Undead
John Russo
Cemetery Dance, Apr 30 2012, $40.00
ISBN: 9781587672552

“Night Of The Living Dead.” Siblings (Johnny and Barbara) visit their dad’s gravesite at a Pennsylvania cemetery to leave a wreath when a weird looking individual attacks the sister. Her brother comes to her rescue, but the stranger hammers Johnny with a rock before going after Barbara who flees in terror. Soon she and six other strangers hide inside a small farmhouse while a horde of corpses try to rip off their flesh.

“Return Of The Living Dead.” Not long after the military contained the first zombie wave, a flatbed truck containing pipes crashes with a bus. The pipes smash through windows killing many of those on board. The townsfolk leave church to destroy the new dead before they reanimate, but arrive too late.

These are fun novelizations of the first two George Romero films written by John Russo who worked on the movies. Both entries remain pure to the original film, but fail to flow as smoothly and Return of the Living Dead feels like a rehash of the Night of the Living Dead especially the latter half and the reused news bulletins taken from the original incident ten years earlier. Still Living dead fans who provide a gap between the novels will enjoy zombie fever.

Harriet Klausner