Remembering George A. Romero by The Ford Brothers
Steve Barton
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We wouldn’t be writing this if it wasn’t for one man, you wouldn’t be reading this if it wasn’t for one man, the horror genre wouldn’t have been changed forever without this man, and most definitely we, as brothers, would not have embarked upon an epic and extremely dangerous trek across Africa and India to create our Dead movies, had we not been so impacted and inspired by the talent and inspiration of one man: of course we can only be talking about the one and only, George A. Romero.
Sadly, it’s extremely hard to assess the “body” of a person’s work until they have departed this earth and then you can look back and see, with conclusion and clarity, the impact a person has left. And there is no doubt that Romero quite literally change the course of our lives – at least he did so quite dramatically when us Ford Brothers as teenagers (Howard 11 and Jon 13 at the time) sat down to watch a VHS video entitled Dawn Of The Dead, we did so above an old fish and chip shop in Brighton, England and we were absolutely unprepared for what came next.
I don’t think we noticed the name of George Romero at the time, nor did we realise that a few years previous we had already been impacted by the work of the same man when we had watched his insanely frenzied… The Crazies, as part of a horror double-bill on TV at less than 10 years of age. We had no idea that our future would hold, not only meeting the man himself, but the incredible honour of sharing a double-disk DVD with his and our movies to come. But back there on that afternoon in the chip shop we damn well noticed this terrifying world that Romero had created and it was like nothing we had ever seen before!
It was still daylight when we left to go home, but we were so terrified that we ran in the middle of the road all the way back – every person in the streets around us were suddenly a potential threat. We lived that moment as if we were in Romero’s world. No longer did horror rely on the shadows or the one unseen killer. Romero had brought the horror into broad daylight and it was everywhere! Would we open the door to our own parents who would lunge out on us hungrily? This was scary but at the same time, it was exhilarating! No other film maker had managed to make us feel that way.
Having watched Night Of The Living Dead next, then Day of The Dead at theatres here, we were by now huge fans of his work and we were already making our own short movies on Super 8mm, trying to hone our own skills – our aim at the time, to make our own zombie movie inspired by Romero’s work.
But soon things took a different turn for us and despite us trying to raise some investment to make a “Dead” movie, the market had changed – they were now most definitely out of vogue. We literally got laughed at during film conventions and markets and industry meetings when we raised our idea of making a zombie movie. It was out of the question that anyone would invest in such a film. The “film business” was not interested.
By now we were making numerous TV commercials which were essential for our own survival (something else we have in common with Romero himself, who had been doing the same thing prior even to Night) and it was Jon who continued on about this zombie movie we should have done. He even still had the notes he made about the film, coincidentally, on an old 1978 diary. That is, until he mentioned it again while we were in Africa shooting a commercial that neither of us were inspired about. Suddenly the fire lit within us – that same feeling of fear and excitement as we ran home that post Dawn afternoon! What if we took Romero’s rules to Africa… No one had ever done this before! No doors to lock, nowhere to run to, no where to hide and the environment itself was hard to survive. The threat could go through the roof!
We went on this journey into a dangerous unknown to make the film we really wanted to see, but always with respect to what Romero had created… His rules. His depth. His social commentary. Romero set the bench mark straight at the top. With his truly incredible additions to the genre, we felt we had to give everything we had to make this good! Frustratingly the shoot itself had so many unbelievable challenges we only got half of what we wanted, but it was still the type of film we would have wanted to see, and many fans as it turned out felt the same, which we were truly grateful for.
None of this would have happened without him. We met Romero in Cannes, people say don’t meet your heroes… But he turned out to be such a lovely and generous man. We had messages from him during the theatrical release of The Dead, also support and encouragement from special effects legend Greg Nicotero, a great guy too, both at FantasticFest, then Sitges…
We also had the huge honor to have the Romero and Ford Brothers Double DVD disk, with his last and our first Dead movie. An indescribable feeling…
As Ford Bros we had decided not to complete our trilogy of The Dead movies.
Whilst we have gone in different directions with Howard’s gripping abduction thriller Never Let Go released by Sony in the US this month, a film inspired by a real life incident involving Howard’s son, and Jon’s powerful and visceral revenge film Offensive also based on true events, which is now starting to pick up numerous awards ahead of its distribution journey. We are now both feeling very ready to get our teeth back into the very thing that first lit our passions… And if we do, it will be something killer in so many ways! Now, with Romero’s passing that has equally impacted us, and very few film makers within the genre doing it his way, we wonder if the fans would want the final installment of our Dead trilogy… We would do it in honor of Romero. We are once again inspired to reach into the darkest regions of our minds, to try and create the most terrifying, visceral, yet emotionally charged and poignant zombie film ever!
We first need to know, would you want it???
Until then… To the fabulously talented and inspiring George A Romero: we thank you for this journey and we sincerely hope you rest in peace.
– The Ford Brothers.
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