Prior to his tragic passing in 2017, George A. Romero had something special in the works for fans of his genre-defining series Night of the Living Dead. Interested in concluding the original four-film saga that spanned over half a century, Romero would begin work on a brand-new feature sometime in the 2010s. Four years after his death, a substantial update in the film’s development had occurred: Suzanne Romero is now supervising the production of Twilight of the Dead, which will hopefully hit theaters in the near future.
Screenwriters Paolo Zelati, Joe Knetter, and Robert L. Lucas are now tasked with creating a true sequel to 2005’s Land of the Dead, one that will ignore the last two critically-mixed entries in the franchise. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film will be “his final stamp on the zombie genre,” closing out the director’s legacy and influence on the hundreds of zombie films that came out in his wake. It’s now been almost two years since this initial announcement, which might make some wonder: why should you be excited about Twilight of the Dead?
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It Was Originally Written by Romero
United Film Distribution Company
If you’re worried that Twilight of the Dead will just be a cash-in on Romero’s legacy, don’t worry; there’s proof that says otherwise. Both Romero and Zelati collaborated on a film treatment — a detailed document that precedes a screenplay, essentially — showcasing what happened to the zombies in Land of the Dead while omitting the previous films’ focus on human protagonists. This film treatment will likely serve as the beginning of the film’s potential script, essentially bringing the broad strokes of Romero’s vision to life.
The last two entries in the Night of the Living Dead franchise, Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead, were a significant departure from the main Night of the Living Dead films, taking a more experimental edge by using found-footage filmmaking and extensive computer-generated effects. However, citing dissatisfaction with leaving the franchise on two unrelated entries, Twilight of the Dead will aim to bring the filmmaker’s classic style back to the silver screen.
It Will Follow Land of the Dead
Universal Pictures
While Land of the Dead isn’t nearly as beloved as the previous Night of the Living Dead films, it still pushed the overall story of the series forward while introducing new concepts of its own. Specifically, it expanded upon the concept of the “intelligent” zombies that were introduced in Day of the Dead, giving us a terrifying zombie leader in the form of Eugene Clark’s “Big Daddy.”
While Sherman Howard’s “Bub” was a zombie that displayed intelligence in a scientifically-controlled environment, including indirectly killing Captain Rhodes in one of the most stomach-churning special effects shots ever, Big Daddy is noticeably different. He’s a zombie that displays the capacity for empathy, as he repeatedly breaks out into a hoarse roar anytime he finds his fellow undead killed. He spurs the shambling zombies into assaulting Fiddler’s Green, which was a hideout from the apocalypse for the ultra-wealthy. He even demonstrates a significant amount of self-awareness by walking straight into the moat that separates Fiddler’s Green from the immense horde. Big Daddy “knows” he is a zombie, and that drowning is a nonexistent threat to him. After Fiddler’s Green is successfully taken over, we can see him leading the thousands of shambling corpses away from the city, not sure where to go, but still marching with purpose. It could be a sign that Big Daddy is now the impromptu leader of a zombie “society” of sorts.
The topic of zombie societies was briefly touched on in Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, although it suffered from being just one of many ideas covered in an exhausting 148 minutes. Given that Romero’s films have always reflected societal criticisms and social structures, seeing his take on zombies working more cohesively together than people would be the perfect culmination of the series.
It Will Be a Grim Conclusion
Speaking of which, it’s already been confirmed straight from the man himself that there won’t be a happy ending. While specific details aren’t available, we do know one thing is made clear: the zombies won.
It’s a progression we’ve slowly seen evolve throughout each of the films. While a majority of the zombies typically kill humans for food, there have been more than a few examples where they now kill for unnecessary reasons, either out of pure revenge, malice, or contempt. With human populations dwindling, could we see different groups of zombies form around what’s left? Who’s to say that Big Daddy won’t run into a faction of zombies that oppose his revenge-driven conquest? Would we not see the now-dominant zombies fall into the same trappings that humans did?
In a way, this grim conclusion to the saga feels earned. To the most cynical of us, it’s the only logical conclusion that an ever-expanding zombie apocalypse could’ve resulted in. The Night of the Living Dead films will always be entertainment first and foremost. However, you can’t help but notice how they reflect societal conflicts and self-sabotage, especially in the midst of a global pandemic that brought both these unfortunate concepts into the limelight.
