Zo juist is het slechte nieuws bekend geworden dat de Amerikaanse regisseur George A. Romero is overleden aan de gevolgen van long kanker. Deze man bedacht en maakte in 1968 Night of the Living Dead (die je hier onder kan bekijken) en deze is de fundering voor elke zombie film en TV serie die er ooit verschenen is. Mijn alltime favoriete film van hem is Dawn of the Living Dead uit 1978 die ik echt zo vaak heb gezien dat ik er de tel van kwijt ben geraakt. Ook was Romero in 2011 een eind baas in de zombie mode van Call of Duty: Black Ops die heel erg moeilijk was te verslaan. Helaas is het Game Over en kunnen we nog wel genieten van een indrukwekkende erfenis aan films en een op zich zelf staand horror genre.

Legendary filmmaker George A. Romero, father of the modern movie zombie and creator of the groundbreaking "Night of the Living Dead" franchise, has died at 77.

Romero died Sunday in his sleep after a "brief but aggressive battle with lung cancer," according to a statement to The Times provided by his longtime producing partner, Peter Grunwald. Romero died while listening to the score of one his favorite films, 1952's "The Quiet Man," with his wife, Suzanne Desrocher Romero, and daughter, Tina Romero, at his side, the family said.

Romero jump-started the zombie genre as the co-writer (with John A. Russo) and director of the 1968 movie "Night of the Living Dead," which went to show future generations of filmmakers such as Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter that generating big scares didn't require big budgets. "Living Dead" spawned an entire school of zombie knockoffs, and Romero's sequels included 1978's "Dawn of the Dead," 1985's "Day of the Dead," 2005's "Land of the Dead," 2007's "Diary of the Dead" and 2009's "George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead."