Friday the 13th will be a little spookier this year in Lawrenceville with the start of a tribute to the late George Romero. Row House Cinema’s week-long celebration will feature five Romero films including Creepshow, Night of the Living Dead and a restoration of Season of the Witch.
#RomeroWasHere: A week-long tribute to Pittsburgh filmmaker George Romero runs Oct. 13-19.
The iconic horror filmmaker made most of his movies in Western Pennsylvania; he died this summer at age 77. Row House Spokeswoman Casey Taylor said Romero loved working in the city and was an avid supporter.
“We really wanted to bring a bunch of the people and businesses in Pittsburgh that he worked with together to remember him and his work,” Taylor said.
House of the Dead, the now-closed Pittsburgh zombie store will be “resurrected” during the film festival, and organizers are planning a #RomeroWasHere scavenger hunt that takes participants to filming locations in the region, a workshop on how to act like a zombie and a special effects and makeup demonstration from a local program the filmmaker started.
“Romero put a lot back into the community in terms of working with the Douglas Education Center and setting up a filmmaker’s program there to really help nurture that next group of interested filmmakers in the horror genre,” Taylor said.
Romero was born in New York, but graduated from Carnegie Mellon University (then Carnegie Tech) in 1960. He made Pittsburgh his home for many years, learning his craft from working on the sets of movies and “Mister Rogers Neighborhood,” according to the Associated Press.
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr
