George Romero is the acknowledged master of the zombie movie. Almost all of his Living Dead series are hits both in the box office and critically. His last zombie movie, Island of The Dead, was not as well received as the previous installments but this is not stopping Romero from taking another stab at the zombie genre.
The director has revealed that he has optioned the novel The Zombie Autopsies, which was written by Harvard psychologist Steven Scholzman. The novel follows the usual zombie premise we’ve come to know, and yes, love – a zombie apocalypse. But The Zombie Autopsies bring a new element to the table, the story is told amidst an economic collapse because of the zombie hordes. The novel has also gained an almost infamous reputation for all of its medically accurate descriptions and scenes. Romero is banking on this medical accuracy as the jump off point for his movie. He said he wants it “to be perfectly accurate, almost shockingly.” If that’s a quote that won’t spin zombie fans into a frenzy, I don’t know what will.
Romero has been delving more and more into increasingly shocking gory scenes. If you’ve seen Night of The Living Dead (which, by the way, is now part of the pubic domain so you can download it freely), the gore was quite tame compared to today’s standards. The gore increased with each movie until probably reached the pinnacle with Diary of The Dead, Romero’s attempt at “found footage” horror. It was a success and brought Romero’s movies to the 21st century level of blood and shock scenes. It will be interesting to see how he plans to treat The Zombie Autopsies. If we’re to base it on The Crazies, a movie he executive produced, prepare for a gorefest.