Ten Zombie Trivia Facts

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Published: 29 June 2013

I was fortunate enough to have Keith Meyers come to my zombie lecture in Sloatsburg last night. He is a zombie movie expert, and told me things I never knew. I asked him to compile a list for the website, and here it is. How many of these things did you know?

(And by the way, he thinks the HVZA has the most plausible zombie infection! I'm honored.)

Ten Zombie trivia facts:

1. First recognized Zombie film: White Zombie (1932) (Bonus trivia: the Poster for White Zombie could not be shown today. Why? It’s “R” rated….look closely!)

2. First reanimated corpse movie? Frankenstein (1910) by Thomas Edison (yes, THAT Tom Edison!)

3. There have been zombie films set on 6 of the 7 continents (sorry Antarctica)

4. The word “Zombie” is not used once in Night of the Living Dead (1968). He calls them “Ghouls.” (“Yeah they’re dead, they’re all messed up…”)

5. These Ghouls were not picky about what they ate…”BRAAAIIINNS” was a troupe of Return of the Living Dead (1985)

6. So hey, I am watching this movie about a reanimated corpse in a graveyard…but it’s not Night of the Living Dead! What gives? Romero may have gotten his idea as a child watching Invisible Invaders (1959)! Aliens reanimate the dead to kill the living!

7. Night of the Living Dead was not the movie’s original name. It was Night of the Flesh Eaters. When Romero discovered a similarly titled film, he changed it to Living Dead. BUT: They forgot to include the copyright notice, thus putting the “Living Dead” into public Domain! Because of this (per Wikipedia): “Because of the public domain status, the film is sold on home video by many distributors. As of 2012, the Amazon.com lists copies of Night of the Living Dead retailing 52 on VHS, 181 on DVD, and 9 on Blu-ray. The original film is available to view or download free on Internet sites, such as Google Video, Internet Archive, Hulu, and YouTube. As of September 30, 2012, it is the Internet Archive's second-most-downloaded film, with 1,036,742 downloads.

8. Tom Savini’s 1990 Night of the Living Dead color remake (a great film by the way) actually re-writes the ending and changes up the dynamic from the 1968 version.

9. There are more zombie films made annually than any other monster since the Romero films came out (not many of them are GOOD. Trust me!). Sorry Twilight fans!!!

10. Romero has publically stated that Night of the Living Dead was based on Richard Matheson’s classic I Am Legend. I Am Legend has been remade twice. Return of the Living Dead has been remade…twice! (although there’s another in production in England slated for 2013 release)