George Andrew Romero Jr. was an American-Canadian film director, writer, editor and actor. His Night of the Living Dead series of films about a zombie apocalypse began with the original Night of the Living Dead (1968) and is considered a major contributor to the image of the zombie in modern culture. Other films in the series include Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985).
Romero at the 2009 Venice Film Festival
Romero (center) on the set of Knightriders, 1980
Romero attending a horror convention, 2005
Romero in 2016
Zombie apocalypse is a subgenre of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction in which society collapses due to overwhelming swarms of zombies. Typically only a few individuals or small bands of survivors are left living. In some versions, the reason the dead rise and attack humans is unknown, in others, a parasite or infection is the cause, framing events much like a plague. Some stories have every corpse rise, regardless of the cause of death, whereas others require exposure to the infection.
A group of actors dressed as zombies for a film
Night of the Living Dead established most of the tropes associated with the genre, including unintelligent but relentless zombies.