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All you ever need to know

To celebrate the release of Shaun of the Dead
here's a potted history of George A Romero's
zombie trilogy which inspired this film so you
can impress down at the local multiplex:

1. Romero's movies had subtle social and political
subtexts - in each movie the heroes included an
African-American man and kick-ass female. Romero
said his movies represented "the tragedy of how
a lack of human communication causes chaos
and collapse."

2. Night of the Living Dead was shot in 1968 on
a $114,000 budget. Chocolate syrup was used to
simulate blood.

3. Dawn of the Dead was made in a mall in
Monroseville near Pittsburgh. The only time they
could record sound was between 2am and 6am when
the bars, clubs and shops closed.

4. Romero appeared in Dawn Of The Dead as a biker
dressed as Santa Claus.

5. The director wanted Day Of the Dead to be an
expensive epic - "the Gone With The Wind of
zombie movies" but when he refused to cut the
gore, the budget was slashed as the film couldn't
get a cinema rating.

6. The best zombie-eating scene ever is in Day
Of The Dead; army captain Rhodes is torn in half
and eaten alive. Chicken parts were used as human
entrails but they had gone off so badly by the
time they filmed that the zombies had to have wax
stuffed up their nose because of the smell.

7. We also recommend watching Zombie Flesh Eaters
by Italian director Lucio Fulci, who was known
as "The King Of Zombie Film-making".

It was Dawn of the Dead where the entrails went bad, but oh well...