Dead Neighbors: Jim Jarmusch on George A. Romero
Half a century ago, George A. Romero’s midnight-movie hit Night of the Living Dead invented the zombie genre as we know it and turned American independent filmmaking on its head. Made on an ultralow budget with a small crew, it tells the chilling tale of a ragtag group of strangers forced to hole up in a Pennsylvania farmhouse as a horde of ravenous ghouls beckon from outside. A few years after its 1968 premiere, Romero was asked in an interview about the problems he faced while making the movie. His response: “Primarily, to forget we were making a horror film. I just wanted them to appear as though they were worried about a snowstorm.” It’s a nonchalantly revealing reply, one that gives insight into the late director’s singular approach and how he infused even the most unrealistic situations with lived experience.
It’s also a sentiment that calls to mind the ethos of the latest auteur to pay homage to Romero, Jim Jarmusch, whose new film The Dead Don’t Die puts his signature idiosyncratic spin on the zombie movie. Starring Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, and Chloë Sevigny alongside a gang of past collaborators, such as Iggy Pop, Eszter Balint, Steve Buscemi, Rosie Perez, and Tom Waits, this (un)deadpan comedy centers on a small town whose quiet streets are torn to shreds when the inhabitants of a local cemetery start rising from the grave. Jarmusch treats these creatures with a comic matter-of-factness, and as in Romero’s films, they are more “dead neighbors” than monsters.
Following its opening-night premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last month, The Dead Don’t Die is making its way to theaters nationwide this week. For the occasion, Jarmsuch took some time to talk on the phone with me about the impact of Romero’s work and how Night of the Living Dead served as a “godmother” to his film.