“My dad created this monster in the form that we all know it, and he used it as a way to look at society over the course of several decades.” Writer/director Tina Romero is talking to FANGORIA about her father’s enduring legacy. Indeed, entire books have been written about the subtext found inside George A. Romero’s zombie films. The racial tensions and injustices simmering under the surface (and then boiling over) in Night of the Living Dead; Dawn of the Dead’s depiction of a consumerist impulse so strong it not only kills the living, but raises the dead; the abject failure of government institutions to save any of us in Day of the Dead; one-percenters enjoying fine dining and cozy living behind electrified fences while the apocalypse rages outside in Land of the Dead, and so on. Ms. Romero’s point is that each entry of the Romero zombie canon has reflected its era, and in doing so became even more resonant over time, a universality existing and ripening within each film’s respective specificity.
That legacy, one which many pretenders to the zombie throne seem to have forgotten, is perhaps why it feels so fundamentally correct that Ms. Romero is embarking on Queens of the Dead, a film that’s poised to take her father’s creation very much into the here and now. “My dad’s zombies were always reflecting what was going on in the world, and I almost feel a responsibility to take the torch and keep the Romero zombie alive, upholding, respecting, paying homage to it, while also introducing myself and my own voice as a filmmaker, and my own perspective. Which is different from his.”
And how. The film, which begins filming this month, drops the classic Romero zombie outbreak onto the sexy, sequined fableau of a drag show in a queer NY club. “It takes place over one night, at the beginning of the dead rising,” Romero reveals. “We find ourselves at a big warehouse party in Bushwick. We’ve got a party promoter for whom everything’s going wrong, and her lead act has dropped out, so she needs to call upon a friend — a retired drag queen — to resurrect his drag, to come and save the night. And it turns out to be a night of many resurrections,” she says, laughing. “And our motley crew of characters find themselves holed up in a Bushwick nightclub, having to decide ‘do we get out of here or do we board the place up?’ And they’ve got to survive the night. It’s about a group of non-fighters finding the survival skills deep within.”
Ms. Romero assures FANGORIA that Queens, which she’s co-written with novelist and comedian Erin Judge, will honor what came before, presenting a gory siege pitting the living dead against a team of ragtag protagonists fighting for their lives. “It’s going to be a conga line through the zombie apocalypse,” she laughs. “I really believe that zombie movies should be fun. And my hope is that audiences find this movie to be a fun ride that’s packed with some good jump scares, and some yummy gore and some pretty amusing characters.”
Ms. Romero wasn’t a horror junkie as a kid, but growing up in the Romero household all but guaranteed a certain level of exposure. “I grew up on Pippi Longstocking and West Side Story, and I was a ’80s Disney kid. But I sat on a zombie’s lap before I met a mall Santa,” she says. “I would be watching Bye Bye Birdie in my room at night, and then tiptoe past a horrifying movie poster on the wall. My world has always been a very strange juxtaposition of dark and light, and that is what I think of as at the core of my creativity.”
That creativity has fueled a successful career in the NYC club scene (as her alter ego DJ TRX) but, understandably, the moviemaking itch has always been there. “I’ve been at it for a minute; the bug bit me very young,” she says. “I went to film school, I’ve done lots of shorts and music videos, and I’ve been dreaming of making a feature for years.” But the filmmaker initially resisted the pull of the genre. “People have always asked me, ‘Don’t you want to make a zombie movie?’ And I would always say, ‘No, I want to make a gender-swapped Peter Pan!’ I didn’t want to do a zombie thing unless I knew how to do it authentic to me, as an artist, and as something that felt of my world, and felt like a story I could tell.”
That story eventually revealed itself to her during her day (night?) job.
“There was a party that I DJ’ed regularly. It was a beloved weekly party, and one year, one of the co-promoters broke off, and started a rival party on the same night. It was a big drama, and there was a big social media war. And the original promoter posted this manifesto that begged the question, ‘When will the queer community stop devouring its own?’ And it kind of hit me like a bolt of lightning. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is the way into the genre for me.’ I want to look at zombies through the lens of going out, and specifically within this community.”
The idea took a bit of time to flourish. “I got to pitch it to my dad, and he said, ‘Take it, run with it. I love it.’ And unfortunately, he passed before I had a draft,” Romero says. “But then COVID hit, and it gave me this opportunity to really hunker down and get the script done, get the pitch together and take it out. And it’s not the easiest time to get something made. It’s definitely been pulling a sled up a mountain. But we got here.”
Romero’s affection for her father’s work is palpable. “I’m excited to put the Romero zombie in this world — and when I say ‘the Romero zombie,’ it’s sticking to the mythology: slow moving, one bite turns you, got to take out the brain, a little lingering sense of humanity.” At the same time, she’s also keenly aware that the last thing her dad would want is hollow mimicry (she excitedly teases that her zombies will have a “new flavor” added). She’s confident that Queens of the Dead must, first and foremost, be authentic to her own artistic sensibilities — some of which will be an adjustment for old-school zombie fans.
“My perspective on the world is female, it’s queer, and it’s very dance-y. And I describe what I’m going for as a ‘glam gore zom-com.’” And how exactly will that manifest on the screen? “There… might be some glitter in the blood,” she laughs. Another example: “When I was in high school and college, I was very big into dance and choreography, and I would choreograph numbers with 30 people. I kind of always go for the spectacle.” Additionally, “I’m a bit more fantasy leaning; I’m a bit more design leaning; ‘How are these zombies dressed?’ Of course, that is something my dad had a lot of fun with as well. But I think that there’s just a little bit more of a fantasy and glam element to what I’m going for.”
Romero drops one particular bombshell about her new film that’s sure to be divisive among old-school zombie fans.
“There will be no guns in this movie,” Romero declares. “I think it’s very boring to kill zombies with guns. And this is all about DIY. What kind of weapons is a drag queen going to make on this night, out of what they have in the green room? ‘No guns’ is one of the large conceits of this film.” (Before any oldheads get their knickers in a twist at this news, Fango will remind you that the UK-set zom-com masterpiece Shaun of the Dead did just fine with no guns for the bulk of its running time.)
It certainly sounds like a trail or two is about to be blazed, and aiding Romero in bringing this new era of Romero zombies to life (death?) is Vanishing Angle, the production shingle behind a recent Fango fave. “I saw Josh Ruben’s Werewolves Within in 2021 and I said, ‘I’ve got to meet the people who made this movie.’ It’s an ensemble horror, leaning into comedy, quirky, set in a small world. I thought it was such a good film, and I just wanted to meet the producers behind it.” Those producers were Natalie Metzger and Matt Miller, whose get-it-done energy hit close to home for the director.
“They’re so unafraid of jumping into something edgy, ambitious, and they’re not afraid of taking risks and getting dirty. And we had a conversation that was like, ‘Let’s do it in the spirit of your father.’ I could hear him in my head saying, ‘Make the movie, kid. It’s better to make a movie than not make a movie.’ Vanishing Angle fosters a type of filmmaking that’s very family driven. And that’s how my dad made movies. And I love that.”
Queens of the Dead films this summer and is poised to hit screens — and the pages of FANGORIA Magazine — in 2025.
