Legendary horror filmmaker George A Romero's legacy was assured with his seminal 1968 film ‘Night of the Living Dead'. Shot in grainy black and white, and made on a shoestring budget in Pennsylvania with unknown or little-known actors, few could have predicted that the movie would achieve not just cult status, but acclaim as a culturally significant piece of American cinema. The film details the struggle of a handful of people thrown together by circumstances, desperately trying to survive the night. They take refuge in a farmhouse that comes under sustained zombie attack.
Romero's film spawned the zombie sub-genre of horror and paved the way for several ‘…of the Dead' sequels. This novelisation first appeared in print 1974, over fifty years ago. It is a significant part of the Romero zombie folklore, because it's written by John A Russo, Romero's screenwriter on the movie.
There are several introductions which are well worth the attention of fans of Romero's work. Russo provides one himself, which is republished from a 2010 edition. He sets out his influence on the movie, recalling how the opening sequence in the cemetery was based on his idea, and making the claim that some cliched lines of dialogue were a deliberate stylistic choice. You can also find George A Romero's introduction to the original 1974 edition. The director sets out how he came to cast the actors involved, and claims that the lead character of Ben wasn't written as a black man, and Duane Jones was cast purely on the strength of his audition. It's not insignificant that Ben is black, and Romero says it's perhaps “the first film to have a black man playing the lead role regardless of, rather than because of, his colour.” Ultimately the film, released against a backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, the same year that Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, can't help but make the ending more poignant than it otherwise might have been. Finally, Simon Pegg, whose love for Romero's film led to his acclaimed pastiche ‘Shaun of the Dead' also provides an introduction, new for this edition, from a contemporary point of view. His point about discovering Romero's films in his younger years will resonate with many readers. If you're a fan of Romero's works and this movie in particular, the three introductions alone are enough to recommend the book.
The striking cover design shows a scowling Kyra Schon in character as the child Karen Cooper, ill and suffering after sustaining a bite wound from a zombie at the start of the movie. The dust jacket wraps around the hardback covers, making ‘Night of the Living Dead' an attractive and well-designed book.
As for the prose, it lends credence to Russo's claim in his introduction that the opening sequence in the cemetery was his idea. Barbara visits her father's grave whilst her brother Johnny tries to scare her. There is immediately a sense of creeping unease and suspense. When the zombie attacks, Russo tells the story from Barbara's point of view, as she has no idea why this cadaverous man kills and then eats her brother, before pursuing her. The partial escape in the car maintains the suspense, and the reader is left, like Barbara, scared and unsure of what is happening and why. The focus is resolutely on Barbara's desperate attempt to escape to safety and survive. These sequences are the best in the novel and the sense of alienation and shock is what resonates so well with the reader.
Once Barbara reaches the farmhouse and is saved by Ben, she enters a catatonic state and becomes passive. This is where the novel starts to labour as it heads uphill. Russo is left reminding the reader that Barbara is still around, even though she has been sidelined. This leads to repetition and the need to establish Ben as the new main character whose story the reader must follow. The switching of protagonists is a more forgiving technique in film than literature. Much of the rest of the novel does what it needs to do. It retells the events of Romero's movie, translating a story of images into words. But the prose is often mechanical and perfunctory. There is, perhaps appropriately, little meat on the bone. It's all done and dusted in 180 pages, which makes it easily digestible over relatively few sittings.
This reader was left unsatisfied and wanting more. ‘Night of the Living Dead' is very much a novelisation rather than a literary genre novel. For fans of the movie, this may be enough. But for those who prefer a touch of craftsmanship, this book is likely to disappoint. As a fan of Romero's movies, I sought out and read his novelisation of ‘Dawn of the Dead', his 1978 masterpiece, and I must admit I found it weak and unengaging. Romero was a masterful visual storyteller, but that's where his genius lay, not in words on a page. I found Russo's novelisation a little better than Romero's for his later film, but still disappointing.
It is said that Russo's best novel is ‘Return of the Living Dead', which came out in 1978, the year in which Romero's magnum opus ‘Dawn of the Dead' was released. I haven't read it, so I can neither confirm nor deny, but that's where the folklore around the ‘…of the Dead' franchise branches in different directions. As a direct connection to the film ‘Night of the Living Dead', Russo's novelisation certainly deserves recognition as a cult artefact.
Some of the chapter cliffhangers help to maintain a good pace and sustain a sense of foreboding. But long, descriptive passages and lengthy quotations from television broadcasts disrupt the flow and take the reader out of the world of the story. It's unlikely to create converts. A reader new to Romero's world is unlikely to want to see the film on the back of reading the book. However, fans of the film may enjoy this retelling of it, with a few added gory moments thrown in that wouldn't have made it past the censors. In the final assessment, the novelisation of ‘Night of the Living Dead' is nice to have, and it's better-written than the novelisation of ‘Dawn of the Dead'. But a better novel that created more of a sense of character and psychological insight would resonate as a more rewarding reading experience. It is a decent stab but lacking bite. Something of a missed opportunity.
Publisher: Titan Books Publication date: 30th September 2025 Buy ‘Night of the Living Dead'
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