Interviewed by Michael Juvinall, MoreHorror.com

I recently had the great opportunity to talk with writer/producer/director John A. Russo at Days of the Dead convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Russo is best known as co-writer of the groundbreaking film, Night of the Living Dead along with director George A. Romero. 

His career has spanned 45 years in the entertainment industry.  Some of his notable projects include co-writer of Return of the Living Dead, director of such films as Santa Claws, Heartstopper, and Midnight. 

He has written3 books on filmmaking that are considered the bible by industry insiders such as Quentin Tarantino and Darren Lynn Bousman among others.  Russo has also partnered up with fellow NOTLD alum Russ Striener to create one of the most highly regarded college courses on filmmaking there is. 

Read on as we discuss Night of the Living Dead, Return of the Living Dead and more.

Michael Juvinall:  I wanted to thank you for taking some time out to talk with me.  What prompted you to get into the filmmaking business?

John A. Russo:  I messed around doing films while in High school.  Rudy Ricci, a good friend of mine who recently passed away, he was one of the original shareholders on Night of the Living Dead.  We met when we were 9 years old and were friends for a long time, I went to West Virginia University and he went to Carnegie Tech which is now Carnegie Mellon University as a fine arts major.  His first day on campus he met George Romero, he called me up and said "when you come back for Thanksgiving or Christmas, you have to meet this guy".  We met George and we all became friends and then met Russ Streiner the same night George Romero did because Rudy and Russ were in a stage play.  George was the one that got us excited about doing movies in Pittsburgh and eventually we worked our way up to where we had enough equipment and studio space to talk about doing a feature film and that film became Night of the Living Dead. 

MJ:  Who has influenced you as a writer and filmmaker?

JR:  The two films that influenced me whenever I was writing NOTLD and we were doing script discussions was the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Forbidden Planet.  Those two films showed me that something really good could be done in the genre.  I wanted to make a film that had that same kind of stark terror, power and shock; that was my goal.  Writers - so many writers.  All of my writing has an element of mystery, I love mysteries.  Norman Mailer was probably my favorite writer.  I've read a lot of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Jonathan Kellerman. I'm a voracious reader.

MJ:  You are directly responsible for all the zombie mania that's happening right now.  If it wasn't for you and Romero’s script for NOTLD, none of this would be happening right now.  It's all because of you two.  How do you feel about that?

JR:  We try not to live on past laurels, even though we can meet fans at conventions like this one.  I'm always more interested in what I'm doing now, but certainly it's gratifying to have made a movie that's so popular and endearing and also that has inspired so many other filmmakers and shown them the way to start their careers.  The idea that they would be dead people and in search of human flesh, those two ideas were mine.  Without those you don't have NOTLD, it kind of annoys me when I hear things like George is the only person responsible for everything, I don't bear any animosity to George, we're friends.  We're executive producers on the new stage play that's being developed in Toronto; we still work on some things together.  I don't like taking a bad rap when I don't deserve it.

MJ:  What do you think of the zombie craze now; do you feel zombies are over-saturating the market right now?  Zombies are everywhere.

JR:  They're in the same category as vampires now, anytime anybody thinks of something new and original to do with them, they've touched a nerve in the public and they're probably going to be around forever now. 

MJ:  The sub-genre of zombies and vampire goes in cycles, for a decade or so they'll be really popular and then they disappear for a while and then come back again with fresh new ideas and stories. 

To briefly touch on Return of the Living Dead, was it your idea to change the rules a little bit as far as zombies in that film just eating brains and not being able to be destroyed with a blow to the head or bullet to the head?

JR:  The first script on Return of the Living Dead was straight horror just like NOTLD, it wasn't imitated but it was straight horror.  That script was developed by me, Rudy Ricci and Russ Streiner; we sold it for a lot of money eventually because we had trouble getting it financed.  Hemdale and Orion brought Dan O'Bannon in to the film to direct and they said "you can't have straight horror anymore, that's dead.  Let's make it into a comedy."  Dan wrote the humor into it, those ideas you mentioned about the zombies only eating brains were his.  I novelized his script, now there are two Return of the Living Dead novels, one straight horror and one based on the movie. 

MJ:  I loved the film, but I think I would've liked to have seen your original script filmed more due to the straight horror.

JR:  A lot of people wanted to see it.   Escape of the Living Dead, when that comes about, I'm supposed to direct it.  It's a script that's in a similar vein, hopefully we'll get that movie made and they won't tamper with it too much. 

MJ:  I'm sure a lot of people would like to see that, myself included.  I own and have read all your filmmaking books, "Making Movies", "Scare Tactics", "How to Make your Own Feature Movie for $10,000 or Less" those books are considered gospel for a lot of aspiring filmmakers.  What made you want to write those books?

JR:  I was an English teacher and teaching is in my blood.  I was inspired to use those books as textbooks in my own movie making program which I now Russ Streiner and I co-direct; John Russo's Movie Making Program at DuBois Business College in Pennsylvania.  We've been there for five years and every year the students have won awards and recognition, we think it's the best film course in the country and the least expensive.  Anybody who’s interested should check it out. 

MJ:  What do you think of today's horror movies compared to when you started out with NOTLD?

JR:  The gore thing has never been really my cup of tea. 
Quentin Tarantino said at the Land of the Dead premiere that my books guided him through his first movies.  I get the same comment from many lesser known filmmakers.  Anytime you're a teacher, it's good to know that you've helped people. 

MJ:  What other projects do you have coming up that you'd like to talk about?

JR:  I'm writing the novel of “Escape of the Living Dead” which is going to be published in 2013 by my publisher Kensington Books and I just finished self-publishing some things on CreateSpace.  I did my "Zombie Kidz' Exercise & Coloring Book".  I've been exercising for 50 years myself and staying in shape.  I did my "Busy Executive's Exercise Manual", "The Death of our Democracy: An American Horror Story" those are all on Amazon.com along with "The Complete Night of the Living Dead Filmbook & Scrapbook" and pretty soon the original NOTLD screenplay available on Amazon.

MJ:  What's the status of Night of the Living Dead Live?
JR:  It's in production in Toronto and George Romero, Russ Streiner and I are executive producers.  The director is Chris Bond and he directed the "Evil Dead: The Musical" stage play, it's a very talented group of people. 

MJ:  Those are all the questions I have for you; I wanted to thank you so much for talking with me.

For more information on John A. Russo, you can visit his IMDB page (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0751652/)

For more information on “John Russo’s Movie Making Program” at DuBois Business College (http://www.dbcollege.com/web-content/pages/movie_making.html)