The Living Dead Since the beginning of cinema, people have been enchanted by horror films. They seem to excite the viewer with emotions of fear, excitement and emotion. And for as long as horror movies have existed, there have been monsters that scare viewers during and after watching the movie. A common monster that can be found in multiple films is the zombie; also known as the walking dead. One of the greatest living dead directors and screenwriters would have to be George A. Romero. From his famous trilogy of undead films, his final chapter, Day of the Dead, proved to the world that zombies can be just as scary as any other horror monster. He was considered the only horror director who could make a good horror film featuring the living dead. Then, in 1985, a director and screenwriter named Dan O'Brian created the film Return of the Living Dead, which revamped the undead genre. Return of the Living Dead and Day of the Dead both share a common theme that the living dead will always prevail over the living. Return of the Living Dead begins with Freddy on his first day at work at a medical supply store. Freddy and a colleague unintentionally release a nerve gas from a secret U.S. Army canister. Before they realize what they have done, the dead in the shop begin to come to life. Thinking that the problem can be solved by eliminating the evidence in the shop, they ask a crematorium to burn the bodies. When he agrees and the bodies are burned, unbeknownst to them the fumes from the smoke cause the gas to rain down around the surrounding cemetery. Unfortunately a group of teenagers are celebrating in the cemetery when the dead begin to rise from their graves. In front of anyone... middle of paper... each other in the desert. So, once again, in indirect ways, the living dead triumphed over the living by causing them to flee from everything they knew, into a primitive living environment. Therefore, throughout the entire film, the living dead triumphed over the living. The theme that the living dead will always win over the living is present in the films Return of the Living Dead and Day of the Dead. Both films showed that this theme came into both direct and indirect contact with the living dead. Most importantly, both of these films created a creature that could not be contained by the living. This scares the viewer into thinking that if one of these stories came true we would have no way to stop the walking dead. So next time someone jokes about the dead coming back to life, remember that if that happens, this is no hope for humanity.