March 30, 2006

Contact: Gordon Ovenshine: 724-738-4854; gordon.ovenshine@sru.edu

A KALEIDOSCOPE EVENT --

‘NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD’ DIRECTOR GEORGE ROMERO  TO ATTEND SRU’S APRIL 19 SHOWING

OF HIS MOVIE ‘CREEPSHOW’

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – George Romero, director of the black-and-white chiller “Night of the Living Dead” and a favorite among horror buffs, comes to Slippery Rock University on April 19 for a showing of his movie “Creepshow,” followed by a question and answer session. A tribute letter from “Creepshow” author Stephen King will be read as well.

The occasion is the Harry M. Warner Film Festival, part of SRU’s April 19-30 Kaleidoscope arts festival. The movie is free.

Romero will be at SRU’s University Union for the 6:30 p.m. movie. The question and answer will follow, and festival leaders will give Romero a Keystone Award for his support of movie-making in western Pennsylvania, said SRU’s Laurel Dagnon, festival coordinator. SRU launched the film festival in conjunction with a minor in film studies a year ago.

“We’ve giving him the Keystone Award because he recognized early on that movies should be shot in western Pennsylvania,” Dagnon said.

Romero, born in Pittsburgh and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, filmed “Night of the Living Dead” in Butler County, hiring locals to play flesh-eating zombies.

His movies include “Night of the Living Dead” (1968), “There's Always Vanilla” (1971), “The Crazies” (1973), “Hungry Wives” (1973), “Martin” (1977), “Dawn of the Dead” (1978) Knightriders” (1981), “Creepshow” (1982), “Day of the Dead” (1985), “Monkey Shines: An “Experiment in Fear” (1988),” “The Dark Half” (1993), “Bruiser” (2000) and “Land of the Dead” (2005).

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