'Night of the Living Dead,' then 'Dawn of the Dead' is a few weeks later, 'Day of the Dead' months later, and 'Land of the Dead' is three years later. Each one spoke about a different decade and was stylistically different.
— George A. Romero
The only advice you can give is, 'Don't let the bad stuff keep you down.'
For me, tribalism and religion are basically the big reasons we're in trouble. Patriotism, tribalism, and religion.
Zombies are my ticket to ride! It's how I get a deal! I don't care what they are. I don't care where they came from.
I grew up in New York City. And I lived in the Bronx in a place called Parkchester.
I go to these horror conventions all the time, and these audiences get so deep into it. They've pulled apart every movie fifty ways from Sunday.
Horror films are the anchovies of the cinema. Either you like them, or you don't.
When you're working with a low budget, the most expensive time is the time spent on the set. The words of the day are, 'Get off the set as quickly as possible,' and so CG enables you to do that.
Pittsburgh, for a while, became a production centre. There was one $400 million year. Hollywood was bringing productions in there. Films like 'The Silence of the Lambs' and 'Innocent Blood.' So my guys, the guys I worked with, were able to have careers and live at home. But then it dried up, and a lot of my friends left.
The grotesque has never really affected or frightened me. I guess it's real-life stuff that frightens me much more.
Comic books and radio were my escape. I even remember 3-D comic books where you put on the red-and-green glasses and Mighty Mouse would punch you in the face. It was the literature of the day for kids my age who were too bored with listening to 'Peter and the Wolf' on the record player.
If I go to a movie and it's particularly violent, and people are leaving the theatre ready to vomit, we're sitting there with our popcorn just chuckling.
I have a very quiet life. There's nothing weird.
You just wish you could lobotomize yourself and just do a thing that's really on instinct. There's always a certain self-consciousness. And you worry about that.
Nursery rhymes were political when they were first written! To me, that's what it's about: it's about using it to say something more than just what the story is.
There aren't that many monsters. It's very hard to create a new monster.
I didn't much care for the 'Dawn' remake. It was a well-made action movie but really wasn't anything like my 'Dawn Of The Dead.'
I have a soft spot in my heart for the zombies.
I vote in the Academy, so I get all the screeners. I'm so often disappointed by all the material and especially by what wins. I find myself never voting for the winner.
In the old days, there were three networks, and all of a sudden, Walter Cronkite is the most trusted man in America. Everybody believes what he says, not even thinking. In those days, we didn't even know it was being spun. We were very willing to just listen to it and go along with.
Zombies cannot run.
I remember when John Cameron Swayze over the television told me personally that the Russians now had the atomic bomb; then I knew that we were goners.
To me, the zombies have always just been zombies. They've always been a cigar. When I first made 'Night of the Living Dead,' it got analyzed and overanalyzed way out of proportion. The zombies were written about as if they represented Nixon's Silent Majority or whatever. But I never thought about it that way.
I'm basically a fairly traditional filmmaker.
Most of my stuff was sort of of-the-time. 'The Crazies' was, basically, we were angry about Vietnam, and it had a reason for being.
I won't say I'm uncompromising, but I won't compromise just for the hell of it.
I will never make a film where zombies are threatening to take over the planet.
Because of 'World War Z' and 'The Walking Dead,' I can't pitch a modest little zombie film which is meant to be sociopolitical.
I sit around listening to classical music. I don't play video games. I love to go to dinner, go on picnics, travel.
Is Michael Moore an honest documentarian? Honestly? I don't think he is... The real discussion gets left behind the entertainment value.
You can get an audience no matter what your opinion is.
I love 'Shaun of the Dead.'
If you look to the few films that have been really successful, 'Insidious,' 'Paranormal Activity,' it's all basically the old monsters.
The 'Dead' films allow me to talk about things that a drama, say, won't. 'Dawn Of The Dead,' which was set in a shopping mall, is on one level about consumerism; 'Land Of The Dead' is a response to Bush.
Back then, in 1968, everything was suspect - family, government, and obviously the family unit in 'Night of the Living Dead' completely collapses. That's what we were focused on.
I'm a Turner Classic Movies guy. That's it. I'd much rather sit here and watch an oldie than anything new.
Zombies to me don't represent anything in particular. They are a global disaster that people don't know how to deal with.
I'm more alarmed by people reacting violently to the violence in my films than I am by the violence in films.
When I was growing up, I actually went through, in New York City, blackouts when we had to close the windows and worry about air raids. I don't know whether or not those were realistic worries or not, but as a kid, when we all had to run around pulling down the drapes and turning the lights off; it was a very frightening experience.
I've never had a zombie eat a brain! I don't know where that comes from. Who says zombies eat brains?
Neighbors are frightening enough when they're alive.
'Day of the Dead' remains my favourite zombie film of mine.
The main thing people took from 'Night of the Living Dead' was that it was a racial statement movie, and that was completely unintended.
When you are working with low budgets and you have a gunshot with a squib and it goes wrong - the gun flash does not synchronize with the squib or whatever - it takes half an hour or 40 minutes to clean it all up and reset it. It's much easier to use a computer to paint in the flash and splatter.
In 2007, 'Diary of the Dead' all of a sudden made money. I was blindsided by that.
My film collection is all oldies.
People say you're trapped in this genre. You're a horror guy. I say wait a minute - I'm able to say exactly what I think. I'm able to talk about, comment about, take snapshots of what's going on at the time. I don't feel trapped. I feel like this is my way of being able to express myself.
Basically, I'm an EC comic book guy, man. You can show me anything that's high-spirited horror, and I'll be there giggling.
The hardest thing when you're making a zombie movie is, 'How am I going to kill these zombies? I need a clever way to knock these guys off.'
I liked the '28 Days Later' films, but they're not zombies; they're not dead. They're not using it in the same way.
