I know that that title is how I felt leaving the Midway Drive-in in the wee hours this morning. I’m going on about 3-4 hours of sleep as I write this, so I apologize for any typos or ramblings that don’t make much sense, but I wanted to get this posted. Yesterday, we were at the Midway Drive-in in Sterling, IL for their Dust to Dawn Romero Fest, where they screened George Romero’s zombie trilogy, Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985), as well as The Crazies (1973) to round out the night. Honestly, I think The Crazies fits perfectly into that series since while they might not be zombies, the themes are pretty close and still very effective.

Anyway, we were there at 1pm to setup, in the blazing sun and heat. Normally, I am not a fan of being outside in those conditions. But since the last time we were at the Midway, where it rained in buckets, I’m fine with dealing with the heat. Besides that, it was a beautiful day for the drive-in. There were times where there wasn’t even a cloud in the sky. Maybe that was one of the reasons for the great turnout.

I’m sure I’m a little more optimistic when it comes to events like this, but being they were screening the Romero Dead Trilogy, I just assumed the fans were going to come out for it. I had gone out to the box office about an hour before they opened and was a little nervous because there were only a few cars. But when I went again about 10 minutes before the box office opened, there were plenty of people in line, with the line of cars already going out into the main road. Keep in mind, this was about 3 hours before the first film was going to start! Made this old horror fan smile with pride.

After the initial crowd came in, the lot continued to slowly fill up as we got closer to showtime. Hard to get a count of how many cars where there, but the lot looked pretty damn packed, so that was just awesome. Tons of horror t-shirts being worn proudly, everyone there out to have a great evening of fun and horror. Plus, we had a bunch of great conversations with different fans that had come out. Such a great experience.

I’ve seen Night of the Living Dead on the big screen a few times over the years, including before at the Midway. This screening was kind of special since the drive-in had recently installed a new 35mm projector so they could go back to screening movies on film, instead of everything being a digital print, which is just great. And to have the first film screened being Romero’s zombie classic, seemed fitting since it was something else rising from the dead to live once again!

But each time I watch Night, it never ceases to amaze me how effective it is, how well it still works, and how damn scary it can be, especially when you have the confrontation between the humans being almost as scary as dealing with the zombies! Another clue of just how smart of a filmmaker Romero was, and for the film to be as poignant today as it was over 50 years ago showing just that.

Honestly, the same goes for Dawn and Day. Both show humanity in different ways. At least in Dawn, you do have some characters that are trying to work together for the common good. While in Day, it really is a shit-show with humanity unfortunately showing its true colors. Still both powerful films.

Once Day finished, it was bout 3:30am. My wife and I had been there for about 14 hours then and we were both just beat. It’s about a 75-minute drive home for us, so I knew if we stayed for The Crazies, not only would we be driving home in morning sun, but we’d also both would have probably slept through the last film anyway. So, we decided to head home then just as the last film started. It was a challenging drive too, moving like zombies ourselves once we arrived home.

Many thanks to all of those that came out to support the Midway Drive-in, and us vendors that were there set up. You are the reasons we put ourselves through all the work, as well as having so much fun being around so many like-minded horror fans. And especially a HUGE THANKS to the Mike and Mia, and all the Midway staff for continuing to put on these kinds of events. That is why we need to keep supporting them, to show them that if they continue this type of programming, the fans will rise to the occasion, like the dead in a Romero film, to show support. So again, a BIG thanks to everyone!