Film geeks seem to have a serious hard-on for zombies. One wonders why this is, and one also assumes that people would be tired of it by now, but they still keep making Friday the 13th movies and Nicholas Sparks adaptations, too, so I guess everyone has their thing. The master of the zombie movie is [was], of course, George Romero, creator of the amazing (mostly) Night of the Living Dead
series, which began in 1968 with the film of that name. The series now counts six films amongst its members, which is approximately two and a half too many –
Land of the Dead
, number four, isn't great, but is entertaining enough, while the last two,
Diary of the Dead
and
Survival of the Dead
, are atrocious monstrosities of failed filmmaking, and one wonders seriously where the hell Romero went wrong.
But we are here to jump back to 1978 for the second film in the franchise, the iconic
, which will be screened tomorrow, Saturday, at midnight at Baxter Avenue Theaters.
Night of the Living Dead
introduced the zombie outbreak, finding our small group of would-be survivors trapped in a cabin beset by zombies. (Many say it can be viewed as a response to McCarthy's Communist “witch hunts.”) The sequel finds the zombie apocalypse well underway and focuses on a group of people trapped in a shopping mall which is being invaded by the living dead in a not-so-subtle bit of social commentary – and to make matters worse, a psychotic motorcycle gang of looters is on their way as well.
See it all on the big screen. Baxter Avenue Theater is located at 1250 Bardstown Road. Further theater information and advance ticket sales can be found at the Baxter Avenue Theater website.
Image: Internet Movie Database
