PART IV: BOOKS - A6 P2

The first zed who entered from the back door; when it was just known as Barbara and Ben - was murdered, had his throat slashed. No more details. Again WTF? Why even bring it up with zero background. One more sentence would've completed the info - 'he was a victim of a mugging.'

Tom knew the man who pawed through the wood planks in the kitchen, the one who got fingers cut off by the big knife. And both young couple knew the cemetery zed, "Ted Shiner". He was a teacher from the local high school. Two days earlier he was at the cemetery for a funeral and was the last to leave - that's all we get.

Again, what the hell? You give this set-up for something - and nothing happens at all. How did he die? Couldn't be bothered to write it down?

As I've been saying, so much filler.

Helen looking at the catatonic Barbara and wondering if the sights she had seen would be same for Karen. The little girl saw a lot of terrible things that night. Will she be like the woman on the couch, later in life? Now that part did add to the story. Wish there was more actions have consequences thinking.

Did like the other bit on Helen; when she finds out (to her shock) about the radio upstairs that Harry had closed them to it...

"Take the boards off that door." She rarely demanded anything from him, but this was not a request.
Another error is not including the full radio news broadcast. We get parts omitted. Such as this, VITAL piece which has been mentioned in this retrospective...

The whole ghastly story began developing two days ago with a report of a slaying of a family of seven in their rural home near Gallpark, Louisiana. Since then, reports of senseless killings began snowballing in a reign of terror which has hopscotched in an erratic disconnected pattern throughout much of the eastern and midwestern United States.
- radio announcer

That's damn important!

We get a two page chapter on the ghouls and their former identities at they eat the charred remains of Judy and Tom in the truck. "Intermission II", joy.

Near the end - when the posse is shooting/cleaning out the dead, there is that single ghoul who got shot in the back of his head and grabbed his face. That part did break continuity. Anyhow, he's presented as "Michael Crane", former maître d' at the only good steakhouse in Evans, Pennsylvania.

You get the picture. Bits of tiny stuff that are pretty much just throwaways.

So what was the other big error? Ben's death.

Ben's body on the bonfire. As pointed out in HIS novel, Ben was shot in the head, brains blown. Yet...

On the pyre as it was catching fire, Ben was resurrecting. I quote Abley...

The thing had been Ben awoke to a stage that approached consciousness. Something that might have passed for a thought began to form in its brain: So Hungry... Must Feed... But even that primitive thought was obliterated as the intense heat turned Ben's brain into a syrupy liquid that quickly began to boil away.
This is in the book. Did he NOT see the movie that he transcribed?

Head shots or a blunt instrument - destroy the brain and they fully die. No getting back up, ever.

What really sucks, I had been wanting this book since getting and reading the Andrews adaptation. 'I bet this one is gonna be just as good.' No.

No it's not. Just an overall waste for everybody; characters and the reader too. Could've bought a crappy public domain copy of "Night" and would've gotten the same experience. Man, I wanted to give you guys a cool Halloween entry.

I'm sorry. In the end - this book review is a warning.

- - -

Did I learn anything?

Yes. Yes I did. Something that didn't register all these decades until that Friday. I know George A. Romero put himself in the movie, a bit part - the aggressive reporter in Washington DC; trying to get quotes about the strange radiation from the Venus Probe - possible connection to the situation.



He's newsman Don Quinn. That part did make me smile. I'm still learning stuff after all these years. 'Hello Don, I now know you.'

Above is a behind-the-scenes pix, Romero 'Don' is the one with the mic.

- - -

Can't keep them down. Even on the stage.



Going on right now; from October 4th through November 10th on the main stage of at the Lonny Chapman Theatre in North Hollywood, California. General admission is twenty-five dollars. Seniors and students with ID is twenty. 10900 Burbank Boulevard, North Hollywood, CA 91601.

There is no intermission on the roughly eighty-five minute production.

Seek online for show times; there are special performances, matinees and regular performances. Can't say if this is set in '68 or in the present. This was put together by The Group Rep based on a script adaptation by Gus Krieger. Produced by Larry Eisenberg and directed by Drina Durazo.

In Night of the Living Dead, as a mysterious pandemic emerges and quickly spreads, seven strangers barricade themselves within a Pennsylvania farmhouse, attempting to escape the swarms of bloodthirsty, flesh-eating ghouls now ravaging the countryside. Beset by the walking dead outside, and ever-rising interpersonal tensions within, the group begins their desperate attempt to survive the longest night of their lives. A harrowing new adaptation of the classic film, "Night of the Living Dead" remains an incisive and terrifying exploration of human nature and the demons that plague us both inside and out.
- press release

I have a cast list, but not who's playing who, so I won't list them.



That's it folks for now. There is another book adaptation, but it's a film script published - hoping to get made. "Night Of The Living Dead: 2014 Screenplay" by Jimmy Edmonds released by The Creative Stock Market.

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.
- press release

Considering how much I loathed Sean Abley's work. I don't know if I want to try again. That screenplay could be crap on a cracker. I suppose it really depends on how much it cost. If it's cheap enough, might bite. Maybe.

They start in his suggested direction. John is trying to catch up with Barbara.

John: Why are you walking so fast?

Barbara: (Looking ahead, trying to spot the gave) Hmmm?

John: What's the hurry?

Barbara: You've been bitching the whole way here about how this trip is a waste of time, and now that we're here, you walk like a snail.

John: Whatever.

Their jibes at each other are not really in anger, but are the typical of brother-sister annoyance. They walk through the row of gravestones in the growing darkness. Barbara pulls out her iPhone and uses it as a flashlight to read the names on the stones.
- screenplay excerpt

Not helping is Edmonds renaming the iconic characters. Ben becomes Joe. Can imagine other names changed. Joy.



What really needs to happen is the Andrews book re-released with a far better cover. The original image is garbage. I would stay away from a movie still and use artwork. Like the above examples; DVD covers from a public domain print. Terrible looking transfer, but excellent covers. Or even a variant to the official novel, paperback by John Russo, cover art (above, far right). That's a great picture! They want inside to get you.

Save a safe and fun Halloween. And "Night' on your cue on the 31st; 1968 or 1990 both are equally good. See you later.