There are more than 1,000 shots in George Romero’s classic horror movie. Can a band of actors, armed with video cameras and Barbie dolls, recreate it?
A winding road. Two bickering siblings in a cemetery. And a dark-suited, silver-haired zombie. The immortal opening minutes of the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead are unfolding onscreen at Leeds Playhouse. Meanwhile, scattered around the stage beneath, a small team work furiously, switching between the jobs of actor and camera operator. A second, adjacent screen above them reveals the results of their efforts to recreate, live and in real time, every shot in George Romero’s classic horror movie.
With more than 1,000 shots in Romero’s film, it’s clear that the company, imitating the dog, have their hands full with Night of the Living Dead – Remix. As the technical team watch from the stalls in this first week of full rehearsal, actor William James Holstead is playing the ill-fated Johnny, who is gnawed by a zombie in that opening graveyard scene. But Holstead soon shrugs off that role and wheels a camera around to capture footage projected through a live feed. Moments later, he’s abandoned the camera and is playing one of the flesh-eaters.