10 Things Didn't Know About Night Of The Living Dead
6. The Novelisation and its Sequel
The movie tie-in novel was written by none other than John Russo himself. He also wrote a direct sequel to the novelisation called Return of the Living Dead in 1977. Return of the Living Dead is not to be confused with the 1985 comedy-horror movie of the same name, although Russo also wrote that.
The events of the sequel take place a decade after the end of Night of the Living Dead, and we find humans have successfully fought back against the zombies and that things have almost gone back to normal. Well, apart from the local Reverend’s insistence on putting a spike through the heads of all the recently deceased, something the Sheriff disapproves of, because OBVIOUSLY corpses rising could never happen again. As it turns out, the Rev is right, as following a fatal bus crash the Sheriff prevents the congregation from spiking the heads of the dead. Surprise, surprise, the dead begin to rise. After this the story follows pregnant Karen and her sister, trying to survive with the help of “State Troopers” and the prisoners they were transporting.
This is not exactly a literary masterpiece but fans of the franchise who have not read it before will definitely get a kick out of Return of the Living Dead.