Just like many others, when I was a kid I sat in front of the television and watched a ton of movies (mostly bad) but there was one that even as a child that I knew was something special and that was George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.  I instantly became obsessed with horror movies from that moment on. A good horror film has a way of sinking into your bones that not many other films can do which is what makes Romero’s classic so special.  Romero didn’t necessarily “invent” zombies, what he did was create the entire rules for a zombie that every film after for the next 30 plus years would follow.  The way Romero truly created a monster out of humans is what gives it such an impact, these are your loved ones lumbering towards you with only one thing on their mind, and that is to devour you.  Anyone who as ever seen the classic 1968 film can recall exactly the very first time we see a zombie grace the screen. Dubbed as the cemetery zombie, perhaps the greatest zombie to ever be on film not only because it was the very first zombie you ever see in a Romero film but it is so genuinely scary. From the first moment he stumbles onto screen you instantly know that something is not right with this guy. It is such an eerie moment in the movie when you realize that this is no normal human being.  Nope, instead it’s a flesh-eating monster.  Very few movies could pull something off like that back then.  Now, imagine being a 6-year-old kid watching that, definitely one of the scariest moments I had ever seen as a kid which is why the movie had such an impact on me.  When people ask me what my “favorite” movie of all time is, I often say Night of the Living Dead because it is the reason why I love movies in the first place.

With that said, I am sad to say that Bill Hinzman, the first Romero zombie to walk into frame died over the weekend.  Rest in Peace Bill, you will always be remembered as the first person to haunt my dreams.

                              1936-2012