Document of the Dead (1985)

Director:

Roy Frumkes

Writer:

Roy Frumkes (writer)

Release Date:

21 June 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Horror

Plot:

A documentary about George A. Romero's films, with a behind scenes look at Dawn of the Dead. |

Plot Keywords:

Independent Film

Cast

John Amplas	...	Himself
Carl Augenstein	...	Himself
Steve Bissette	...	Himself
David Emge	...	Himself
Ken Foree	...	Himself
Christine Forrest	...	Herself (as Christine Romero)
Roy Frumkes	...	Himself
Michael Gornick	...	Himself
Joe Kane	...	Himself (as The Phantom of the Movies)
Nicole Potter	...	Narrator (voice)
Scott H. Reiniger	...	Himself
George A. Romero	...	Himself
Richard P. Rubinstein	...	Himself
Tom Savini	...	Himself
Susan Tyrrell	...	Narrator (voice)
Gahan Wilson	...	Himself

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor) | Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Not Rated | Australia:M

Trivia:

While editing the movie, the creators discovered that 10% of the negative from the original footage, including 66 shots, had disappeared. When the filmmakers didn't get a response from the New York school of visual arts, director Roy Frumkes resorted to contacting a psychic therapist (Nancy Orlen Weber) to see if she could help. Though she suspected most of the missing film had been maliciously destroyed, she did pick up on the fact one small roll of film had been misplaced at the Technicolor laboratory. It was not until years later a can of film resurfaced, where it had been stored under the wrong title was the film finally edited and put on the market.

Quotes:

Roy Frumkes: [about "Day of the dead] Is this the end?
George A. Romero: The zombies are developing, and I'm getting dumber by the minute.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Dead Will Walk (2004) (V)

The D(ead)-Files.

Well, the one thing I learned from this documentary is that George A. Romero smokes a lot and that he apparently can't give an interview without holding a cigarette in his fingers, whether it's lit or not. Apart from that, this documentary doesn't feature any groundbreaking news or memorable information. I guess that, as usually the case with footage like this, it's a lot more fun to make it than to actually watch it as an extra feature on the DVD. Roy Frumkes probably had the time of his life following and interviewing horror idols like George Romero, Ken Foree and Tom Savini (especially since he was still a student at the time) but for other viewers it's not that interesting. The introduction is rather ingenious, as it shows a comical sketch of the Marx-brothers mocking Pittsburgh (the place where all Romero's movies are set) and than it's just a whole lot of interviews and sequences from "Night", "Dawn" and the modern vampire movie "Martin". The documentary explains how Romero was influenced by the news events of that time and that he's a truly gifted filmmaker with a sixth sense for imaginative camera angles. Stuff we all knew already, in other words. There's some nice trivia about the mall where "Dawn of the Dead" was shot, like for instance, filming was interrupted during the month of December because of the Christmas decoration that couldn't feature in the film. The parts with Tom Savini are also a lot of fun to watch, because he clearly loves his job and was offered a lot of creative freedom by Romero for his zombie make-up in "Dawn". There surely are worse ways to spend 60 minutes of your life, but overall this documentary is not really worth bothering for.