Raising the Dead: Savvy Doc Puts George A. Romero’s 1968 Horror Classic in Fresh Light

By Thom Ernst

Raising the Dead: Re-Examining Night of the Living Dead is not the first documentary on George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968). It’s not even the first documentary called Raising the Dead—a documentary short was made in 2012. But it is the first documentary to align so eerily with the current pandemic.

Since no one plans pandemics to make their film more relevant (conspiracy theories aside), filmmaker Ryan Mains had to rely on traditional methods to breathe life into this oft-told tale—like research, and hard work.

“The timing was perfect,” says Mains, “But, thankfully, we’re not zombies.”

Timely doc on George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead precedes the original on Hollywood Suite Saturday.

Evidence of Mains’ methods—a compilation of film clips, production stills, and interviews with critics, cinephiles, and cast members—lifts Raising the Dead above the standard talking-head documentary. Much of that has to do with the quality of “talking-head” he enlists which include a few surviving cast members and people like veteran film-critic Geoff Pevere.

Mains could have settled for any of the film’s tens of thousands of superfans but held out for the film experts, and historians who could address how Romero’s low-budget horror flick went from B-movie status into cinema history.

But for all the revelation on the film’s cultural impact, Raising the Dead works best when playing to the film’s most enduring legacy—that Night of the Living Dead is lots of fun. Fun, in that creepy, gruesome, entrail-eating manner that not everyone can agree on.

And yet, if the documentary falters, it is in its lack of a dissenting voice. Everyone present is onboard and loves the film. Often the most interesting voices that speak to a film’s legacy comes not from its champions, but its detractors. Such was the case when a yet-to-be celebrated film critic named Roger Ebert wrote about a sunny Saturday matinee screening of Night of the Living Dead.

The article, titled, “Just Another Horror Movie – Or Is It?” describes an unsuspecting audience—mostly children—going from delighted screams, to stunned silence, to tears. It’s an unforgettable read that hints at horrors so raw and vivid as to breach the rules of decency.

Ebert would later qualify his comments by expressing an appreciation for the movie, and its sequel, Dawn of the Dead (1978). But the gist of Ebert’s warning remained: The horror genre lost its innocence, and there is no turning back. Half a century later, and the legacy of Night of the Living Dead refuses to die, even when buried beneath an avalanche of remakes and reboots.

I speak to Mains over the phone. He, like many, works from home, balancing business and home life. He has just tucked his child in for an afternoon nap, and the thought occurs to me that for a young parent, waking a sleeping child can be the real-life equivalent of raising the dead.

My memories of being a young parent tempt me to reschedule to not interrupt the peace, but Mains is up for the conversation. He is confident and pleased at what he’s been able to create. Besides, we have more important things to talk about, like whether it’s better to be a zombie or to battle zombies. (Mains insists he’s a survivor and prefers to fight it out; I wouldn’t be able to take the stress).

Mains divvies up the film into episodic-like segments covering everything from politics to script, from casting an African American in the lead (Duane Jones) to featuring a child committing patricide.
One of the film’s most rewarding moments comes from Kyra Schon, who recalls her role as the eight-year-old Karen Cooper who turns into a murderous ghoul.

“For Kyra, who was the youngest on set and well protected from the gore and violence of the film, the Night of the Living Dead cast and crew was her family. And in the case of Karl Hardman, literally her family,” says Mains. Hardman, who died in 2007, was Schon’s real-life father, as well as appearing in the film as Karen Cooper’s over-bearing, ill-fated father.

The affect the film had on Kyra’s life is a remarkable story but it’s her warm connection with the late Duane Jones that allows for an unexpected moment of tenderness.

Another highlight addresses a scene featuring a naked zombie. It is a kind of a “hallelujah” moment in the documentary, particularly for anyone who recalls their initial reaction and has lived with the guilt ever since.

Of course, the observation made in the documentary articulates a sounder rationale for the nudity than to simply stir an involuntary response from adolescents, like the subtle way the image suggests the threat that even the recent dead are rising. That fact is evident from the morgue tag she wears; a detail I’ve somehow overlooked.

Raising the Dead appears on Hollywood Suite beginning May 29. It works as a natural companion to the original movie. There are two versions: a coloured version and a version in black and white. True film lovers will watch it in black and white.