10 Celebrated Horror Directors That Made Video Games
5. George A. Romero
Game Credits: City of the Dead (canceled)
The late George A. Romero is, without contest, the godfather of the modern zombie mythos. His low-budget classic Night of the Living Dead (1968) established the ground rules: slow-lumbering, flesh-eating corpses that can only be stopped with a bullet to the head. This film placed him among the pantheon of horror legends, with Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985) completing his genre-defining trilogy. While the rest of his filmography was more uneven, he still managed to deliver several cult favorites (e.g., Creepshow, Martin) before his passing.
Romero’s first brush with gaming came in the mid-1990s in what seemed like a match made in horror heaven: the Resident Evil franchise. He was originally brought on as the director for the first movie adaptation, but the studio later replaced him with Paul W. S. Anderson. At least he did get to direct a stylish live-action TV commercial for Resident Evil 2.
His second foray came in the mid-2000s, when his production company brokered a deal to create a series of video games set in his “Living Dead” universe. The first of these, City of the Dead, was a first-person shooter featuring advanced dismemberment mechanics, with Romero attached as creative supervisor and cutscene director.
The game reached pre-alpha stage and was close to release in 2005, but before the year ended, publisher Hip Interactive filed for bankruptcy, and the project was scrapped. It was a sad outcome, considering Romero’s direct involvement, and the early gameplay footage looked like bloody fun.