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[ominous music]

The zombie is absolutely

all-American horror metaphor.

- [growling]
- They are the monster

of the 21st century.

Right now it does seem like
we're in the middle

of a zombie apocalypse.

We're getting our chance
to exercise

our most anti-social emotions.

- [screaming]
- You know, that...

that mob impulse that's like,
"Yeah, kill them all

and let God sort them out."

[zombies groaning]

Eventually
they overwhelm you.

- They're not stopping to eat.
- [screaming]

Well, I mean,
unless they're stopping

- to eat one of you.
- We're all gonna die.

We all are gonna
get cancer one day.

We're all gonna get sick.

It's almost like
an accelerated version of that.

We don't want zombies

to come and destroy
all of our friends

and family and institutions...

but on some level,
maybe we do.

Like, on some level
it provides us a chance

to just dismantle
everything...

[frantic music]

And possibly start over.

[screaming]

What are humans like
when faced with the end

of humanity?

What are they like
when they're faced

with very few choices

in... in regards
to how to survive?

That's the horror
of zombie movies.

- No!
- It's the wrong impulses

that come out of people
that are far more terrifying

than the walking dead.

[zombies growling, screeching]

♪♪

[sinister music]

♪♪

[foreboding music]

I'm Eli Roth.

[hissing]

The history of horror
is filled with monsters.

Nightmare figures that tap

into our deepest fears.

♪♪

But our fears,
and our monsters,

change with the times.

♪♪

Right now, it's the time
of the zombie.

[zombies growling, screeching]

Fast zombies, slow zombies,

comedy zombies,
teen zombies...

[screaming]

Whatever their shape,

zombies are everywhere.

How did we get here?

What set off zombie fever?

As we'll see,

zombies have been around
for decades.

[zombies hissing, growling]

♪♪

But the debut
of "The Walking Dead"

in 2010 saw them explode

- into popular culture.
- [growling]

To almost everyone's
surprise, a horror series

became the most popular show
on television.

♪♪

My brother's kids...

ten years old, five years...
they watch "Walking Dead."

[yells]

Kids eight years old
watch "Walking Dead."

What is it
about "Walking Dead"

that zombies have become so,
almost normalized

- that kids love it.
- [clears throat]

They don't take it seriously.
I think it's amazing.

- Well...
- "Walking Dead" plays

- like a family show.
- It's all about

the characters.

♪♪

You can follow
this group of people

as they struggle to survive

week after week
after week after week.

[hissing]

♪♪

You can see them live,
you can see them die,

you can see everything
that they go through

with the zombie apocalypse
set as the backdrop.

- [zombies growling]
- [panting]

Everybody wants to...

think that they would be able
to survive

the zombie apocalypse.

[grunting, exclaiming]

You figure, "What would I do
to survive?"

Uh, because that is the crux
of the show,

ordinary people who
all of a sudden

are thrust into
an extraordinary situation.

which always give you
some of the best drama.

[zombie growling]

Are you gonna fight
for what you believe in?

Are you gonna be
the type of person

that runs away from it?

You know, there's no status
and... and fame,

and money, and uh,

there's none
of that bull[bleep].

The apocalyptic simulation
is really an interesting

sociological experiment
about, you know,

who do people become,
and who would I become,

and what would be okay
if the rules weren't

the same anymore?

I want to be a Michonne...

[zombies hissing]

But I'm probably more of, um...

I don't know, a Eugene.
[laughs]

You got a name, ass[bleep]?

Eugene.

They're coming to get you,
Barbara.

Stop it!
You're acting like a child.

They're coming for you.

Look, there comes
one of them now.

Without George Romero and
"Night of the Living Dead,"

there would be
no "Walking Dead."

"Night of the Living Dead"
laid the template

for every zombie
survival story that followed.

It's a simple plot...

six people trapped
in a farmhouse

surrounded by
the flesh-eating undead...

but it changed everything.

You got to see
the boundary pushed

going from
the 1950s creatures...

the man in the rubber suit...
to like, graphic viscera.

- Mm-hmm.
- What was it like seeing it

pushed farther and farther?

- [zombies growling]
- I can remember just

sort of wandering into
a screening

of "Night of the Living Dead."

The whole place was full
of kids... it was like

a Saturday matinee...
and they're all, you know,

yelling and grab-assing around
and throwing

their popcorn boxes,
and that thing got going

and they just fell
entirely silent.

[zombie growling]

- [weeping]
- And I was scared, too.

The first time that you see
something like that,

you're not prepared
for what you're looking at.

[sinister music]

George Romero
really creates the rules.

I mean, the whole thing
of, like, if you get bit,

- you turned into one...
- Yeah.

Shoot them in the head...

♪♪

- That didn't exist before.
- Those rules

for the modern-day zombie
were created 50 years ago.

- By George Romero.
- If I were surrounded

by six or eight
of these things, would I stand

- a chance with them?
- Well, there's no problem.

If you had a gun,
shoot 'em in the head.

That's a sure way to kill 'em.

If you don't, get yourself
a club or a torch.

Beat 'em or burn 'em.
They go up pretty easy.

♪♪

It almost feels like
the zombie movie...

there's like a quantum leap
that happens

where there are
different phases.

Like the 1930s and '40s,
it was the...

"I Walked With a Zombie."
It was "White Zombie."

It was the hypnotist zombie.

It was a mad scientist
on an island

that has found a way
to raise the dead

- and enslave them.
- A lot of zombie films

were about people
who had been just stripped

of their identity
and were slaves, almost.

You know, they could be
workers, or they could just

sort of shamble and look scary,
but they weren't attacking

and biting and killing
like they did

in "Night of the Living Dead."

Baby...
[gasps]

- [whimpering]
- Mean, there were things

that were so transgressive
in that movie.

[whimpering]

[wailing]

The little girl stabs
her mother to death.

The little kid
killing her mom, that had...

no one had ever seen
anything like that.

The first time you see it,
you're just horrified.

You can't believe
what you're seeing.

[screeching]

"Night of the Living Dead"
was much more

of a claustrophobic nightmare
kind of experience,

"Night of the Living Dead"
is also, uh,

somewhat facetious,
and it's also...

it has its
sociopolitical allegory.

What's important about
"Night of the Living Dead"

is the fact that the travails
of the people

locked in that house
are really a microcosm

of what's going on
in American society

- [indistinct]
- The tumult of the late 1960s

is reflected in the fear
and the... the violence

that... that occur in
and around that house.

That movie's revolutionary
in many, many ways

and had profound impact...

the fact it had
a black lead...

[suspenseful music]

[groans]

Which George always said
was not deliberate.

It was that Duane was
the best actor.

I don't believe him.
I think it was deliberate.

With all of us working,

we can fix this place up
in no time.

We have everything we need
up here.

We can take all that stuff
downstairs with us.

Man, you're really crazy,
you know that?

Let's say you're a...
a white viewer

in the late 1960s...

who has a few prejudices, say,

and is a little bit worried
that the world is ending

because of all of the, uh,
racial legislation

of the '60s...
The Voting Rights Act,

The Civil Rights Act...
and here's this zombie film

where the dead
are coming back to life

and a black man is in charge.

I don't want anyone's life
on my hands.

- Is there anything I can do?
- I don't wanna hear any more

from you, mister.

If you stay up here,
you take orders from me.

I will contend that
that might have been

as frightening to some viewers
as the child eating her mother

in the basement.
[laughing]

[sinister music]

What we get is potentially
something hopeful, you know,

with the African-American
protagonist...

like maybe some new direction
socially...

but instead it just turns
into vigilante justice

represented by
a white lynch mob.

You can imagine the... the shock

that audiences must have felt
to... to be coaxed

into identifying
with a black man

only to have him shot
and then pitchforked

onto a pile of burning bodies
at the end.

That's a slap.

That's a direct slap
to any audience,

right wing or left wing.

"The Night
of the Living Dead"

does not end on any kind
of triumph.

Your hero is shot by police.

It's the most upsetting ending
in cinema.

And then that has continued

through horror cinema
of actually...

It doesn't always have
a happy ending.

♪♪

I think that's the joy
of horror cinema,

is that it can, like,
affect you in lots

- of different ways.
- If George Romero

had only made
"Night of the Living Dead,"

- he would still be a legend...
- [growling]

But he didn't stop.

"Night of the Living Dead"
and its sequels

changed the course
of film history.

and inspired the best

the horror genre has to offer.

- [groaning]
- He was such a big influence

on "Shaun of the Dead."

We liked this idea
of our film taking place

within George Romero's
universe.

[yelling]

- [grunts]
- "Shaun of the Dead"

was so well done
that it opened the floodgates

to, like, everybody to try
and make a zombie movie.

[dramatic music]

Today, zombie movies

and TV shows are everywhere.

but not so long ago,

they had virtually
disappeared.

Edgar Wright's
"Shaun of the Dead"

helped bring them back
bigger than ever.

[sinister music]

[zombies moaning]

When we thought up the idea
for "Shaun of the Dead,"

one of the inspirations for it
is because there hadn't been

a zombie film
for, like, 15 years.

♪♪

We always had this theory
that, like, uh,

John Landis' video
for "Thriller"

sort of killed off zombies
for the second half

of the '80s and early '90s.

[menacing laughter]

So I think what happened was,

all of a sudden
the zombie genre...

which traditionally had
probably sort of died out...

- Yeah.
- A little bit...

and then all of a sudden
you have all these

zombie video games
and they're like, "[bleep],

man, people love
shooting zombies."

It was around, like,
the late 1990s

when "Resident Evil" came out...
the game.

[gunfire]

- [zombie groans]
- So people started

to take an interest
in the genre again.

[foreboding music]

Every now and then,
we see a movie

that is supposedly horror...

but yet uses
social commentary brilliantly,

and the best example
is "Shaun of the Dead."

[cheerful music]

You want to know
where Britain was

at that time, you look at
"Shaun of the Dead."

[groaning]

In the '90s and the dawn
of the new century,

we were in a new phase
in Britain...

and a whole new generation
of Britons were asking:

"What's next?"

And they were a little lost.

[gunfire]

Hey, man, listen, um...
oh, top left.

- Uh-huh.
- I was gonna say...

- reload.
- I'm on it.

And it was brilliant.

What I love about
"Shaun of the Dead"

is they're not making fun of...

zombie movies,

they're making
a funny zombie movie.

I'm not gonna say,
"If you love her, let her go,"

and I'm not gonna bombard you
with clichés.

But what I will say is this...

[chuffs, sniffles]

It's not the end of the world.

[banging on glass]

[sinister music]

And they play on
all the tropes...

Sorry, we're closed.

[moaning]

I'd been playing
"Resident Evil 3,"

like, all night.
[laughs]

My girlfriend at the time
had gone away...

[zombie groans]

And I promised her
I wouldn't play video games

all weekend,
and I did exactly that.

I remember, vividly,

playing it until
the sun came up.

[dramatic flair]

[snores, grunts]

[coughs]

And then walking
across the street

to the news agent
to get some milk

to make some tea...

and I walked across the street,
and it was completely empty

on a Sunday morning.

And the shop was
the only thing that was open,

and in that moment,
I had a thought of thinking,

"What would it be like if
if zombies were here right now,

and what would I do?"

Because we don't really
have guns in the UK,

- How would I defend myself?
- [coughing]

It's just
that little thought

really sort of started
to inspire the sequence

where Shaun walks

to the store and back
hungover.

So the zombie apocalypse
has started,

but he's still unaware of it.

[growling]

But he does this walk...
it's a long,

steady cam shot...
and he goes into the shop

and he doesn't notice...

little things.

[music playing over speakers]

The bloody handprints
on the wall,

and he's walking away
from the refrigerator

and he just slips in blood.

[shoes squeaking]

It's so subtle, but it's...
[laughing]

It's such a great moment

because you know...
you as the audience

know what's coming...
his character doesn't

know it yet, and it's...
he... he's still out of it.

- Nelson.
- It's such a simple moment

but it's one of my favorite
moments in the movie.

It's wonderful,
the way they show

the collapse of society.

[phone ringing]

Zombies become a symbol
of anarchy,

and the collapse
of the system,

and all that protects us.

[indistinct]

- [zombies groaning]
- Top left!

[lively music]

- Ah!
- Reload.

I'm on it.

We wanted to stay true
to the spirit

of "Night of the Living Dead"
and "Dawn of the Dead."

[eerie music]

The film is like a valentine
to George Romero

because we love those movies.

We're, like, sharing our deep,

deep love for the subject.

Right down to its title,
"Shaun of the Dead"

is a tribute to what
any horror fan will tell you

is the greatest zombie film
of all time.

There's no greater
zombie movie

than "Dawn of the Dead."

I think "Dawn of the Dead"
is a real masterpiece.

It's that rare kind
of, like, nightmare world

which you actually wouldn't...
I mean, maybe this is just me,

but you wouldn't mind
being in it.

[laughing]

[zombies growling]

- No! No!
- George Romero's

"Night of the Living Dead"
created the modern zombie.

That was a hard act to follow,

but the director topped it
with his sequel,

"Dawn of the Dead."

[zombies growling]

[sinister music]

"Dawn of the Dead"
was a potent mixture

of horror, satire,

and outrageous
special effects.

[screaming]

[zombies growling]

It's, uh, basically
a continuation of the...

of "Night of the Living Dead,"
where zombies are

taking over the world.

[zombies growling]

This was the first depiction

of a full-scale
zombie apocalypse,

a nightmare vision
of social collapse

that became the template
for virtually

every end-of-the-world story
we see today.

Once again, Romero used horror

to comment on American values.

He is masterfully executing

all of those horror elements

in a way that brings it

right to a social justice
scenario...

Martinez!

You've been watching!

You know we've got
this building surrounded!

Particularly that opening
when in the ghettos,

all of the poor
are keeping their loved ones

hidden away from the rest
of the world,

because they know that
they will kill them.

People in this project
are your responsibility.

In the first 20 minutes,
there's a SWAT team

- raiding a house...
- Yeah.

And one
of the police officers

is unbelievably racist.

Yeah, come on, Martinez.
Show your greasy little

Puerto Rican ass
so I can blow it right off.

And I was like,

"Why is this guy concerned
with racism?"

Like, there's zombies
in the building.

- [laughing]
- It was unbelievable.

I was like,
"Aren't there bigger problems?"

Let's go, let's go!

[all shouting]

That blew my mind as a kid

because I realized
I was watching

a political story

about the race

and class system in America.

[bell ringing]

After showing
society crumbling,

the film shifts focus
to a small group of survivors

who take refuge
in a suburban shopping mall.

I think the great thing
about zombies

is they are like
a catch-all metaphor

of the world's ills,
and I think George Romero

doesn't really get
enough credit as a satirist

as well as a horror film maker.

Come on!
[shouting]

"Dawn of the Dead"
being the most

kind of savage statement
about the state of consumerism

in the late '70s.

[zombie growling]

The idea of
the mindless hordes

flock to the big
fancy shopping mall...

[cheerful music]

That was very pointed
and very funny.

What are they doing?
Why do they come here?

Some kind of instinct.

Memory of what
they used to do.

This was an important place
in their lives.

You can't watch that movie
and not become aware

of the fact
that this is a story about

what humans really are:

grasping, vampiric creatures

that kind of return endlessly
to their old habits

because it's
what they're taught.

I think "Dawn of the Dead"

should be sold in a box set
with "Easy Rider."

It should be called
"The Baby Boomers:

The Beginning and the End."

Romero has managed
to distill...

[camera shutter snapping]

The worst of every generation
into all of his movies.

You see the baby boomers

losing their souls.

What have we done
to ourselves?

Because what Romero did

was channel his outrage

at his generation's
ultimate surrender

of all their ideals

- and he put it in a movie.
- So, I mean,

if you were gonna go out and do
a talky little, uh, drama

to try to criticize
the consumer society

that we have here,
you couldn't make

- $30 million, you know?
- That's for sure.

So, terrific.
You get a couple of jabs in

while you're having fun
with the rollercoaster ride

which really is the surface.

[indistinct shouting]

Romero was a man
with a message,

but his gleeful embrace
of gore

made him a horror favorite.

"Dawn of the Dead,"
I had never seen that level

of a body count in a movie.

[gunshots]

You're, like, watching like,
"Who made this?"

- Yeah.
- Like, a maniac?

[dramatic music]

But normally, one movie,
there'd be one kill

that was amazing,
and it was like

every 30 seconds,
each kill was different.

[propeller whirring]

- That helicopter blade...
- Yeah.

- Pulling it off the head...
- The guy with

- the giant forehead.
- Which... which if you were...

- Exactly.
- By the way, when you're a kid

you never see that coming.

You see he staggers out
and his head...

[all chattering]

You never put
two and two together.

Now you look at it and go,
"Oh, of course, he's gonna

get his head cut off."

Really accomplished
horror directors knew

having Tom Savini doing
the make-up special effects

that it was gonna
elevate that film.

and give them a wider audience
than they ever anticipated.

Well, it was Halloween
every day.

We did that for three months
in a shopping mall.

[growling]

80% of the effects in that
were stuff that

we came up with.

We'd go to George and say,
"Hey, how about if we drive

a screwdriver through...
through the zombies, here."

And he'd go, "Okay."

So then two hours later
we're making

retractable screwdrivers
and, you know,

making it bleed inside
a zombie's ear.

[dramatic music]

But the scene
that makes you like, wonder,

"Oh, wow...

can I even handle this?"

Is when the zombie
in the project...

- when, uh, his wife...
- [shouting]

He's still alive,
comes to her and...

and embraces him.

"My baby, my baby."

And then she... he just bites...

just a chunk out
of her shoulder.

- Carlito...
- [growling]

[shrieking]

It just looks real.

It just... it just...

you buy it.

- [screaming]
- If humans had

shark-like mouths,
that's probably the effect

of what would happen

if a sharky human bit you.

[growling]

It's just an effect
we had never seen before,

and it draws a line
in the sand.

"Am I ready
for the rest of this?"

[sinister music]

George Romero's vision
was so influential

that for decades,
most screen zombies

were slow-moving ghouls.

But in 2002,

Danny Boyle's
"28 Days Later"

gave us a zombie

for the fast-moving
21st century

and set off a controversy

that rages to this day.

- I'm a slow zombie guy.
- I like fast zombies.

I'm a card-carrying
slow zombie fan.

[zombies screeching, growling]

[dark music]

Imagine waking up in a world
ravaged by a disease

that turns ordinary people

into mindless predators
driven to kill.

♪♪

This is the premise
of "28 Days Later,"

director Danny Boyle's
groundbreaking reinvention

of the zombie film.

[zombie screaming]

- [hissing]
- [yells]

Fight! Fight!

"28 Days Later"

is a perfect horror movie

because it's based
on a premise

you can completely believe.

- [growling]
- I don't know what it's like

- to be bitten by a vampire.
- [roaring]

I don't know what it's like
to be threatened

- by a werewolf.
- [indistinct]

[electronic interference]

But I can imagine
what it's like...

to have a plague spread
like wildfire

because it's just too close

to the headlines
of today's news.

[growling]

- [hissing]
- It could happen.

[dramatic music]

"28 Days Later" came out

a year after 9/11,
and it includes

these really haunting scenes

of a deserted London...

♪♪

Missing persons flyers
pasted to bulletin boards

like we saw post 9/11...

♪♪

It also was able to, uh,

capitalize on a lot of the...
the anxieties

and fears of the time.

♪♪

SARS and anthrax

and Mad Cow's Disease,
bird flues...

- [hissing]
- Father...

- [growling]
- Also, Danny Boyle

was commenting on, uh,

the rage that he saw
in society.

Road rage,
people fighting on line

in the supermarkets...

[grunts]

He envisioned a zombie story
that took advantage

of this psychological virus

that could be unleashed
and have, like,

a zombie effect on people.

[tense music]

There was one big difference

between George Romero's'
zombies and the infected

in "28 Days Later":

these zombies were fast.

People talked about sort of
the next quantum leap

in zombie movies...

As "28 Days Later"
'cause it had running zombies.

Even though there were
running infected

in Umberto Lenzi's
"Nightmare City" from 1980.

[laughing]

[indistinct shouting]

I'm a slow zombie guy.

- [shouting]
- Not that I don't like

- a good fast zombie movie.
- Somebody!

Uh, I loved "28 Days Later."

Yes, I know.

They're not technically dead.

They are rage virus.

- I get that.
- [hissing]

[zombies growling]

If I can make a criticism
of running zombies, it's this:

It's that running zombies
generally...

there's kind of like
a fitness level.

If you look at the zombies
in "28 Days Later,"

they're nearly always, like,
sort of fit.

You know, like they're in
like a sneakers commercial.

[laughing]
[zombies shouting]

When you increase the speed,
the people that lose out

are the old zombies,
and the overweight zombies,

and the little kid zombies,
and I would rather have

a more inclusive range
of zombies.

[eerie music]

Zombies that are slow are
infinitely more terrifying.

It's the difference between
getting shot

and getting cancer.
[crowd shouting]

You get killed by, say,
a fast zombie

in the "World War Z" movie
or "28 Days Later,"

you're dead
before you know it.

[zombies growling]
Happens too fast.

♪♪

But the slow zombie...

the zombie that gives you
time to think...

allows you to visualize
your own death...

[zombies growling]

And that is one
of the darker elements

of the human mind.

- Fast or slow...
- [growling]

Zombies are usually created

by accidental radiation leaks
or rogue viruses.

[growling, babbling]

But there is another kind
of zombie:

The deliberately
reanimated corpse,

like Frankenstein's monster.

- Alive!
- Created by Mary Shelley

in 1818,
Frankenstein's monster

is the most famous member
of the walking dead.

Frankenstein's monster

is a zombie for sure.

In the novel, he's just a...

a zombie that can talk
way too much.

As a kid,
I really felt connected

to Frankenstein's monster,
not so much

to Frankenstein himself.

I think that goes for a lot

of those
original horror classics.

Those characters
are sort of stand-ins

for people that are
on the fringe of society

or castaways... cast outs.

[crowd shouting]

Boris Karloff's
Frankenstein

is still
the definitive version

of this monster.

Its direct descendant

is "H.P. Lovecraft's
Re-Animator."

With "Re-Animator,"

director Stuart Gordon
reimagined the zombie film

as a wildly transgressive
horror comedy.

[dark music]

I remember I went to a...
like a... a bunch of kids

were hanging out at a house
like have... having a party

and they watched
"Breakfast Club,"

and I was never... I had never
been so bored in a movie.

I was just, like, waiting
for something to happen.

- Somebody gets the hot potato.
- Something.

And I was like, "I have
a much better movie."

- And I put on "Re-Animator..."
- [laughing]

And the whole party
cleared out.

- [wailing]
- [screaming]

[both screaming]

Well, the film
is about medical students

who find a way to bring
the dead back to life.

Particularly,
there's this one genius,

Herbert West...
he's developed a serum which,

when it's injected
into a dead body, revives it.

[screaming]

But the dead
are never very grateful.

- [growling]
- [choking]

What was great about
Stuart Gordon's take on it...

he put a really interesting
sense of humor

in the whole thing.

- [growls]
- 'Cause you can look

- at "Re-Animator" as a comedy.
- You'll never get credit

for my discovery.

Who's going to believe
a talking head?

Get a job in a sideshow.

"Re-Animator"
was like nothing

I had seen before...
like nothing anyone

had seen before...
and the audacity of it

is what makes it
so powerful.

[dark music]

♪♪

Boy, that's a sick picture.

Really transgressive.

Got a lot of crawling hands
and heads rolling around

- like bowling balls.
- [growling]

You should not be
censoring yourself.

[drill whirring]

You know, they'll be doing
everything they can

to censor you.

You should not give them
an inch.

[drill whirring]

♪♪

"Re-Animator's" fun.
I don't know what it's about,

like, that... I don't know
that it's about

any big ideas whatsoever,

except that it would be fun
to keep heads alive

- in a basket.
- It's about conquering death.

- That's really what it's about.
- [snarling]

[screaming]

- [grunts]
- My father passed away

when I was 14 years old,

and I think that
that was the hook for me.

People always say,
"If you could

bring anybody back's life,
who would it be?"

In my case, it's a...
it's a no-brainer:

It would be my father.

- [screams]
- [wails]

When you look at
most horror movies, I think,

they're about
an impossible dream.

In 1985, "Re-Animator"

and Dan O'Bannon's
"Return of the Living Dead"

explored the comic frontiers
of the zombie genre.

♪♪

Brains!

That same year,
the king of the zombies...

George Romero... was crafting
a much darker film,

what he hoped would be
the zombie film

to end all zombie films:
"Day of the Dead."

"Day of the Dead"
was intended

to be George Romero's
$10 million opus.

[dramatic music]

- No...
- George Romero's

first two zombie films

invented a new kind
of monster...

- [shrieking]
- And a new metaphor

for life in America.

One, two, three, go.

[gunshots]

By 1985, he was making

what he hoped would be
his ultimate statement,

a zombie film that combined

incredibly realistic
special effects

with a powerful message.

- [screaming]
- [wailing]

[zombies growling]

The message
of the Reagan era was...

no more war on poverty,
no more war on crime,

no more war
on racial segregation.

Uh, screw it.

[zombies shouting]

We've lost.
There's more of them

than there are of us,
so you need to retreat

into your protective enclaves
and husband your resources.

And that's exactly
what our characters do.

- You must listen!
- Listen to this.

[dramatic music]

In "Day of the Dead," we see
the military rule,

- and that's even scarier.
- I'm running

this monkey farm now,
Frankenstein,

and I want to know
what the [bleep]

you're doing with my time!

A bunch of people
who are trying to do good

and find a cure
are being ruled

by this military presence
that is very aggressive

and will do anything it takes
to preserve itself,

so that's terrifying as well.

[electrical zapping]

The zombies are
in some ways, you know...

the ones who are being
experimented upon...

kind of more sympathetic
than many of the humans.

[zombies groaning]

Rhodes!

In "Dawn of the Dead,"
we're losing.

In "Day of the Dead,"
we've lost.

Most good directors
that really have a grasp

on the medium
can do horror.

- It's not as delicate as humor.
- Mm.

It's not as delicate.

Uh, there are some tricks
of the trade

that you can apply.

Like his other zombie films,

"Day of the Dead" was shot
in Romero's hometown

of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,

far outside
of the Hollywood system.

But that's what made...

George Romero...

such a terrific filmmaker,

was that he was a legit,
regional filmmaker,

and what made it special

was the slightly
homemade quality

to the movies.

Everywhere that he would go
in Pittsburgh,

you knew somebody
that was a zombie.

You knew somebody
that was involved

with George Romero's movies,

and that's how I got
into the business.

Because when "Day of the Dead"
came along,

I had befriended George

because of some mutual
family friends, and he's like,

"Hey, I'm doing a sequel
to 'Dawn of the Dead.'

Do you want a job?"
I'm like...

"I was gonna be a doctor,
but this sounds way better."

[suspenseful music]

And this is where
George Romero

and Tom Savini...
arguably their creative peaks

at the same time,
working together.

Special effects artists
like Rick Baker

and Tom Savini were heralded

as, like, kings and icons
of the horror film

because they were creating
special effects

that were out of this world.

Like something
we'd never seen before.

Vietnam was a lesson
in anatomy for me.

I was a combat photographer.

I saw horrible stuff.

In fact, I'm the only
make-up artist, I think,

- that has seen the real stuff.
- [screaming]

- [shrieking]
- In a movie,

when someone dies
they close their mouth

and they wanna look pretty
for the camera...

[funereal music]

And that just takes me
right out of it,

because that actor doesn't
know how to portray death,

or the director doesn't know
to tell them...

the mouth always goes slack.

[dark music]

My masterpiece
is "Day of the Dead."

♪♪

[moaning]

There a lot of cool stuff
in, uh... in "Day of the Dead."

♪♪

We cut the guy's arm off,
you know.

I dug a hole under the guy

so his real arm goes
into the hole.

♪♪

And tearing Taso's head off...

[screaming]

And it's actually
Greg Nicotero's fingers

in the eyeballs
of the fake head,

and we're running cables down

to make the head work,
you know,

so it was effects guys

that were the featured zombies
tearing the head off.

My head comes back

as a zombie head
in "Day of the Dead."

You gotta think about the way
that Tom designed things,

because he approached
everything

like it was a magic trick.

You know, the idea
that you're... you're taking

a special effect
and you're deconstructing it

to the point where it's gotta
be a magic trick that's gonna

- fool the audience.
- The disembowelments

in "Day of the Dead"
are unmatched.

- [zombies groaning]
- [gasping]

Without a doubt,
and that's why you get into...

people who... who watch movies
and get... get offended

by the... the gore,
and you're like,

"Well, you know
it's corn syrup..."

- It's a real presentation.
- Red powered...

red powdered food coloring.

Miller!

- Miller!
- [screaming]

The special makeup effects
pioneered by Tom Savini

and Greg Nicotero
on "Day of the Dead"...

- [growling]
- Led directly

to the amazing work
we see today

on "The Walking Dead."

The kind of household
I grew up in was, you know,

"Oh, you can't go see
'Day of the Dead.'

That's too... that's too much."

But now you see, uh,

the level of gore that we saw
in George Romero's, uh,

"Day of the Dead"
on "Walking Dead" every week,

which is insane to me.

[sinister music]

[engine revving]

[tense music]

[zombies growling]

♪♪

Go to the left!

♪♪

In the wake
of a zombie apocalypse,

a small band of survivors

look for a safe place to live.

The biggest threat they face
aren't zombies,

but other people.

This is the premise
of "The Walking Dead,"

the TV series that brought
realistic horror

to the small screen.

[door creaking]

[snarling]

People used to come to me
and say, "Can you make us

a violent TV series?"

And I'd say, "Well,
what makes horror work is you...

"is you have the threat
of killing your characters,

"and what TV... what makes TV
work is you want to see

- those characters every week..."
- Right.

So you can't have them
almost die, and I could never

- do the violence I wanted to do.
- Yeah, yeah.

- Cut to...
- Here we are.

Greg Nicotero
and "The Walking Dead."

[dramatic music]

♪♪

"The Walking Dead" for sure

is the next
cultural milestone

really since "Dawn of the Dead"
and "Night of the Living Dead."

And, you know,
that's really been you.

[hooves clattering]

"Walking Dead"
is basically a Western with...

with the zombie, uh,
apocalypse

set as the backdrop.

If "The Walking Dead"
had to be told

in a 2½ hour time slot,
you'd never be able to do it.

You wouldn't care
about the characters.

You wouldn't really know
who Daryl is...

- Yeah.
- Who... who Rick is.

I'm sorry
this happened to you.

[growling]

The plight of the survivors
is a dark reflection

of life in America today.

The mortgage crisis of 2008
resulted in more than

3 million people
losing their homes.

Problems with
the housing market...

Since then,
rising housing prices

in the major cities
have forced more people

- to live on the street.
- Global meltdown.

There's a sense
that civilization is fragile.

That any day now,

we could be like Rick,
Daryl, and Carol,

always moving,

surrounded by threats
on every side.

[zombies snarling]

That's what I always loved...
when "Walking Dead" came out,

I would say to people, like,
"If the zombie apocalypse

"were real,
this is the closest thing

"that I've seen to what
that would probably feel like

and be like."

When I first read
that script, I didn't...

you know, I didn't read it
as a zombie thing.

I read it as this guy
lost his family,

and he woke up, and he didn't
know where he was.

And he was gonna do anything

to go find his family,
and that's...

that stuck out on the page
way more than a zombie

here and there, you know?

And everybody
played it like that.

[somber music]

You have to play everything
as real as possible.

- [snarling]
- [indistinct]

There's so many examples
on that show where, like...

You're like, "Oh, my God,
is this gonna work?"

- And the actors...
- No, no, no!

Just pulled it out
and made it perfect.

[screaming]
No!

- [grunts]
- She was playing with me!

- She wanted a friend!
- She wanted to kill you!

I was gonna lead her away!

- You could have died.
- It's the same thing!

You killed her!
You killed her!

There's a reason
there wasn't really

a zombie TV show before.

[dark music]

- Ugh...
- Effects need

to be really good
on a television show

so that people don't fall out
of the reality

that you're trying to sell.

The best zombies, I think,
are what Greg is doing

in "The Walking Dead."
The best zombies today.

Uh, and there's a lot
of CGI there, you know,

and necessary,
because the zombies

have been around for so long,

now they're decaying
and rotting, you know?

- [gagging]
- Just a little more.

- [gurgling]
- There's that one famous...

- the "well walker..."
- Stop!

- Come on!
- Where he's just

so waterlogged and bloated

that he just sort of, like,
comes apart.

- [all grunting]
- [gurgling]

♪♪

That's one
of the beautiful things

that Greg does, is his team...

you can see the lost person

behind the monster, you know?

That's... that's when
they become scary.

I never get sick of it,
honestly.

They keep... they keep
reinventing the wheel

- with the zombies, it's nuts.
- [growling]

♪♪

Obviously the... the irony is,
who are the walking dead?

Is it the actual zombies
or is the people?

- Right, right.
- Uh, what are they willing

to do to each other to survive?

- And that's...
- Yeah, at what point

- do you lose your humanity?
- Right.

"Walking Dead" being on
for so long surprises me,

'cause y'all should be dead
by now, man.

[snarling]

You know,
because it doesn't make sense.

- To me.
- [snarling]

[gasping, whimpering]

Doesn't it feel like zombies
are cresting now, too?

Yeah, right now it does
seem like we're in the middle

of a zombie apocalypse.

[procession chanting]

Yeah.

The dumbing down of society.

We're all zombies.

[zombies snarling]

Zombies are representative

of... of Alzheimer's...

a just terrifying disease.

And zombies
are representatives of cancer.

To me, what's happened
with the zombie

is now they're representatives
of anarchy

and the collapse
of government.

The collapse of order.

[menacing music]

Zombies are really sort of
a wonderful catch-all metaphor

because they can mean
absolutely anything.

- [screaming]
- Zombies in 1968

are the breakdown
of American society.

[zombies groaning]

In 2017
with "The Walking Dead..."

uh, who knows
what it represents.

[zombies growling]

One take-away could be
that everything's hopeless...

[distant shouting]

[exclaims]

Another take-away could be
that humans

will always persevere
even when...

it seems like there's
no reason to

or that it's impossible to.

[gunfire]

[zombies snarling]

Yeah, zombies will never die.

No pun intended.
[laughing]

- [babbling]
- [screaming]

It's so interesting,
the resurgence of zombies,

and the fact that they kind of
won't ever go away.

[zombies snarling]

We'll always be
telling stories.

I think we'll...
we're never gonna lose

our fascination with them.

Half a century ago,

George Romero created
the modern zombie...

America's great contribution
to monster horror.

[sinister music]

Now, zombie movies are
an international phenomenon.

♪♪

The zombie plague
has infected the world.

- [screams]
- As relentless

and unstoppable

as the flesh-eating undead.

♪♪

We wake them
and we got it all!