Welcome to the first day of Romero Week, a new event put together by none other than that fright-fueled fiend Johnny Boots from Freddy in Space. Created to coincide with the upcoming release of George Romero's newest zombie flick, Survival of the Dead, Romero Week is a week long celebration of the director's greatest (and not so greatest) cinematic achievements. Participants include Kristy Jett and Ben Scrivens from the kick-ass Fright Rags, BJ-C from Day of the Woman, Zach Shildwachter from Z For Zombies, and Bill Adcock from Radiation Scarred Reviews and include a smorgasbord of exclusive interviews and special features so be sure to visit each of the sites listed above throughout the week. For my part, Strange Kids Club will be tailoring its Trailer Terrors feature to dig up some of Romero's lesser known gruesome gems beginning with Bruiser (2000).
Released on the cusp of the new millenium, Bruiser is a different kind of Romero film whose focus is more mind-bending giallo than it is a straight up stalk n' slash thriller. A little of a slow burn, the film serves as a subtext for anti-aggressive repression that remains a familiar ingredient in many of today's news stories of spontaneous violence or terrorism. As Henry Creedlow, actor Jason Flemyng does a decent job at playing an inverted PR agent who is constantly humiliated in every aspect of his life. As you can imagine this constant verbal abuse chips away at Creedlow until one morning he awakes a completely new man... sort of.
Rather he awakes with no identity at all, a stark white mask in place of his once sullen face, Creedlow has mysteriously been granted a new lease on life and he's hellbent and making this one count. The film only gets more twisted as the story progresses and even offers a few disquieting laughs thanks to actor Peter Stormare as the Creedlow's deviantly malevolent Milo Styles. It's definitely a much quieter selection by Romero (sharing much more in common with Martin that is often overlooked in favor of his zombie epic, but one that exemplifies the director's diversity. Totally worth a rental.
Dude, have you SEEN Martin? It's incredible! Very underrated in my opinion. Got it on Netflix the other day and was just blown away. One of my new favorite Romero flix for sure!