George A. Romeros' follow-up to his legendary zombie film "Night of the Living Dead" is, according to the filmmaker himself, his all-time worst. But this viewer found some merit in it. It's certainly not as bad as some of the later entries in Romeros' "Living Dead" series. It's of some value as a curio, although it might not appeal to rabid horror fans who love some of Romeros' other work.
It's basically a romantic drama with a sense of humour, and a time capsule that takes a look at attitudes and morals in the early 1970s. Raymond Laine, who also appeared in Romeros' next film, "Season of the Witch", stars as Chris Bradley, an easygoing dropout who doesn't really know what he wants to do in life and doesn't much care. He enters into a relationship with Lynn Harris (Judith Ridley, in her only other film role besides Judy in "Night of the Living Dead"), a beautiful model and commercial actress. His approach to life is refreshing to her at first, but his essential lack of seriousness is troubling.
Laine, who also talks straight to the camera, offering Chris' thoughts on what went wrong in the relationship, is engaging. The character could be seen as smug and obnoxious, but he does also have some charisma going for him. Ridley is quite watchable, if not as talented on the acting front. The largely no-name cast of Pennsylvania natives is good in support, including Roger McGovern as Chris' dad and Johanna Lawrence as Chris' ex-girlfriend, who has a son that might have been fathered by Chris. S. William Hinzman, the memorable cemetery zombie of NotLD, appears as a drunken barfly.
The eclectic soundtrack is a mixture of styles, and adds some appeal to this interesting outing for Romero. It does feature some pointed and provocative dialogue as people ruminate on subjects like life goals and the essentials of advertising (an appropriate topic, since the filmmaker had started out doing commercials in addition to short films before gathering together the funds to do NotLD).
This viewer wouldn't consider this a great film by any means, but it is quite watchable, and completists will definitely want to give it a look.
Seven out of 10.
It's basically a romantic drama with a sense of humour, and a time capsule that takes a look at attitudes and morals in the early 1970s. Raymond Laine, who also appeared in Romeros' next film, "Season of the Witch", stars as Chris Bradley, an easygoing dropout who doesn't really know what he wants to do in life and doesn't much care. He enters into a relationship with Lynn Harris (Judith Ridley, in her only other film role besides Judy in "Night of the Living Dead"), a beautiful model and commercial actress. His approach to life is refreshing to her at first, but his essential lack of seriousness is troubling.
Laine, who also talks straight to the camera, offering Chris' thoughts on what went wrong in the relationship, is engaging. The character could be seen as smug and obnoxious, but he does also have some charisma going for him. Ridley is quite watchable, if not as talented on the acting front. The largely no-name cast of Pennsylvania natives is good in support, including Roger McGovern as Chris' dad and Johanna Lawrence as Chris' ex-girlfriend, who has a son that might have been fathered by Chris. S. William Hinzman, the memorable cemetery zombie of NotLD, appears as a drunken barfly.
The eclectic soundtrack is a mixture of styles, and adds some appeal to this interesting outing for Romero. It does feature some pointed and provocative dialogue as people ruminate on subjects like life goals and the essentials of advertising (an appropriate topic, since the filmmaker had started out doing commercials in addition to short films before gathering together the funds to do NotLD).
This viewer wouldn't consider this a great film by any means, but it is quite watchable, and completists will definitely want to give it a look.
Seven out of 10.