George A. Romero: Zombie Cinema as Political Critique

George A. Romero, born in New York on February 4, 1940, and died in Toronto on July 16, 2017, was a master of horror who used the zombie as a metaphor for contemporary society. While often remembered for his debut Night of the Living Dead (1968), his filmography—including Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985), Land of the Dead (2005), Diary of the Dead (2007), and Survival of the Dead (2009)—systematically explored hidden, dark, and repressed aspects of reality. Romero belonged to a generation of directors—John Carpenter, Wes Craven, David Cronenberg—who in the 1970s and 1980s turned horror into political commentary, rejecting cheap entertainment. His zombies evolved from anonymous hordes into carriers of a revolutionary life form, embodying the poor, the forgotten, and the oppressed. They reflect Western crises: the end of postwar prosperity in the late 1960s, the rise of neoliberalism and postmodernism (per Fredric Jameson), and the socio-economic crisis from the 2000s onward. By attributing thought, feelings, and civilization to zombies—an idea inspired by Richard Matheson's I Am Legend—Romero reversed the spectacular viewpoint. From Dawn onward, the boundaries between 'us' and 'them' blur, questioning who is truly alive and what constitutes community. His work continues to interrogate the meaning of the human.