PARTIALLY DEVOURED

An obsessed fan of a pioneering zombie film explores its creation, fan lore, and deeper meanings.

Kraus, author of this lively, conversational study of the 1968 horror classic Night of the Living Dead, has the proper bona fides for such a project: An accomplished horror and thriller author, he completed a couple of unfinished fiction projects by Dead director George A. Romero, including 2020’s The Living Dead. But perhaps more importantly, he’s a Dead superfan, estimating he’s seen the film 300 times. And as the book shows, he’s drawn plenty of insights from the film and its legacy. Walking through the movie minute by minute, he discusses the offbeat backgrounds of each actor (prospective female lead Betty Aberlin worked on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood); the clever efficiencies Romero used to deliver the film on a budget, particularly the public-domain sound effects; and the peculiarities of the script, which have plenty to say about racism, herd mentality, and sexism. Kraus, who seems to have experienced every film, comic, video game, and T-shirt relating to the film, can be obsessively detailed in his observations: What kind of radio is reporting that humans are being “partially devoured” by zombies? What’s that book on the farmhouse shelf? Still, his storytelling isn’t off-puttingly geeky or fixated on fans-only details. That’s partly because he’s so personable, weaving Dead details into his own history as a teenage filmmaker, writer, and horror fan. But mainly he’s persuasive about the idea that the film is not just a horror classic but a passkey through America’s darkest instincts, from the MLK assassination to the January 6, 2021, insurrection. (A digression on the troubling case of Kyle Rittenhouse is particularly inspired.) “The film is America,” he writes. “Can we even call what we are doing living? Or are we long dead and only going through the zombie motions?”

A sage take on a low-budget classic.