George A. Romero Special

 Hello there Rotters and Walkers!

A big welcome to BRAIN BITES! I am your host Mash and I have a question for you all... Do you have a few moments to talk about our Lord and Saviour George A. Romero? 

Great... well you will be pleased to know that this month is something I am truly excited about yet also contains a sombre undertone as this July marks 4 years of the passing of the Godfather of The Dead George A. Romero. To celebrate his greatness and remember him throughout this month I will be bringing you 3 reviews covering the final 3 of his DEAD franchise. We all have a huge love and fondness for the first 3 and they are the best by far but this blog only covers movies from the year 2000 and over so sadly they do not qualify a review here. I will however be bringing you reviews of LAND OF THE DEAD (2005), DIARY OF THE DEAD (2007) and SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD (2009) as they all fit the criteria and I feel are sadly a little overlooked and to some, rather unloved. I hope you will join us in celebrating these last 3 in the franchise as I have a massive respect and huge fondness for these movies, one slightly more than the others but I do enjoy them all for various different reasons. I have especially enjoyed rewatching these movies for the reviews as I finally got to break out my new 2 disc Blu Ray edition of LAND OF THE DEAD released by Fabulous Films in Feb of this year. I hope all who bought it loved it as much as me especially the added bonus of the reversible cover with the talented Graham Humphreys illustration. The extras disc contained some real treats and I will include a brief review of these along with the movie. I do hope you enjoy.

As we are celebrating Romero this month, now would be a good time to mention the GEORGE A ROMERO FOUNDATION created by a dedicated team of people headed up by his wife Suzanne Desrocher-Romero and daughter Tina Romero. This foundation is dedicated to honouring Romeros life, work and influence on the film industry. Based in his hometown of Pittsburgh they are committed to creating a dedicated Horror Studies Center within Pittsburgh University and creating filmmaking scholarships to help the next generation of independent filmmakers. As well as that they have recently restored a lost fim of George's made back in 1973 called THE AMUSEMENT PARK which is now available to watch on SHUDDER and is a grim and evocative take on the way elderly people are treated within society and well worth a watch. It is a wonderful tribute to his works and philosophy so please check it out at georgearomerofoundation.org for a complete run down of all that they are doing and maybe make a donation if you can or sign up to their patreon page. If not please share all you can about it on social media. Sharing is caring and it is all much appreciated.

In other news, I managed to binge season 2 of BLACK SUMMER in a weekend. I loved the fact that it stuck with it's much enjoyed format from season 1, being super fast paced and taking no prisoners when it comes to character deaths and predicaments. I felt it took a bit of a nose dive pace wise when it got to episodes 6 & 7 but it did pick back up for the finale nicely though. I will be covering the BLACK SUMMER series in its entirety at some point down the line.

I feel like that is all for now,  now that ARMY OF THE DEAD is out of the way we can move on with our undead lives safe in the knowledge that no other crazy 2 and a half hour epics are on the cards at least until the inevitable sequel appears. I don't know about you but I don't have grey matter to fathom how that will pan out and to be honest hope I have fully decomposed before it is upon us. 

Be sure to check back over the course of this month for the Romero reviews mentioned. I am feeling a certain hankering for brains so I'm off for a quick snack. Huge thanks to all that have checked out BRAIN BITES so far and I will no doubt eat you later.

Until next time....