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Living Dead is a blanket term for various films and series that all originated with the seminal 1968 zombie movie Night of the Living Dead created by George A. Romero and John A. Russo. After the film's initial success, the two creators split in disagreement regarding where the series should go and a contract was drawn up. Any future Romero films would lose the "Living" prefix and simply be referred to as Dead movies and Russo, who wanted to branch the series off into literary territory, would retain the rights to "Living Dead" (though fans nevertheless refer to Romero's as Living Dead films). Thus, both series would be considered canon and each would be able to do what they liked with the continuity of the projects.
Romeros Dead series Labeled a trilogy until Land of the Dead, this is considered by most fans as the one true series. Each film is laden with social commentary ranging from racism to consumerism. The films are not produced as direct follow-ups from one another. The films' only continuation is the epidemic of the living dead, the situation advancing with each film, but with different characters and even moving the time ahead from the last to the time in which they were filmed despite the world's progression being the only interlocking aspect of the series. They are different stories telling how different people react to the same phenomonen ranging from citizens to cops to army officials and back again. There are no real happy endings to the films as each takes places in a world that has gotten worse since the last time we saw it, the number of zombies ever increasing and the fate of the small amount of the remaining living always in the balance. Official reports of the fifth film is that it will not continue the depiction of the progress of the world; instead it will go back to the beginning of events from the first film, but will be nonetheless contemporary as the sequels are. Romero does not consider any of his Dead films sequels since none of the characters or story continue from one film to the next. Only the premise that there are zombies is the same. Russos Living Dead series Russo actually has two separate series that claim the Living Dead name. The first was Return of the Living Dead, which originated as a book written by Russo. It was later adapted to a film by Dan O'Bannon, which spawned its own series of movies, with a total of four sequels. This could be seen more as a spin-off of Night of the Living Dead rather than sequels, as the first movie treats Night of the Living Dead as a movie that was based on real events in Return of the Living Dead Then, in 1998, Russo went back to the original Night of the Living Dead to reshoot extra sequences into the film. This version, which was officially named Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition, added a subplot, alternate opening, and new score. The result is a widely reviled version of the original. It is considered to be incredibly inferior, riddled with needless touch-ups. Children of the Living Dead was then produced as a direct sequel to Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition, as it followed up on scenes that were newly inserted. It was another widely panned effort on the behalf of Russo. Director Tor Ramsey made his frustration filming quite well known, even during post-production when his effort to fix the film was "corrected" by its writer Karen L. Wolf, whom he claims was tyrannical over her script, despite little knowledge of the horror genre. It is these two efforts that leave many fans to criticize Russo with claims of ill-attempts to reclaim what he lost after the original Night of the Living Dead. Dead series remakes The films that originally made up Romero's trilogy have all have been remade in order, although the remake of Day of the Dead is still in production. However, these remakes do not follow on from each other and are entirely different films. This is because they were all made by different people and have no real link between them but the stories match as much as Romero's originals do. The Night of the Living Dead remake, released in 1990, was produced for two reasons. First, a rival company was planning a remake which Romero did not want to see happen without his involvement. Second, it was seen as an opportunity for a way of the original creators to finally get some money back from the name Night of the Living Dead. The film saw another team-up with Tom Savini and Romero, though not in the same roles, as Savini directed the film based on a script by Romero. Fans have mixed feelings of the remake, though most are fairly positive. The Dawn of the Dead remake also received mixed feelings, with common criticisms such as the altering of the "rules" by having the zombies running rather than the standard slow lumbering. However, reviews were generally favorable, with Romero himself stating that it was "much better" than he had expected, but he considered it an action movie rather than a horror film. A remake of Day of the Dead is expected to be released in 2007 and directed by Steve Miner. Little is known about the remake, but many fans have expressed hope that the film is based on Romero's original script for his 1985 film. An additional remake of Night of the Living Dead is also being made, this time without Romero's involvement. Night of the Living Dead 3-D will, as the name implies, be a 3-D film. It is being produced because Night of the Living Dead has fallen into public domain. Unauthorized sequels There are also some other films that have been released as sequels to various films in Romero's Living Dead series, most likely to ride on the name recognition that Romero's films enjoy. They have been produced because of various mix-ups with the copyright and ownership of the movies, Romero himself owns only Dawn of the Dead from his four films. These include: Living Dead books/graphic novels There have also been a number of publications, both authorized and unauthorized, that have appeared over the years. Some claim to take place in the universe that Romero established in his four Dead films; others don't make this claim but nevertheless follow his "rules" (dead eat living flesh, can only be destroyed if you stop their brain, etc.). These include: In addition, there have been several comic book series released under the Night of the Living Dead name over the years. Documentaries | ||||||||
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