Article by Anthony Cleveland

I’m not anywhere coming close to accepting that we lost one of the most important American horror directors of all time. I feel like I lost a mentor that I’ve never met. His D.I.Y. style to filmmaking helped launch my imagination when it came to writing film. It showed me that I could shoot a whole short film in my house or my bedroom and make it terrifying by adding that claustrophobia element that he does so well. Hands down, Romero helped shape and direct so much of my attitude toward film. He showed me at a young age that spatterfests can have meaning and that you can critique the hell out of your world through film. As a young pissed-off teenage movie fan, that completely changed my world.

Around that time I learned that Night of the Living was considered a “midnight movie.” I dug into some documentaries to find out more about these types of movies. From there, I discovered Alejandro Jodorowsky, David Lynch, John Waters, and tons more. It was a weird branching out, that I wouldn’t have done as fast (or as young) without Romero.