I thought I knew Night of the Living Dead. I’ve certainly seen it enough times. I’ve read books about the movie, I read the articles and watched the interviews. Night of the Living Dead is ingrained in my system.
However, that damned Daniel Kraus puts me to shame.
Let’s see. The first time wasn’t even really a first time. Night of the Living Dead was playing on a UHF channel. Me and two friends were spending the night together, as we often did. I was around, oh, maybe twelve years old?
We were excited. The movie came on at, I think, 10:30 at night. We were all ready.
The grainy picture, the startling images, and the ominous tone of the movie had us all on edge. By the time the living dead were terrorizing the house and beginning to eat human flesh, we all decided the movie sucked and turned the channel. I think Monty Python was on PBS.
I can speak for us all when I say we were scared shitless and didn’t want to admit it to each other.
The next time was different. I was older and more courageous. We were also imbibed with liquid courage in the form of barley and hops.
A group of us went to see Steve McQueen’s final movie, The Hunter, at a nine o’clock screening, then we hustled up to a midnight show of Night of the Living Dead. From there we retired to a fort in the woods to finish getting drunk and pass out.
Young enough to still have a fort but old enough to drive and buy beer. Such a magical time of life.
Needless to say, we all loved Night of the Living Dead. It was the first time, but far from the last time.
Later I bought my first VCR, and I began to collect videocassettes. I was so excited to buy Night of the Living Dead. It was a GoodTimes videotape and the print was scratchy, with some tracking problems. It was recorded at SLP speed. I didn’t care. I owned Night of the Living Dead.
I watched that tape numerous times. The next step was when Night showed on Joe Bob Briggs’ Drive-in Theater, on The Movie Channel. Joe Bob had some of the cast and crew on hand and interviewed them. Joy of joys. The quality was better than the GoodTimes tape and I of course made a copy.
I watched that one a bunch of times.
DVD came into the world, and I bought an Anchor Bay edition of Night of the Living Dead. Now, at last, I had the best possible print I would ever have.
I watched it again and again.
Back around 2016, my wife and I ran a monthly movie program at the library. When George Romero died, we had a special showing of Night of the Living Dead. An elderly woman showed up and asked if the movie was scary. “Yes”, I replied. “It is.”
She went into the auditorium anyway. After the movie ended, she came out, visibly shaken, and said she hated it. Then her keys were locked in her car. She was nearly in tears from the aftereffect of the movie and was terrified we would leave her. Of course we didn’t. We tried to get in through the window and failed, so we called Pop a Lock and paid for it ourselves. The poor woman did not have a good night.
Fathom Events played Night of the Living Dead shortly after that. We went to see it.
A couple years later we traveled to a drive-in that was playing all-night horror movies. I made it through a few of them, but got too tired and sort-of slept in the seat of my car. I woke up, blurry-headed and exhausted, and watched Night of the Living Dead at 5:30 AM. The sun was rising by the time poor Ben faced his fate.
I shamefully admit that I bought the despised Night of the Living Dead 30th Anniversary DVD John Russo released in 1999. All I’ll say is, Mr. Kraus is more forgiving than I am.
I know Night of the Living Dead. How many times have I seen it? Oh, I don’t know. Fifty? Sixty? Certainly no more than seventy-five times.
Daniel Kraus claims to have seen Night of the Living Dead three hundred times. And counting. After reading Partially Devoured: How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World, I have no doubt it’s true.
I’ve been a Daniel Kraus fan since 2011 when a publicist sent me an advance copy of Rotters. I hadn’t heard of him, but I read the book and I absolutely loved it. Since then I have been an enthusiastic reader of his books and I’ve preached the Gospel of Kraus to many other readers.
What are my personal favorites? There’s Rotters. Bent Heaven is a masterpiece. Blood Sugar is a mad work of brilliance. The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch is an epic of imagination. Whalefall triggered my claustrophobia and I may chicken out from watching the movie. Angel Down is boldly unprecedented and is a work of literary genius.
I figured Partially Devoured would be a fun book, a confection to be enjoyed by fans of Night of the Living Dead. I generally enjoy nonfiction books about movies. I was sure I’d love it. I did not expect Partially Devoured to be my very favorite Daniel Kraus book. But it is.
Daniel Kraus knows Night of the Living Dead. He knows it in his brain, his guts, and his soul. This is more than merely a book about a cult movie. It’s a scathing and deeply emotional look at America in the last fifty years.
Partially Devoured vividly depicts the violence, the blind patriotism, racism, and our seeming inevitable, ceaseless conflict with each other.
In Daniel Kraus’s world, as in Night of the Living Dead, our heroes are noble, but far from flawless. Horrifyingly, the assholes might even be right about a few things. Help isn’t coming, but even if it is, we are better off without it.
The enemy is at the gate and he is us. Despite our best intentions, we might even become exactly like them. If your beliefs, your appearance, your skin, your passions defy the norm, you are less than human and deserve no less than a bullet in the head.
Partially Devoured is also a blow-by-blow examination of the movie. You can almost read it as you watch Night of the Living Dead, like a written commentary.
Trust me, no matter how much you know about Night of the Living Dead, Daniel Kraus will point out details you missed. He could probably have taught George Romero a few things about his movie.
Partially Devoured is always interesting, occasionally hilarious, and all-too often devastating. I read the book while the nation watched the violence and death with ICE in Minneapolis. Kraus could not have foreseen exactly what would happen there, but it was a perfectly horrifying time to read it.
I felt like I was hit by a sledgehammer when I finished the last page. Partially Devoured took the wind from me and was almost too applicable to what was happening in the world. How different are the hunters at the end of Night of the Living Dead and ICE agents? Both are bloodthirsty, with hateful xenophobia.
Is Ben any different than Alex Pretti? Or the Vietnam War protesters at Kent State? Or George Floyd? Perhaps, just perhaps, all of them made mistakes, but was it necessary to kill them? Is it our nature to hate and fight and eliminate those with different ideals? Are we in our own zombie apocalypse?
Daniel Kraus has no answers and neither do I? I don’t think George Romero did either.
Partially Devoured celebrates our beloved Night of the Living Dead. It’s also a sobering examination of the movie’s themes and how they are applicable in today’s world. Or maybe they were always applicable and they always will be.
Yes, Partially Devoured is my favorite Daniel Kraus book. Few books in my long life of reading have affected me so deeply and in such a penetrating way.
I thought I was done with Night of the Living Dead. Oh, I knew I would watch it again, but that old DVD was fine by me. Thanks to that damned Daniel Kraus I have purchased the Criterion Blu-Ray, I ordered an officially licensed They’re Coming to Get You, Barbara tee shirt, and I ordered Reflections of the Living Dead from Makeflix.
Where will it all end? It’s really true: It won’t stay dead. Night of the Living Dead will continue to rise up and consume my life. As long, at least, as I am among the living.
All joking aside, thanks Daniel Kraus, for bringing new life into an old favorite.
Written by Mark Sieber
However, that damned Daniel Kraus puts me to shame.
Let’s see. The first time wasn’t even really a first time. Night of the Living Dead was playing on a UHF channel. Me and two friends were spending the night together, as we often did. I was around, oh, maybe twelve years old?
We were excited. The movie came on at, I think, 10:30 at night. We were all ready.
The grainy picture, the startling images, and the ominous tone of the movie had us all on edge. By the time the living dead were terrorizing the house and beginning to eat human flesh, we all decided the movie sucked and turned the channel. I think Monty Python was on PBS.
I can speak for us all when I say we were scared shitless and didn’t want to admit it to each other.
The next time was different. I was older and more courageous. We were also imbibed with liquid courage in the form of barley and hops.
A group of us went to see Steve McQueen’s final movie, The Hunter, at a nine o’clock screening, then we hustled up to a midnight show of Night of the Living Dead. From there we retired to a fort in the woods to finish getting drunk and pass out.
Young enough to still have a fort but old enough to drive and buy beer. Such a magical time of life.
Needless to say, we all loved Night of the Living Dead. It was the first time, but far from the last time.
Later I bought my first VCR, and I began to collect videocassettes. I was so excited to buy Night of the Living Dead. It was a GoodTimes videotape and the print was scratchy, with some tracking problems. It was recorded at SLP speed. I didn’t care. I owned Night of the Living Dead.
I watched that tape numerous times. The next step was when Night showed on Joe Bob Briggs’ Drive-in Theater, on The Movie Channel. Joe Bob had some of the cast and crew on hand and interviewed them. Joy of joys. The quality was better than the GoodTimes tape and I of course made a copy.
I watched that one a bunch of times.
DVD came into the world, and I bought an Anchor Bay edition of Night of the Living Dead. Now, at last, I had the best possible print I would ever have.
I watched it again and again.
Back around 2016, my wife and I ran a monthly movie program at the library. When George Romero died, we had a special showing of Night of the Living Dead. An elderly woman showed up and asked if the movie was scary. “Yes”, I replied. “It is.”
She went into the auditorium anyway. After the movie ended, she came out, visibly shaken, and said she hated it. Then her keys were locked in her car. She was nearly in tears from the aftereffect of the movie and was terrified we would leave her. Of course we didn’t. We tried to get in through the window and failed, so we called Pop a Lock and paid for it ourselves. The poor woman did not have a good night.
Fathom Events played Night of the Living Dead shortly after that. We went to see it.
A couple years later we traveled to a drive-in that was playing all-night horror movies. I made it through a few of them, but got too tired and sort-of slept in the seat of my car. I woke up, blurry-headed and exhausted, and watched Night of the Living Dead at 5:30 AM. The sun was rising by the time poor Ben faced his fate.
I shamefully admit that I bought the despised Night of the Living Dead 30th Anniversary DVD John Russo released in 1999. All I’ll say is, Mr. Kraus is more forgiving than I am.
I know Night of the Living Dead. How many times have I seen it? Oh, I don’t know. Fifty? Sixty? Certainly no more than seventy-five times.
Daniel Kraus claims to have seen Night of the Living Dead three hundred times. And counting. After reading Partially Devoured: How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World, I have no doubt it’s true.
I’ve been a Daniel Kraus fan since 2011 when a publicist sent me an advance copy of Rotters. I hadn’t heard of him, but I read the book and I absolutely loved it. Since then I have been an enthusiastic reader of his books and I’ve preached the Gospel of Kraus to many other readers.
What are my personal favorites? There’s Rotters. Bent Heaven is a masterpiece. Blood Sugar is a mad work of brilliance. The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch is an epic of imagination. Whalefall triggered my claustrophobia and I may chicken out from watching the movie. Angel Down is boldly unprecedented and is a work of literary genius.
I figured Partially Devoured would be a fun book, a confection to be enjoyed by fans of Night of the Living Dead. I generally enjoy nonfiction books about movies. I was sure I’d love it. I did not expect Partially Devoured to be my very favorite Daniel Kraus book. But it is.
Daniel Kraus knows Night of the Living Dead. He knows it in his brain, his guts, and his soul. This is more than merely a book about a cult movie. It’s a scathing and deeply emotional look at America in the last fifty years.
Partially Devoured vividly depicts the violence, the blind patriotism, racism, and our seeming inevitable, ceaseless conflict with each other.
In Daniel Kraus’s world, as in Night of the Living Dead, our heroes are noble, but far from flawless. Horrifyingly, the assholes might even be right about a few things. Help isn’t coming, but even if it is, we are better off without it.
The enemy is at the gate and he is us. Despite our best intentions, we might even become exactly like them. If your beliefs, your appearance, your skin, your passions defy the norm, you are less than human and deserve no less than a bullet in the head.
Partially Devoured is also a blow-by-blow examination of the movie. You can almost read it as you watch Night of the Living Dead, like a written commentary.
Trust me, no matter how much you know about Night of the Living Dead, Daniel Kraus will point out details you missed. He could probably have taught George Romero a few things about his movie.
Partially Devoured is always interesting, occasionally hilarious, and all-too often devastating. I read the book while the nation watched the violence and death with ICE in Minneapolis. Kraus could not have foreseen exactly what would happen there, but it was a perfectly horrifying time to read it.
I felt like I was hit by a sledgehammer when I finished the last page. Partially Devoured took the wind from me and was almost too applicable to what was happening in the world. How different are the hunters at the end of Night of the Living Dead and ICE agents? Both are bloodthirsty, with hateful xenophobia.
Is Ben any different than Alex Pretti? Or the Vietnam War protesters at Kent State? Or George Floyd? Perhaps, just perhaps, all of them made mistakes, but was it necessary to kill them? Is it our nature to hate and fight and eliminate those with different ideals? Are we in our own zombie apocalypse?
Daniel Kraus has no answers and neither do I? I don’t think George Romero did either.
Partially Devoured celebrates our beloved Night of the Living Dead. It’s also a sobering examination of the movie’s themes and how they are applicable in today’s world. Or maybe they were always applicable and they always will be.
Yes, Partially Devoured is my favorite Daniel Kraus book. Few books in my long life of reading have affected me so deeply and in such a penetrating way.
I thought I was done with Night of the Living Dead. Oh, I knew I would watch it again, but that old DVD was fine by me. Thanks to that damned Daniel Kraus I have purchased the Criterion Blu-Ray, I ordered an officially licensed They’re Coming to Get You, Barbara tee shirt, and I ordered Reflections of the Living Dead from Makeflix.
Where will it all end? It’s really true: It won’t stay dead. Night of the Living Dead will continue to rise up and consume my life. As long, at least, as I am among the living.
All joking aside, thanks Daniel Kraus, for bringing new life into an old favorite.
Written by Mark Sieber
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