Not of the Living Dead: The Non-Zombie Films of George A. Romero - Paperback

by Noah Simon Jampol (Author), Cain Miller (Author), Leah Richards (Author)

A killer monkey. Suburban witchcraft. Motorcycle jousting. A cockroach invasion. Despite this enticing list of other subjects, George A. Romero is best known for the genre-defining 1968 film Night of the Living Dead and subsequent zombie films. The non-zombie films in his decades-long career have gotten varied degrees of critical examination but they remain underexamined compared to the Dead flicks.

This book focuses on Romero's "other" work, highlighting lesser-known films such as There's Always Vanilla (1971) and Bruiser (2000), as well as more popular films such as Martin (1977) and The Crazies (1973). It examines how his body of work participates in social critique by delving into issues such as capitalism's pitfalls and excesses, domestic and racial power imbalances, and our patriarchal culture's expectations of masculinity, femininity, and sexuality.

Author Biography

Noah Simon Jampol is an assistant professor of English at Bronx Community College, City University of New York. He lives in New Jersey. Cain Miller is a PhD student in cinema and media studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. His research focuses on masculinity and the male body in horror cinema. Leah Richards is a professor of English at LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York. She has published articles on Bram Stoker's Dracula, Romero's Land of the Dead, and the penny dreadful on which Sweeney Todd is based. John R. Ziegler, associate professor of English at Bronx Community College, City University of New York, has published work on early modern literature, Shakespeare, and video games. He serves as co-editor of the journal Supernatural Studies.