Partially Devoured but Not Dead
On October 1, 1968, at the Fulton Theater in Pittsburgh, PA, a movie would premier that forever changed the landscape of the zombie genre, The Night of the Living Dead. On August 20th–over 58 years later and 316 miles away, at the County Theater in Doylestown, PA–the movie had risen again not to just to celebrate the legacy, but also a book entitled, “Partially Devoured: How The Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World” by 2026 Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Best selling author Daniel Kraus. The event was organized in conjunction with The Doylestown Bookshop, an all-day-long horror book event called Dark Ink.
Start of the Film and Crowd Reaction
As people settled into the sold-out theater and the start of the introduction of the film, I was shocked to learn that many in attendance had not seen the movie. As the lights dimmed down and the screen came alive, we also learned that the print of the movie we were watching was restored by The Museum of Modern Art and The Film Foundation. This was funded in part by The George Lucas Family Trust with The Celeste Bartos Fund for Film Preservation. It was fun to hear that George Lucas was involved in some way to help restore this movie and improve it to one of the best copies I have ever seen.
When the title card popped on screen, I was wondering if this was still relevant to today’s audience and what the reaction to it would be. As the events of the films unfolded in front of us, I heard others around me laugh and riffing about lines and scenes they were watching—until one scene shifted the tone, when Ben (Duane Jones) slaps Barbara (Judith O’Dea) back after she tries to get away to find her brother Johnny (Russel Steiner) in a state of shock. The crowd shuttered and gasped at the violence that just happened against a woman.
I feel this may have been the same reaction in 68’ but perceived worse with race being factored into it as well, given segregation and the civil rights movement being so prevalent at the time. As the shock wore off and the plot of the story continued to stumble along, the laughter and riffing started again until the scenes approached with the Ghouls (zombies) gathered outside the farm house slurping down liver, bugs and dismembered body parts. The crowd shrilled in disgust. Readers, I must confess I had the biggest smile on my face at hearing these reactions.
Then the third act, where the safety of the farm house is torn away, and the ghouls take it over. Ben, the lone survivor, goes into the basement, latching door behind him that he fought to be his last resort throughout the film, fearing for his survival. The next morning, the local ghoul killing posse shows up to bring hope to the audience that all will be well. In reality, one gun shot takes out hope and the idea of survival. This also silenced the surrounding crowd.
As photos of bodies being piled up to be burned and audio of the posse talking over the credits, the silence around me erupted into lively conversations of the injustice that we all witnessed. It showed me this movie can still hold up 58 years later and get a reaction out of a crowd. I did not share spoilers due to many not viewing this. If you want to know what that injustice may have been, you’ll just have to watch it and see.
Author Daniel Kraus Q and A on Partially Devoured
The lights came on, and two chairs were set up for the Q and A. The moderator, Rachel Harrison, is also a New York Times bestselling author. She is known for her works entitled Play Nice, So Thirsty, Black Sheep, Such Sharp Teeth, Cackle, and The Return. Her interviewee, of course, was Daniel Kraus.
Some background on Daniel Kraus, besides what I said in the introduction, is that he wrote two projects with Guillermo del Toro: Shape of Water and Troll Hunter. Both projects were adapted into award-winning films and TV shows. He would also work with another legendary filmmaker in George R Romero on the books The Living Dead and Pay the Piper. He is also a multiple award-winning author and authored many other works.
Rachel started out by asking how he got interested in the subject of the movie The Night of the Living Dead. Because the movie was in the public domain, at an early age, Kraus viewed it on TV multiple times with various edits and colored versions. He had seen it over 300 times and it changed his views as his perspective on life changed. This movie was a comfort to him in bad times in his life. Having such an interest in it led to the book.
She asked next what his writing process was for Partially Devoured. He replied that first he decided to approach the writing by looking at Night of the Living Dead scene by scene chronologically and breaking them down. He also wanted to add information about his personal life into the book. He only did a couple of scenes and was already at 75 pages and decided that he could make this a full-length book.
This led him to do major research about everyone involved with the film. He was surprised that this was very rewarding since many others had written in great detail previously about the subject of the movie. He was able to find a large amount of new information and was able to cobble it into an interesting narrative about the movie, his life, and the lives of the people involved.
He also talked about some of the key cast members and crew and how, because of public domain issues, with the title being changed right before the premiere and not being copyrighted, it would not bring success and fortune for these people involved, but actually hurt them in the end.
As they wrapped up around 45 minutes of Q & A, he would also talk about the background of some of the cast of the crew that worked on the movie and how much it interested him. One crew member worked with Andy Warhol and another worked at Roswell, New Mexico doing weather balloons. As the Q & A ended in a roar of cheers and applause, we exited the crowded theater to line up for the signing.
Meeting the Authors
The line was long but moved quickly with the event being in conjunction with the Dark Ink event. It was the last event of the day. Many of the people in line were volunteers or other authors involved with other events. There was a feeling of exhaustion and excitement in the air. Within the lines, conversations about viewing the movie for the first time and the ending were still being talked about, but also fans were talking about either author’s work. As the line got closer to the front, the anxiety of what to ask consumed me, in a way. This was only the second author event I have ever gone to and the first that was horror-related.
Rachel was the first person I got to meet and sign my book. She was very warm and welcoming. We had a good 10-minute conversation about the movie and how it still holds up and about how some younger fans don’t watch black and white classics like The Night of the Living Dead. Then it was on to Daniel. We talked about his research for the book and where he got it from. It was very interesting and exciting. He also talked about Whale Fall, the up-and-coming movie inspired by his book. He also worked on the screenplay for the film, which will be hitting theaters soon.
All together, this event was very well organized. It was nice to watch the film on the big screen for the first time and super exciting for me. It was also a plus to see it with a larger crowd and hear their reactions I spoke about earlier. It really gave me a new appreciation for a film I had seen so many times that I got fatigued from watching it so much.
The Q and A also helped to show me that you may just think you know everything about a film or thought you may have seen everything it could show, but you never know; there may be answers or sights out there just stumbling around looking to consume you. I thank everyone involved with this event and the authors. I’m looking forward to their future works and accomplishments. Classics may be partially devoured but never dead; there’s always something new you can sink your teeth into.