ROMERO'S ORIGINAL GHOUL MAKES A MOVIE.
In George A. Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, the very first ghoul we see -- the Cemetery Ghoul -- was played by Bill Hinzman. He famously comes stumbling through the tombstones to the classic line "They're coming to get you, Barbara! There's one of them now!" And the Romero ghoul/zombie was born. Two decades later, Two decades later, Hinzman decided to make a not-really-sequel. Good news is: he looks JUST like he did in NOTL!
A typical horror movie group of young adults decide to go into the woods on a hayride for Halloween. That's right, it's a Halloween movie too!!! Meanwhile, a Mr. Handy pulls up a tree stump and unearths a random grave in the woods and out pops our FleshEater to bite said Nature Guy in the neck. Each bitten person becomes a "flesheater" aka zombie and makes more and more exponentially. What's left of our group of hayrider/campers hotfoots it to a deserted house (yes, exactly like NOTL) and tries to barricade themselves inside (yes, just like NOTL). However, this scenario actually doesn't last too long and the movie moves on from there -- thus avoiding being a NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD carbon copy. Lots of zombie biting ensues.
FLESHEATER is enjoyable and it's certainly nice seeing Hinzman back as the NOTL ghoul/zombie . . . even if he DOES take every chance to have his leading ladies go topless. Ah well, it IS 1988 and I guess that's one of the perks of being the director. The major problem is that the film is too long; 88 minutes (maybe Hinzman thought he needed 88 minutes because it was 1988?!?!?). If about 20 minutes were cut, FLESHEATER would be a much better movie. There are too many lingering shots of actors standing around as if they don't know what to do with themselves. But I still had fun with this.
I had NO idea this even existed! His wandering-in-the-background of the cemetery shots in Night of the Living Dead were one of the freakiest moments in the movie, to me. Just so very creepy.
ReplyDeleteI met Bill Hinzman around 2003 at a Chiller Convention and stupidly didn't get an autograph!
ReplyDeleteHe is the first iconic Romero "ghoul". I always smile when in DAY OF THE DEAD, they try to teach Bub how to use items and in LAND OF THE DEAD a big deal is made of the ghouls starting to learn how to use weapons. The first Romero zombie to use a weapon is, indeed, Bill Hinzman; he picks up a rock to break the car window while Barbara is trying to get away. To say nothing of Kyra Schon using a garden trowel on her mother later on in the movie. It's weird how fans seem to conveniently forget this.