Welcome to The Attic. They’re coming to get you, Barbara!

I am a huge fan of horror documentaries. I love peeling back layers of the most famous and terrifying films to discover not only how they came about, but also how misfortunes and misgivings can lead to genius. I am one of those people that will buy a new blu-ray release of a movie simply because there is a new documentary on the making of the film within the special features. Sometimes pure luck is on a filmmaker’s side, and sometimes gaining a major aspect can boil down to a chess game. It is fascinating to see how a movie’s “life story” can fall into place.

Birth of the Living Dead is one of my favorite horror documentaries I have ever seen. It focuses on the film-making from idea itself all the way to the finished product being released. In 1963, George Romero had been working with a film company he started himself, called The Latent Image. The majority of his life’s work was done with Latent, and it’s what gave him a wealth of experience that he would take with him when the time would come to transition to feature films.

Once this time came, Romero had recently finished reading Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, and he felt that as a whole, the story was largely about a revolution. In the late 1960s, everything was wrapped up in race-fueled rage, social issues and the Vietnam War. Revolutions were abound and Romero was inspired to take that idea and apply it to a horror film. Ten investors from Latent Image (including Romero himself) came together to form Image Ten, which would be the backing company to Night of the Living Dead. The crew rented a farmhouse in Pennsylvania and lived there during the filming process. It was an extremely low-budget film and everyone pulled their own weight by doing at least two jobs. Many of the actors seen in the movie were also working behind the scenes.

Zombies were played by the cast and crew’s family, friends, local residents, and many were even clients of Latent Image’s. Almost everyone working on the film had little experience in the film industry and were all learning as they went. Even local news crews and police officers were willing to come to the set. Those cop cars that pull up? The officers that rush out and release the search dogs? All genuine and local. It is incredible how many people were willing to come together to make this work.

Romero himself took on three tasks (cinematographer, writer and director) because he simply didn’t know what a director’s tasks typically were. He was just in his late twenties at the time but that youthful spirit is what most likely led to the determination and fearlessness that comes from making an all-new, incredibly ballsy, type of movie. Perhaps one of the most startling authentic aspects of Night of the Living Dead are the entrails seen in the film. One of the men working on the movie provided the “food” for the zombies to be seen chewing on. The actors were in fact digging into cow intestines and livers. No one can say that this cast didn’t give this film their all. In fact, Russell Streiner (who played Barbara’s taunting brother) won the sound mix for the movie by beating the owner of the studio at chess because they couldn’t afford to pay for it.

Of course the documentary also focuses on the issue of race and the civil rights movement in the late 1960s. The role of Ben was written long before Duane Jones was cast to play the role. The lack of acknowledgment that the hero of the film was black was simply due to Romero and the crew seeing no reason or point to writing it in. I think that points heavily to the changing times. While ignoring his race, they made a bold move that would lend itself to the civil rights movement and further the cause. This is amazing to look back on and think about.

There are so many things you learn while watching this documentary about the first “Dead” movie, but there is so much more you get out of it. Romero himself is in classic form. Hilarious and cracking jokes while sipping out of a coffee mug, causing a female off-screen to crack up. It only reminds you of why we all love him and his highly important contribution to the horror genre, and pop culture itself. I highly recommend watching Birth of the Living Dead as soon as you can. It is currently on Netflix for streaming.

Stay scared,
Dark Princess