Alex and Andrea go back to the zombie’s origins with George A. Romero’s original Dead trilogy. From their social roots in Haiti to their ties to the New Hollywood movement, these films make delicious brain food.

REQUIRED READING

Night of the Living Dead. Dir. George A. Romero, 1968.

Dawn of the Dead. Dir. George A. Romero, 1978.

Day of the Dead. Dir. George A. Romero, 1985.

EXTRA CREDIT

When There’s No More Room in Hell: The Sociology of the Living Dead. Andrea’s book on Romero’s early Dead films.

Passage of Darkness: the Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie by Wade Davis. An interdisciplinary study on Haitian political life and folklore.

Marxism and Literature by Raymond Williams. Marxist concepts applied to literature that provided the bedrock for Williams’ theory of cultural materialism that Andrea holds dear.

Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror by Jason Zinoman.

The Reduction of Urban Vulnerability: Revisiting 1950s American Suburbanization as Civil Defence. Kathleen Tobin’s article on the military’s involvement in the rise of the suburbs.

LISTEN

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