How did George Romero make zombies so terrifying? He made them your neighbors. "There's nothing scarier than the neighbors!" he once said. No kidding. Not to disparage my neighbors (in case they're reading this). My neighbors are fine upstanding folk who would never egg my house or toilet paper my trees. Or serve my brain on a hamburger bun at their next backyard cookout. Nice neighbors. Nice, nice neighbors.

Director George Romero made the classic "Night of the Living Dead" while other filmmakers working in his genre were flooding theaters with vampire and monster movies. Sure, zombies can be thought of as monsters, but Romero never saw them that way. He once said that the most monstrous characters in his zombie movies were the humans.

"Night of the Living Dead" served as a template for the hundreds (maybe thousands) of zombie movie and television show that followed with a few minor differences. It's not always a bite that turns someone into a zombie. Sometimes a virus gone wild infects people with zombie-ism. The variations on Romero's zombies are nearly infinite but one thing remains the same: the zombies reveal the worst (and the best) in ordinary humans.

George Romero passed away earlier this week (presumably without contracting zombie-ism).  The outpouring of mourning and admiration almost 'broke the Internet' as people took to social media to say a final goodbye to the director. George Romero once told an interviewer, "I have a soft spot in my heart for the zombies." Turns out we have a soft spot in our hearts, too - for the father of all zombies.

So long, George. We'll miss you and your zombies.
Bobby