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Syfy Celebrating Romero’s Birthday With 12-Hour ‘Night of the Living Dead’ Marathon
George A. Romero turns 77 this Saturday.
Born on February 4th, 1940, George Romero was just 28 years old when he released his first film. That movie, of course, was Night of the Living Dead, one of the single most important and influential movies ever made. Made on a budget of just over $100,000, Romero’s debut feature forever changed the landscape of the horror genre, single-handedly creating the modern zombie as we know it today. Sure, zombies may have existed on the screen before Romero came along, but without Romero, it’s impossible to know if they’d be the movie monsters they are today.
This Saturday, Syfy is celebrating Romero’s birthday with a 12-hour marathon of the original Night of the Living Dead, which will be streaming live all day on the Syfy Facebook page. The marathon kicks off at 11:30am EST and runs straight through 11:40pm EST. Following the Facebook marathon, Night of the Living Dead will air on Syfy beginning at 11:42pm EST.
In the seminal 1968 classic:
Radiation from a fallen satellite causes the recently deceased to rise from the grave and seek the living to use as food. Several people barricade themselves inside a rural house in an attempt to survive the night and discover that these hordes of relentless, shambling zombies can only be killed by a blow to the head.
You can join the social media conversation using #LivingDeadMarathon.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
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