Publishers Weekly
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Novelist Kraus (Whalefall) offers an entertaining deep dive into George A. Romero’s classic horror film. The author’s first encounter with Night of the Living Dead on TV at five years old inspired a lifelong passion for horror, low-budget filmmaking, and Romero’s movies (the author collaborated posthumously with Romero on a novel, The Living Dead). The book is structured around a frame-by-frame reexamination of the film, with copious detours exploring related angles, including the film’s ragtag production, the infamous copyright snafu that gave the production company “no power to stop Joe Schmoe from screening it,” and Fred Rogers’s humble request that Romero refrain from casting Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood’s Betty Aberlin “in his movie about flesh-eaters.” Kraus’s close critical analysis of the film, however, is where the book really pops, as he makes a convincing argument for understanding the film as representative of the U.S. in the late 1960s—suffused with the mangled carnage of the Vietnam War and the violent backlash against the civil rights movement. (Regarding the first zombie that appears in the film, Kraus writes: “This sounds histrionic, but he’s Vietnam. He comes out of nowhere. He’s doesn’t fight how we think fights are fought. He looks unthreatening until abruptly he’s killing us. He’s a terrorist you can’t blame for his terrorism.”) Romero devotees will be enamored. (Mar.)

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

An obsessed fan of a pioneering zombie film explores its creation, fan lore, and deeper meanings. Kraus, author of this lively, conversational study of the 1968 horror classicNight of the Living Dead, has the proper bona fides for such a project: An accomplished horror and thriller author, he completed a couple of unfinished fiction projects byDead director George A. Romero, including 2020’sThe Living Dead. But perhaps more importantly, he’s aDead superfan, estimating he’s seen the film 300 times. And as the book shows, he’s drawn plenty of insights from the film and its legacy. Walking through the movie minute by minute, he discusses the offbeat backgrounds of each actor (prospective female lead Betty Aberlin worked onMr. Rogers’ Neighborhood); the clever efficiencies Romero used to deliver the film on a budget, particularly the public-domain sound effects; and the peculiarities of the script, which have plenty to say about racism, herd mentality, and sexism. Kraus, who seems to have experienced every film, comic, video game, and T-shirt relating to the film, can be obsessively detailed in his observations: What kind of radio is reporting that humans are being “partially devoured” by zombies? What’s that book on the farmhouse shelf? Still, his storytelling isn’t off-puttingly geeky or fixated on fans-only details. That’s partly because he’s so personable, weavingDead details into his own history as a teenage filmmaker, writer, and horror fan. But mainly he’s persuasive about the idea that the film is not just a horror classic but a passkey through America’s darkest instincts, from the MLK assassination to the January 6, 2021, insurrection. (A digression on the troubling case of Kyle Rittenhouse is particularly inspired.) “The film is America,” he writes. “Can we even call what we are doing living? Or are we long dead and only going through the zombie motions?” A sage take on a low-budget classic. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal
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Using timestamps as headings, novelist Kraus's (Whalefall) book about the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead initially reads almost like a commentary track. The onscreen action in the movie inspires reveries, with Kraus reflecting on his own life and tracing the careers of its cast and crew. (In this notoriously low-budget film, there was often crossover between the two jobs.) He also explores the film's relevance upon its release and today. Initially aimed at drive-in audiences, Night transcends through its inspired, diverse casting (Black actor Duane Jones is the movie's heart) and social commentary. Kraus explains the movie's timelessness and its impact on generations of viewers. Contemporary audiences viewed it in relation to the Civil Rights Movement and the war in Vietnam, while today's viewers key into the mob violence and depiction of a pandemic. Kraus guides readers with the passion of someone who has seen the film over 300 times, lovingly catching continuity errors but also marveling over actors' micro-expressions and exploring the expansive franchise of comic books, sequels, and remakes. VERDICT Kraus says that every time he made someone watch Night, it was an act of love; his book is another act of love, highly recommended for horror buffs.—Terry Bosky

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

New York Times best-selling author Kraus (Angel Down, 2025) loves the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, but he has never written about it with such heartbreakingly beautiful emotion. He begins by talking directly to the readers, helping them sync up their versions of the film to match the time stamps scattered throughout the book. Kraus continues in this conversational style, watching the film with his audience and pausing to share 360 degrees of detail. To say that Kraus takes readers down a rabbit hole is an understatement, one that trivializes the depths to which he probes the movie, the life stories of those involved in its creation, its worldly significance, and most importantly, how he would not be the writer, or even human, he is without it. More than the intimate memoir or film study the title proclaims, this is storytelling at its finest. For all readers, whether they have heard of Romero or not, this is a book about America and about death, oozing with grief on every page, while simultaneously bursting with life. An easy suggestion for fans of Cassandra Peterson's Yours Cruelly, Elvira (2021), but it is more similar to Joan Didion’s unforgettable classic, The Year of Magical Thinking (2005).