It was 1968. George A. Romero and a group of his friends and co-workers pooled their money and resources together to make a horror film. That horror film was Night of the Living Dead and it changed the course of horror forever by ushering in the modern age. George A. Romero celebrates his 71st birthday on February 4th. Mutantiville.com and the Mutantville Players would like to wish Mr. Romero a happy birthday. Mutantville.com would like to award Mr. Romero the Inspirational Filmmaker of the Month award for February 2011 for his influence on and undying dedication to the genre we all love. Thank you for the many amazing movies and here’s to hoping for many more.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 4:22 pm. Add a comment
George A. Romero is often credited with being the godfather of modern horror and rightfully so. However, there is a little known horror film that came out a good six years before Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and served as a big inspiration on Romero’s work -Carnival of Souls.
Carnival of Souls is a creepy, atmospheric horror movie about a woman caught in a traumatic accident who finds herself wandering around a strange abandoned carnival. Carnival of Souls deserves a spot in MVP’s Guerrilla Filmmaker’s Pantheon as both the writer John Clifford and director Herk Harvey waived their earnings on the movie in order to get the film made on a minuscule budget of $17,000. That’s guerrilla filmmaking at it’s finest.
Check out the trailer:
And watch the entire movie here:
Posted 1 year, 4 months ago at 4:58 pm. Add a comment
Streebo, Dave and Jason prepare for the screening of Devil Comes Down!
As many of you know, our short film “Devil Comes Down” was shown before the early screening of George A. Romero’s newest film “Survival of the Dead” a while back. After the screening of “Survival of the Dead,” a 35mm version of “Night of the Living Dead” was shown at the Carolina Theatre in Durham. It was great to see this on the big screen.
During the Light Factory’s “American Zombie Festival” in 2009, I was able to hear Mr. Romero speak about the making of “Night of the Living Dead” the night of the screening. I also attended a seminar with Streebo. There were many stories that all filmmakers can relate with. Most of these are about overcoming obstacles and adversities (which is useful in life in general of course). It was very inspirational to hear he started from humble beginnings as well and above all else…..Finish it (referring to the film you’re working on).
As far as “Night of the Living Dead,” I enjoy that he uses a lot of emotion to pull the cast apart as opposed to many movies that are just chase films with no emotional attachment to the characters. There are some movies (I won’t name names…ah ah ah choothe New Friday the 13thooo…excuse me) that has tons of what’s the word….douchey characters that you could care less about. This movie you have someone to pull for and for the time period, it’s not the one that was probably politically correct.
In honor of getting to see this in 35mm on the big screen, here are some interesting articles about “Night of the Living Dead.”
Night of the Living Dead represents the end of a lot of things. It was the last truly great black and white horror film, released at a time when most horror films were moving to full, vivid color starting with The Curse of Frankenstein …
Such is the case of Jeff Broadstreet’s dodgy 2006 reimagining “Night of the Living Dead 3D”, a film that boldly attempts to combine two of Hollywood’s latest trends: three-dimensional technology and remakes. …
So, git ready for big surprise, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD… IN COLOR!! Something different on Tabonga Birfday Special 2010, mostly you can just relax and enjoy these wild an’ crazy color stills from this awesome classic-classic, …
Interview with George A. Romero on the masters of horror tv show
I hope you enjoyed the Night of the Living Dead info and videos! Please help us out by Clicking the “Like” button at the top of the article! We have fan pages on Facebook as well! Thank you!
Posted 1 year, 11 months ago at 1:38 am. Add a comment
It’s after 1am on a Wednesday night. 8am meeting thirty minutes away tomorrow morning. But….It’s worth it. I just returned from seeing/listening to the Alice Cooper & Rob Zombie show in Charlotte. It was great!
The wait is over! Alice Cooper & Rob Zombie will share the stage for a very limited time! Get tickets and more info at www.alicecooper.com and www.robzombie.com
The night started off with Alice Cooper. I’ve always seen his performances on TV and on film but never live…so once I was invited, I wanted to see his stage show. It was cool. Lots of theatrics, which were cool. Everything sounded good as well. There is still a lot of the tour and you can find more about it on Alice Cooper’s page. TOUR DATES!
For more info – www.eagle-rock.com Alice Cooper’s live shows are legendary for their sense of rock theatre and sheer visual spectacle. This latest addition to our range of titles from the renowned Montreux Festival catches Alice Cooper at his very be…
Next on the bill…Rob Zombie! Wow. He had a huge screen behind the drums and then 3 screens behind him on stage and 2 in front. He had cool film, footage, and effects going the entire show. They had some cool footage. For you horror fans, they had some “Night of the Living Dead” there was some Japanese Anime, some campy old school looking stuff, some gogo dancers, etc… It was a great show. As a guitarist, I was impressed by John 5. I’ve watched a lot of videos with him on YouTube and knew he was great at chicken pickin’ and loves Telecasters.
Thought I’d put a little Rob Zombie on here…but decided to go more old school Zombie!
Shock Til You Drop just conducted an interview with the godfather of modern horror George A. Romero himself and they dropped the juicy tibdit of info that Romero has two more “Dead” films planned for the near future. Apparently these last two films will complete the arc begun in Diary of the Dead – much in the way that Land of the Dead concluded the arc begun back in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead. Shock Til You Drop will publish the complete interview in the very near future.
Our long odyssey to find closure in the saga of Devil Comes Down and the American Zombie Film Contest has come to an end. This past Friday, MVP’s little zombie film opened before a raucous house at the historic Carolina Theatre in Durham. Devil Comes Down served as the curtain raiser for an amazing double feature of George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead as part of the Retrofantasma film series. The Retrofantasma crowds at the Carolina Theatre are the best in North Carolina as they appreciate the genre and always set out to have a good time. Before the show – door prizes were given out including several one sheets for Romero’s latest film as well as three vintage Fangoria issues and an ultra rare G.H.O.S.T. t-shirt provided by Mutantville.com. The popcorn was plentiful, the screams raised the roof and the laughs kept coming as the packed house enjoyed the show from beginning to end. Romero’s latest film did not disappoint as it combined his trademark social satire with gut munching zombie antics.
As with all Retrofantasma showings – the movies were preceded by contemporary trailers to set the stage which on this night included Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, The Thomas Crown Affair, Barbarella, Herbie the Love Bug and many more! The very rare 35mm print of Night of the Living Dead looked crisp and sounded clear. Romero’s movie played as well as it always has with it’s stark imagery and social commentary carrying resonance even for today’s turbulent times.
MVP enjoyed another unforgettable night at the movies courtesy of the Carolina Theatre and Retrofantasma. If you are in the Raleigh/Durham area and you haven’t been attending the Retrofantasma shows – then you don’t know what you are missing. The Mutantville Players would like to thank Jim and the Carolina Theatre for allowing us to show our little movie in such a spectacular setting. We feel truly honored and blessed to have shared this moment with all of you.
Listen up, my faithful mutants! This Good Friday, April 2nd, at the Carolina Theatre in Durham, North Carolina, Mutantville Productions’ zombie short Devil Comes Down will serve as the curtain raiser for the Retrofantasma fundraiser. But wait – there’s more! This is a momentous occasion as the night will showcase a double feature of films from the Godfather of modern horror – George A. Romero. Retrofantasma will feature an early showing of Romero’s latest zombie opus Survival of the Dead as well as the movie that started it all – Night of the Living Dead– all in glorious 35mm!
As you know by now – Devil Comes Down was a finalist in the American Zombie Film Contest hosted by George A. Romero right here in Charlotte, North Carolina! Yours truly was able to share the news with Romero himself at the recent Horrorhound convention in Indianapolis. Romero offered his congratulations and was excited to hear about the early screening of Survival of the Dead – almost two months before it’s official release date.
To celebrate this occasion, Mutantville.com is donating a few items for the traditional Retrofantasma door prizes. MVP’s contributions will include three issues of vintage Fangoria. The featured stories include George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead, Tom Savini’s Night of the Living Dead remake, and in remembrance of the late Corey Haim – one issue covers the Lost Boys. We will also give out one spiffy new G.H.O.S.T. t-shirt provided by Fast Custom Shirts.com and perhaps a few other knickknacks.
All proceeds will go to the Nevermore festival. Please come out and join the Mutantville Players for a great night at the theater courtesy of the Carolina Theatre in Durham. Be sure to join the fanpages for the Carolina Theatre, Devil Comes Down and Retrofantasma on Facebook!
See you Friday, MVP!
~~Streebo
www.mutantville.com
Posted 2 years, 1 month ago at 8:28 pm. 2 comments
Halloween is a week from now, and there’s one very special way to celebrate it in Evans City, Pennsylvania this year, at Gary Streiner’s 2nd Annual Living Dead Festival. Recently, I interviewed Gary about his role in the production of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Through Gary, I was able to interview another of the key people involved in the film: his brother, the producer and the actor who played Johnny, Russell Streiner.
Russ was an important part of the Latent Image, a commercial filmmaking company which he founded with George Romero. He’s since gone on to work on many films with another NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD collaborator, John Russo. Russ was gracious enough to take some time today and discuss the legacy of the zombie classic with me, for his fans at Icons of Fright.
Phil Fasso: How did you first get involved with George Romero?
Russ Streiner: I started off wanting to be an actor, which I pursued through high school. And after high school, I went to the Pittsburgh Playhouse School of the Theatre, and graduated from their two-year acting program. While I was there, I was working in stage shows at night, and at one of those, I was cast with another fellow. His name was Rudy Ricci, and we shared a dressing room. Rudy had been attending classes at Carnegie Mellon University (back then it was called Carnegie Tech). He was taking art classes there, and he met George Romero in an art class. George was transplanted, from the Bronx to Pittsburgh, to go to Carnegie Tech’s School of Painting and Design. Rudy brought George over to one of our shows one night, and that’s how I first got to meet him. Then, within maybe six or eight months, George called me and asked me if I would be willing to be an actor in a movie that he was putting together, called EXPOSTULATIONS. And I told him I would. I showed up for my very first day of production, and really became intrigued with the whole film production part of the business, which I knew nothing about. I stuck with EXPOSTULATIONS as an actor, and then also helped out on the crew. That’s how George and I first met. And we went on to set up a business and worked together for about 10 years.
PF: How did your experience in commercials and industrial films help you to put together a feature film?
RS: Any time you get a chance to practice your craft, whether it’s in short form like TV commercials or longer form like industrials, all of that goes to help you refine your craft. And that’s certainly how our whole group got helped out, all of which led up to 1967, when we did the actual filming of NOTLD.
Read the rest of this interview with a piece of Night of the Living Dead history click the link below.
It was 1968. George A. Romero and a group of his friends and co-workers pooled their money and resources together to make a horror film. That horror film was Night of the Living Dead and it changed the course of horror forever by ushering in the modern age. George A. Romero celebrates his 71st birthday on February 4th. Mutantiville.com and the Mutantville Players would like to wish Mr. Romero a happy birthday. Mutantville.com would like to award Mr. Romero the Inspirational Filmmaker of the Month award for February 2011 for his influence on and undying dedication to the genre we all love. Thank you for the many amazing movies and here’s to hoping for many more.
DD
from Icons of Fright:
