George Romero – Memphis Flyer

Halloween is a couple of weeks away, and we’re in a horror movie mood. Here’s what’s happening on the big screen this weekend.

Smile 2

Parker Finn’s grinning breakout hit gets a sequel. A mysterious entity is stalking pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), possessing her friends, and causing murderous hallucinations. Say cheese!

Time Warp Drive-In: King of Horror

Saturday night at the Malco Summer Drive-In. October’s edition of the Time Warp Drive-In celebrates Stephen King. No writer has been adapted more than King, partially because he has a very liberal attitude towards licensing his stories, but mostly because he’s a really good writer!

Leading off the program is Creepshow. Directed by George Romero, creator of Night of the Living Dead, this 1982 anthology features five short stories, two of which were written by King. One of them, “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” stars King in a rare, non-cameo acting role. Creepshow is a daringly unconventional film which deserves a revival.

The second King-related film on the Time Warp bill is Pet Semetary. Directed by Mary Lambert, a former music video director who had previously helped Madonna become a superstar, Pet Sematary is a classic chiller, featuring a great performance by Fred Gwynne, who was famous as Herman Munster.

And did I mention it has a theme song by The Ramones?

Memphian Kathy Bates recently got a big role in the revival of Matlock. She’s always been one of our great actors, and the role that proved it to the world was as the sinister fangirl in Misery. The sledgehammer scene still gives me the willies.

Terrifier 3

The top earning movie at the box office in the world right now is an independent slasher film. The creators of the Terrifier series, writer/director Damien Leone and producer Phil Falcone, opted not to sell their three-quel to a big studio, and it’s paid off handsomely. David Howard Thornton returns as Art The Clown, who is not one of those crying on the inside kind of clowns. He’s more of a stabby kind of clown. This time, he’s here to ruin Christmas, and not even decapitation can stop him.

OZ: Original Zombie

FILM TITLE: Night of the Living Dead (1968)

ELAPSED TIME: 13:22

WHY DID I STOP WATCHING? Blonde lady discovered desiccated body

If there is one reigning moral in horror movies that I can really get behind, it is that a certain amount of forbearance when it comes scary shit will pay off in the end. See: the different between Barbra (Judith O’Dea) and her rube of a brother in the opening scene of Night of the Living Dead (1968.) Barbra and bro drive up to a rural cemetery in order to place a wreath on the grave of a dead relative. It’s a dreary scene, and Barbra’s hapless brother is all complaints: “A lot of good the extra daylight does us,” he says. “You think I want to blow Sunday on a scene like this?”

Judith O’Dea as Barbara.

Barbra, on the other hand, is reverent at the grave. Her brother teases her, recalling a time when they were kids and he scared her. Haha, he says when she winces, “You’re still scared.” Barbra demurs, but she easily could have responded, “No shit. There are fucking zombies in this cemetery, and they are about to kill you, you worthless scrub,” because that is the direction that everything goes. A big ole zombie, a sentient member of the 1960s undead (you can tell it’s the 60s because the zombie wears a suit and has nicely coiffed hair), emerges from over the hill and knocks out broseph. Barbra escapes the cemetery, at least for long enough to barricade herself in an old farmhouse.

The point here is that if you don’t tempt the undead by being a sarcastic jerk, you have a better chance of escaping when they come for you. So why — why?? — would I exercise anything but utmost caution and fear while reviewing a movie about zombies. “Ha ha, zombies are fake,” another critic might write, flaunting their critical thinking skills and rational brains. Not me. Memo to zombies: I think you’re very scary. Leave me alone, please.

So Barbra makes it to this half-lit farmhouse, where she grabs a knife from the kitchen. Nothing comforting about this place at all, except that it temporarily contains no zombies. (Aside about these zombies: they seem smarter, in general, than zombies do now. A little more expressive and mobile. The scariest contemporary zombie movie I’ve seen is Shaun of the Dead, but I can tell you that those zombies are dumber than 1960s zombies, which seems to bode ill for us as a culture. Even our nightmares are getting dumber.) Barbra makes her way around the farmhouse, climbs some stairs and sees a desiccated body, presumably of farmhouse owner. A body that is just eyes in a chewed out skull.

Our columnist did’t get this far into the movie.

For more information about this classic piece of cinema, I will refer you to the Rotten Tomatoes page, because I stopped watching at 13:22. “You’re so scared,” you might say, doing an impression of the guy who gets killed in the first 5 minutes of Night of the Living Dead. “I’m going to survive this horror movie we call life,” I say back to you as I stockpile peanut butter and duct tape in my cubicle. I’ll see you on the other side.

Horrortober: Night Of The Living Dead (1968)