George A. Romero never intended to become a master of horror, but Night of the Living Dead made him a legend of the genre.

Raising the Dead dives into the expansive, extraordinary body of work found in Romero's archive, going beyond his iconic zombie movies into a deep and varied collection of writings that never made it to the big screen. From the early 1960s until his death in 2017, Romero was a hugely prolific writer, producing scripts in every conceivable genre, from arty medieval allegories to wacky comedies to grand-scale science fiction epics. Though he had difficulty funding non-horror projects, he continued to write in whatever mode his imagination dictated, and he rarely abandoned his ideas. Themes, story ideas, and even characters were re-purposed for new scripts, evolving and transforming with each new iteration and, sometimes, finding a home in a horror film. But in order to accommodate ideas that began in such different contexts, Romero would have to change the horror genre itself: a zombie movie could become a savage satire of consumerism or an excoriating critique of militaristic or capitalist hierarchies. The horror genre became what Romero made of it.

Based on years of archival research, the book moves between unfilmed scripts and familiar classics, showing the remarkable scope and range of Romero's interests and the full extent of his genius. Raising the Dead is a testament to an extraordinarily productive and inventive artist who never let the restrictions of the film industry limit his imagination.

Adam Charles Hart is the author of Monstrous Forms: Moving Image Horror Across Media.

Acknowledgments
Notes on the Text
George A. Romero's Official Filmography
Selected Unfilmed Projects by George A. Romero

Introduction: Resurrections

Part 1: The Long Night

Chapter 1: A Life in Zombies
Chapter 2: Some People in Pittsburgh: Early Labors
Chapter 3: Just Another Horror Movie - Or Is It?: Night of the Living Dead

Part 2: Daybreak

Chapter 4: That Something Extra, An Added Dimension: Re-Shaping the Horror Genre
Chapter 5: The Failures of the Human Race: Politics After the Apocalypse
Chapter 6: Now and Future Time: Science Fiction Futures and Visions of Control

Part 3: Twilight

Chapter 7: The Camera Virus: The Destructive Power of the Cinema
Chapter 8: Sucking the Life Out of You: Corporations and Other Evil Creatures
Chapter 9: Oh, I Know I'm Different: The Psychology of Monsters

Epilogue: A Monstrous Legacy: Three Reckonings

Index