George A. Romero

[Quorthon]

I guess I should watch Monkey Shines again... It's been like a decade or more since I last saw it.

I just remember the crippled guy flinging the monkey around with his mouth--while my brother and I laughed our asses off.

[slayrrr666]

I have that one somewhere in my collection, about the only one of his I have I haven't seen. Should get on it pretty soon.

[Bartwald]

Waiting for your opinions on it, guys. If you ask mine - it's one of Romero's weakest stunts, I didn't even think it was funny.

[slayrrr666]

I'll be trying to get this one done pretty soon, so you'll know then.

[danielk]

There's a certain appealing deadpan to George Romero's work. He's like the Steven Wright of horror. Other directors give you sprinting zombies but it takes a genius to make you scared of something you can outrun at a jog.
Oh and I liked Monkeyshines, though I can't quite say why. Dark Half, not so much.

[slayrrr666]

I thought Dark Half was his best non-Dead movie, although Creepshow is pretty close. I still liked Dark Half.

[Quorthon]

I'd go Creepshow over Dark Half. Creepshow is, in my humble opinion, everything a horror film should be. Thick atmosphere, creepy, almost ove-the-top music, shocks, scares, surprises, some predictability, and just tons of fun. The cinematography is perfect. The special effects are still great (though not always perfect, but damn close), and there's gross stuff and gore. It has likable characters and hateable characters, whether or not "hateable" is a word.

I voted Day, but I tend to enjoy Night of the Living Dead and Creepshow just as much.

But yeah, for me, Creepshow is Romero's best non-Dead movie. Even though there are some "undead" in it.... The movie actually feels the way those old EC horror comics do, and it feels the same as the excellent counterpart comic for the Creepshow movie.

[slayrrr666]

I've only seen Sci-Fi Channel broadcasts of Creepshow, so that may be hurting my opinon of it. When I see all of Savini's input instead of brief flashes, I'm sure it may change.

[Bartwald]

The Dark Half is my fave Romero's non-Dead film, too. Creepshow is alright but I could never force myself to perceive it as being close to perfection; some stories there lack good conclusion (Father's Day) or lack true horror (the one with Steve King) or just seem overlong (the last one, with the roaches).

By the way, I recently re-watched all the Dead films and it turns out it's Day Of The Dead I like most, after all.

[Heineken Skywalker]

Well, after seeing DAY OF THE DEAD and LAND OF THE DEAD recently, I feel that I can finally vote in this poll. Gonna have to jump on the bandwagon and vote DAWN OF THE DEAD as my favorite Romero film. I actually thought DAY was kind of dull except for maybe the last half hour. That half hour was good, but it felt like a long way to get there.

I would rate the DEAD series like this:
1) DAWN OF THE DEAD
2) NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
3) LAND OF THE DEAD
4) DAY OF THE DEAD

My favorite non-DEAD Romero is probably CREEPSHOW, though it's not nearly a "classic" to me. It's just kind of a fun film, with equal parts scares & cheese. Nice precursor to the TALES FROM THE CRYPT series on HBO.
MONKEY SHINES & DARK HALF were just "okay" from what I can recall, but it's been many, many years since I've seen either. I thought THE CRAZIES kinda sucked.
And is that SEASON OF THE WITCH as in HALLOWEEN III? If so, I really hated that movie.

[slayrrr666]

Season of the Witch is a really, really crappy suspense tale of a woman who thinks she's a witch and get's involved with a coven of actual witches. It's worse than Halloween 3, the one many think of when they hear that surname.

[Heineken Skywalker]

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. I was too lazy to just look it up.

[slayrrr666]

No problem.