Beyond Zombie Politics: The Art of George A. Romero’s Cinema
University of Mississipi Press, “Horror and Monstrosity Studies Series”
2025
Abstract
Contributions by Julien Achemchame, Julie Assouly, David Church, Suzanne Desrocher-Romero, Hélène Frazik, Pierre Jailloux, Nicolas Labarre, Sophie Lécole-Solnychkine, Janice Loreck, Stella Louis, Kingsley Marshall, Krista Mitchell, Karen D. Thornton, and Arnaud Widendaële
Best known for Night of the Living Dead (1968) and its sequels, George A. Romero (1940–2017) was a writer, editor, director, producer, and influential pioneer of the horror film genre. Beyond Zombie Politics: The Art of George A. Romero’s Cinema gathers a group of contributors to explore Romero’s work beyond the Living Dead films with two parallel but complementary tendencies within twenty-first-century film studies: the renewed interest in horror aesthetics and the emphasis on filmmaking as a collaborative practice.
Opening with an original interview with Suzanne Desrocher-Romero, who shares her views on the late director’s craft and influence, the anthology is divided into three sections that deal with genre, musical motifs, and the (re)creative process. Each chapter adopts fresh methodologies to focus on an area that has received little academic study. Contributors investigate the films’ relation to subgenres like the counterculture movie or the witchcraft film; their debt to slapstick comedy or the recurrence of specific visual motifs like hands; the editing and the handling of space; the use of makeup and music; the films’ relation to comics; and their adaptation into other media. Authored by established and up-and-coming experts of horror and the Fantastic, the chapters in Beyond Zombie Politics aim to offer fresh insights into an important body of work, to contribute to current studies of the evolution of horror aesthetics, and to map the borders between exploitation, independent, and mainstream film.
Contributions
Interview with Suzanne Desrocher-Romero – Julien Achemchame
Part I. Genre, Culture, and Identity
Ch. 1 | “The Specter of Failure: Personal and Professional Disillusionment in George A. Romero’s Counterculture Trilogy ” —David Church
Ch. 2 | “From Pittsburgh to Pennsyltucky: Romero’s Pennsylvania Through the Lens of Critical Regionalism” — Julie Assouly
Ch. 3 | “Feminist Investments: Women, Empowerment, and Witchcraft in Jack’s Wife” — Janice Loreck
Ch. 4 | “Slapstick in George A. Romero’s Horror Comedies: The ‘Crazy Body’ and Relentless Repetition” — Arnaud Widendaële
Part II. Visual and Aural Motifs
Ch. 5 | “Seeing with Your Hands, Touching with Your Eyes: Visuality and Hapticity in the Films of George A. Romero” — Sophie Lécole-Solnychkine
Ch. 6 | “Nightmares of Confinement: An Analysis of a Key Motif of Romero’s Films” — Hélène Frazik
Ch. 7 | “‘I Am Dead’: Unnatural Editing in the Films of George A. Romero” — Pierre Jailloux
Ch. 8 | “‘There Is No Real Magic’: The Fantastic in George A. Romero’s Sound Worlds” — Krista Mitchell
Part III. Collaboration and Adaptation
Ch. 9 | “Library Music and the Zombie Score: Soundtrack as Animator and Agitator in Dawn of the Dead (1978)” — Kingsley Marshall
Ch. 10 | “Makeup Artists of the Dead and the Creation of the Romerian Monster” — Stella Louis
Ch. 11 | “Authenticity, Nostalgia, and Playfulness in Creepshow” —Nicolas Labarre
Ch.12 | “Audacious Spectacle or Postmodern Deconstruction? NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD—REMIX” — Karen D. Thornton
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Olivier Stucky (2 décembre 2025). Parution – Beyond Zombie Politics (A. Boutang, C. Cornillon et D. Roche, dirs.). LPCM. Consulté le 22 janvier 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/159b6