two works were not as well received as his original work, George Romero continued to direct a long stream of hit and miss features. In 1973 his production "The Crazies" was a surprise hit which focussed around a bio-spill near an otherwise quiet town which caused increasing homicidal madness to those exposed to the chemical.

From here Romero took a break from the directing spotlight and did not emerge again until 1977.

After a four year break away from directing Romero once again emerged full strength with his latest masterpiece "Martin" in 1977. The film is considered to be one of the best B horror films of the 70's and critiqued to be one of his finest works to date.

Romero himself has also stated in numerous interviews that Martin was his favorite picture that he has worked on and directed. The cast and crew were friends and family of the filmmakers and it was shot on location around Pittsburgh with an extremely low budget.

In 1978 he continued the Dead series by directing Dawn of the Dead which was shot on a budget of 500.000$. The film out shot it's budget and to date has earned over $55 million and is considered one of the staples in the horror movie genre.




Between this and his next Dead movie "Day of the Dead" in 1985 he directed Knightriders in 1981 (where he met his future wife Christine Forrest) and an adaptation of Stephen Kings Creepshow in 1982.

Day was not as well received as Dawn in the box offices; however it has since received a cult following thanks to VHS and DVD releases as well as various horror box sets. From the late 1980’s and early 1990’s he released Monkey Shines (88’)
Two Evil Eyes (90’), The Dark Half (93’)
and Bruiser in 2000.
The former two films where both adaptations from Edgar Allan Poe as well as Stephen King.

Although not well known Romero directed a live action advertisement to promote the video game Resident Evil 2 in Tokyo Japan.

Since then he has gone on to direct and produce Land of the Dead in 2005 on a budget of $16 million which was the highest of the series to date.

During 2006 he began shooting shorts for an online film series called “Zombisodes” which gave a behind the scenes look at productions he was involved with. 

At present Romero is writing two Dead novels for Grand Central publishing, one of which will be released summer 2010. Currently he is separated from his wife and has two children. George Romero lists his influences as follows: The Brothers Karamazov, Casablanca, Dr. Strangelove, High Noon Solomon’s Mines, North by Northwest, The Quiet Man and Touch of Hoffman. He cites that the latter film was his favourite of all time and the film which made him go into filmmaking.

During my research I collected two research documents on George A. Romero. I found my first document the most reliable and informative as it was a collection of information from various sources placed onto IMDB, which include his biography as well as details about all of the movies he has directed, produced, written and been involved with.

I am also including movie posters from pictures Romero has directed throughout the past four decades as well as the title and year released.