PART IV: BOOKS - A7 P1

Considering how big this entry is - no story this time out. A four parter!

Man, I took another bullet for you guys. So screw it! I'm gonna have some fun with this crap - the images.

Lets begin with stats.



"Night Of The Living Dead: 2014 Screenplay" by Jimmy Edmonds was released on April 10th, 2014 from The Creative Stock Market (ISBN# 978-0-615-99160-3) for $14.99. A.K.A. "Night Of The Living Dead: 2014 Shooting Script" from page one.

The softcover is ninety-four pages long. The dimensions are 8 x 10 inches and is rather thin.

Looking at the book credits, discover this thing is an MOD publication, Manufacture On Demand. Did not know this also happens for books too. How do I know?

A step back. I paid nearly twenty for this - was the last one at that price, the ones after that goes into the forties. Plus there is NO eBay listing at all. Like it doesn't exist. Buy it now or don't, not paying forty bucks (when you include shipping).

I'm flipping the pages - reading various infos. On the very last page is the detail. This book was ordered November 2nd, 2019 and arrived on the 4th. Swift delivery from Amazon. The last page reads "Made in the USA... 02 November 2019". The other bit is the county where I live, we have an Amazon distribution center. My jaw dropped.

So I guess this counts as a first edition? *shake head*



That cover pix is a stock image - the very same picture was used for another zombie novel, "Days With The Undead: Book One" (softcover) by Julianne Snow from Sirens Call Publications; 2012 for $12.99. Mentioned in a previous Retrospective entry.

Something I just noticed while writing the stats - the spine is red, but has no text. So if this is in a book shelf - how do you know what this is? YOU DON'T.

- - -

NOTES/REVIEW

Oh man, where to begin?

Barbara and her brother Johnny drive to the countryside to visit the gravestone of their late father when Johnny is brutally murdered by a mindless old man. The murderer then turns to Barbara who manages to hide in a small farmhouse where she meets Joe and a few others who are hiding from what appears to be an attack on the living. The dead keep coming back in a bloodthirsty lust for human flesh!

This is a 2014 edition of the original screenplay written by George A. Romero and John A. Russo. It was rewritten, edited, modernized and formatted by Jimmy Edmonds.
- official press release

Sir you failed. You failed in such an epic way, you should go back to writing school or just stop writing all together. You stripped away any heart, characterizations and story particulars to rush towards the ending... as if this wasn't meant as a real screenplay, but some D+ grade, class project that you thought, you could make some money off. You can not be proud of what you wrote.

Add to that - it's like you're not a horror movie fan since you omitted so many iconic moments and lines from the classic film. Even taking away vital news. One character is axed and another is suppose to be transgender? Wasn't made clear, the same with the undead rules. Just sloppy writing.

You failed sir. You failed.

I took down various notes on eight blank index cards as I read this turkey. Just for my sake, gonna do this chronology.

The stupid part is a lot of the nonessential dialog is lifted direct from the movie. What?! And the things which were important wasn't included.

The characters:

Barbara (a mother, twenty-two), John (twenty-six), Joe Holt (no Ben; now a white guy, forty-seven; has tree kids - oldest is fourteen), Tom (not a young person, he's the caretaker at the cemetery and a father of two kids, aged), Harry and Helen Tinsdale with their son/daughter Karen.

There is no Judy. Let me pause here.



Judy isn't a fluff character, she has a role - she represents a portion of the audience who would stay put, even if it means dying. Because out of fear, believes everything will be okay, this will be short lived. Don't move.

Listen. Remember when we had the big flood? Remember how difficult it was for us to convince you that it was right to leave? Remember? Remember we had to go to Willard then? This isn't a passing thing, honey. It... it's not like just a wind passing through. We've got to do something and fast.
- Tom to Judy about leaving the farmhouse, 1968

You see this with folks who live in fire danger areas who - every year do not evacuate because think it won't be so bad, just stay put and it'll be okay. She part of that audience. The same with Barbara ('68), she represents the audience who would go catatonic, unable to process what is happening. Like car crash survivors - in a daze; information overload.

Cutting her out and making Barbara pick up the slack - messes up the story since she's suppose to be out of it. But here goes in and out of lucidity, helping the gang make the molotov cocktails with Helen.

Then back to stupor. What an ultra convenient plot point.

In the original film, Barbara kicks the story in and doesn't become active once more until the end. Her role was bookends and consistent.

*shakes head*



Same as the movie, Barbara and John are at the cemetery. This takes place in 2014, she has an iPhone. Uses the phone as a light to find the grave and later in the dark farmhouse. John also teases her here.

"They're coming for you Barb... they're coming... to get you."

Here Barbara is a Catholic praying at their father's grave with rosary beads. And because of the remote location, no cell signal.

Daylight saving also happens here and this part...

We're either gonna have to move mom to Parkville or move the grave Pittsburgh.
This no longer takes place in Evansville, PA.

Same to same, ghoul attacks and kills John - not with a broken neck on a tombstone, but he and the attacker fall into an open pit and the ghoul bites his face. He just dies, Barbara's screams get its attention and it goes after her.

Rules change; the cemetery ghoul scratches Barbara's face, but she's fine. In fact none of the zombie rules are established. They can power walk/stalk and jump. Then... can't, quite inconstant. And also sprint.

John does not rise - towards the end Sheriff McCelland finds John's remains as he and posse go through the cemetery towards the known farmhouse in the distance. Turns out John was found by others who ate him. Mostly bones remains.

And that Parkville cemetery is just off the road from the farmhouse, not a distance away.



Barbara flees from the ghoul in John's car, no keys. Just releasing the emergency breaks, car on hill. No longer daylight, dark. She turns on the headlights to see as she coasts.

Moments before the dead guy crashes though the passenger window, not by using a rock, but by hard and rapid head butts.

There is no impact on a tree. She goes down the hill and reaches another hill. The car slows and starts to move backwards. She breaks it and flees on foot, kicking off her shoes since it would slow her. Not running shoes.

Now - that part I liked. Some thought was done in that area. She wasn't dressed for running. I'll give Edmonds credit for that.

Now at the house - sees the cemetery ghoul (from a window) going after the locked garage - thinking the girl is inside. Pulls away in silence.

Now Not-Ben arrives in a low tank car. Joe dispatches zeds with a shotgun he already has. Doing head shots. Now this is fracking important. He knows how to put them down. Did it earlier, but forgets later and keeps shooting in the chest - wasting limited ammo.

He sees that Barbara is alive and grabs her, taking her to one of the parked cars next to the gas pump - it's here too. Breaking the glass with the butt of his gun. But he is unable to get it started, too many are now coming for them.

Run back to the house, running out of ammo, single shot left when the door is slammed shut, locked.

When Joe arrived she had panicked and ran upstairs to find the eaten corpse and then ran out of the house in screams.

Another smart thing happens here.



Before boarding up the windows, Joe found some groceries bags in a cupboard and stuff items from the refrigerator in it. In case they have to flee in a hurry, have food to eat while on the run.

Windows are getting covered, using what is available - having a hard time locating long nails. Most of them are short ones. Joe is the one who gives Barbara the big kitchen knife.

Gonna take another pause here.