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22 22 1 The Body as Contrast: Romero’s Living Dead It makes sense to begin with Romero’s Living Dead series. Not only have these films been Romero’s most successful—both Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead were major box office hits—but they have also been his most critically acclaimed. Film critic Robin Wood, for instance, has called Romero’s first two Living Dead films “among the most powerful, fascinating and complex of modern horror films.”1 I take this series to consist of four films: Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, and Land of the Dead. The 2007 re-boot of the series, Diary of the Dead, can be seen as a kind of coda not only to the Living Dead series but to Romero’s entire body of work, and as such I read it more as a reflection upon the preceding work than as part of the specific narrative /rhetorical progression occurring in the four films that constitute the Living Dead series proper. Additionally, Diary has begun a new series of Living Dead films. At the time of this writing, Romero’s Survival of the Dead debuted with limited theatrical release. Any sustained reflection on these films will have to await their completion at some point in the future. Therefore, in this chapter I focus only on the original Living Dead series as it reflects Romero’s preoccupation with the unconstrained body as a source of both horror and cultural critique. The traditional Living Dead series deserves special attention because the films appeared over an extended period of time that covered both the rise and fall of what I called in the introduction the second golden age of American horror. As noted, the critical and commercial success of Night in 1968 stands at the beginning of this period of horror filmmaking and is with little doubt the film that most dramatically influenced The Body as Contrast 23 the direction and tone of this era. The film also initiated the narrative conceit that underwrites the subsequent films, namely that the dead are returning to life and are seeking to devour the flesh of the living. Before turning to my critical reading of Romero’s Living Dead films, it may be worthwhile to lay out in broad terms the plots of these four linked though very different films. Night begins with Johnny and Barbara, a brother and sister visiting their father’s grave. After an initial encounter with one of the living dead in the cemetery scene, Johnny is knocked unconscious, but Barbara manages to evade the ghoul and seeks shelter in an isolated farmhouse. The strain proves too much for Barbara, and as she drifts into an almost catatonic state, the narrative shifts attention to Ben, an African American man who shows up just in time to save Barbara from some of the living dead. Ben proceeds to barricade the house and comfort Barbara, but the number of living dead surrounding the house continues to grow. Eventually, another group of survivors emerge from their hiding place in the basement—a middle-aged white married couple, the Coopers, and their injured daughter, along with another young couple, Tom and Judy. The survivors bicker over their strategy, and the ensuing power struggle between Ben and Mr. Cooper becomes a continuing source of instability as they learn that the dead are coming back to life across the country. When their attempt to escape goes horribly wrong—their one working vehicle explodes, killing both Tom and Judy—the tensions boil over, and Ben beats Mr. Cooper and then shoots him as the barricaded doors and windows give way and the dead overrun the house. Eventually Ben is the only survivor, having retreated to the basement, and as morning arrives, the sound of gunshots from a rescue party draws him out of his hiding place where he is suddenly and unceremoniously shot in the head by a deputy who mistakes him for one of the living dead. The film’s abrupt ending is accompanied by a series of chilling, grainy photographic stills of Ben’s body being removed and cast upon a pyre. After a series of unrelated and less commercially successful films, Romero returned to the living dead in what would be his most commercially successful film, and arguably most accomplished, Dawn of the Dead. The picture appeared at what might be considered the apex of this second...

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