It’s safe to say that George A. Romero is to Zombies what Dana White is to MMA. Sure he wasn’t the first person to do it but he’s the one that made it famous.
That being said, one could be left scratching their heads when trying to place together the whole big picture of linking every Romero Zombie film together. And I’m not just talking about the original trilogy but the newer films as well. I’ll admit I have not re-watched all these movies before writing this so please look over any details being fuzzy. However I ask that you now join with me as I try to make sense of the whole “dead” world from the “Night” they first came back to the “Land” they soon over took..And maybe we’ll touch on the “Diary” as well.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
No real year is given during the film Night of the Living Dead but for all intents and purposes we’ll just say it takes place in 1968. Now here the dead rise for the first time with no real reason given, however it is hinted (and a scientist is certain that it is) of being a result of radiation emanating from a space probe that exploded in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Going by what we see the events we see are taking place in a small town but the radio speaks of a mass outbreak happening in other places. Panic is everywhere, people are being eaten by the dead, needless to say it’s panic time folks!
One final report in the movie tells us that a gunshot or heavy blow to the head will stop the ghouls and that posses of armed men are patrolling the countryside to restore order…And by the time the movie ends it does look like order has been restored..or so we thought.
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Dawn of the dead follows the rules set up and the scenario of Night of the Living Dead, however things are on a much more epic scale with the dead now everywhere and getting worse as the movie starts. This movie clearly takes place in the 70′s so are we to believe now that the events of the original was probably taking place in the same year or perhaps a year before? Did the clean up fail??..Clearly something as went wrong!
The film opens in the WGON television studio in Philadelphia, where confusion reigns and rightfully so. If this is a real sequel to Night we know what has happened (be it we don’t know how) but what we haven’t figured out yet is just how things got from being under control to THIS??
Unlike Night of the Living Dead when the credits are rolling on Dawn we don’t get left with the impression that things are once again under control..things are far from it as the dead over take the mall and seem to have pretty much over taken the whole world…It’s not a very happy ending but it fitting.
Day of the Dead (1985)
Taking place some time after the events of Dawn of the Dead, things are once again in shambles. We aren’t really sure about the rest of the world because we are stuck with a small group of people, but one can assume there must not be much of the rest of the world left at this point..Or so we are lead to believe.
Perhaps we’d find out more about the state of the rest of the world if it wasn’t for the inner battle of the people we are stuck with in the movie? At times they do look for people who are still alive but they only end up with more Zombies coming after them.
Needless to say once things wrap up, the feeling is bleak.
Land of the Dead (2005)
So now WE (the viewer) are in the yer 2005, but are these folks in that same year?? What we do know is, it seems everyone who was still alive made their way to Pittsburgh where a feudal-like government has taken hold and when they aren’t taking trips to cities to look for stuff they are busy trying their best to keep the dead out!..That is the dead they aren’t using for games and sport in the city.
Now is it just me or does it seem like there’s another story in between all of this that should have been told?? If the city of Pittsburgh is the safe haven for the living shouldn’t the people from Day have known this?? Because things weren’t so safe there in Dawn now were they?? Have we missed some great war between the living and the dead that took place between man and zombie in the 90′s that cleared the city of Pittsburgh?? This as far as I recall was never brought up or talked about…Perhaps a prequel to this would be nice??
Diary of the Dead (2008)
By the time Diary came out it looks as if hope of any answers to Land won’t be answered as George seems to have hit the re-set button on his own franchise! See this movie isn’t taking place in the 60′s or even the 70′s. It’s a modern day retelling of the original in a way but it now takes place in the present.
The events of the Diary are clearly in modern day with the use of the internet and such things that probably never happened in the original series due to the fact Al Gore probably didn’t have time to make the net with Zombies all around during the original series’ time frame. So in a way we are to forget the original four films here and start new..right?
Either way it’s the same as before, the dead is back..we don’t know why, but a blow to the head can damn sure kill them again!
Survival of the Dead (2010)
The plot of the soon to come film goes like this…
A group of people escape to Plum Island, off the coast of Delaware – a place they think is safe, where they hope to survive the war between the livin
g and the dead, and try to find a cure to bring their undead relatives back into their natural state.
Since we haven’t seen this yet we don’t know yet if this ties in at all with Diary..So for this one we just have to wait and see, but let me just say trying to tie all of these together has given me a headache.
