Interview with the Zombie
by Ghosty Girl
I
was in the company of legendary child zombie Kyra Schon from
Night of the Living Dead
Kyra
once wrote:
My name is Kyra Schon and I appeared as the cellar-dwelling, trowel-wielding,
mother-stabbing, father's-arm-eating zombie girl Karen Cooper in the
original 1968 Night of the Living Dead. I grew up watching and loving
horror movies and I realize how fortunate I was to be a part of horror-film
history; it has truly been one of the highlights of my life.
Nepotism played a large part in my getting the role of 'Karen'. My real father Karl Hardman was the cowardly control freak 'Harry Cooper' and a co-producer of the film. The role had originally been written for a boy but since there was a boy shortage that year, they settled for the nearest young, warm body they could find. That was me.
My impressions of the whole experience were, of course, generated from the perspective of a nine year old child. By that time I was already a confirmed horror movie junkie, thanks to Bill "Chilly Billy" Cardille and "Chiller Theater" every Saturday afternoon. (At that time, The Crawling Eye and The Wasp Woman were my favorite movies.)
It was fascinating to watch ordinary people transformed into flesh-eating ghouls. I loved seeing zombies stand around the barbecue grills waiting for their hot dogs, zombies smoking cigarettes, zombies driving cars. There was a surreal quality to that scene that could only be truly appreciated by the mind of a child.
Bill Hinzman (the graveyard ghoul) was, in my opinion, the scariest looking zombie and my personal favorite. He was my zombie role-model. I compare all others to him and everyone else pales (no pun intended) in comparison. Incidentally, none of the zombies were ever green, as that awful colorized atrocity would have you believe.
Although I didn't pursue a career in films, I do feel that my role as Karen Cooper has enhanced my life. I've been afforded the opportunity to get to know people that I otherwise would never have met. I am moved and still somewhat overwhelmed by the real affection that people feel for the film and the enthusiasm and warmth with which we, the cast members, are greeted at conventions.
Finally, I want to thank all of you Night of the Living Dead Heads. Without your support of the movie, this (web) page and many others like it wouldn't exist. I hope to meet all of you at some point in the future.
Until
then, stay in the cellar.
-Kyra
=============================
In J.Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum's book Midnight Movies they devote a chapter to Night of the Living Dead:
When Night of the Living Dead -a boldly titled and totally threadbare
horror film made in rural Pennsylvania by an offshoot of a Pittsburgh
ad agency- opened in late 1968, the first sort of attention it received
was an expression of acute nausea. As Variety put it: "This film
casts serious aspersions on the integrity of its makers, distrib Walter
Reade, the film industry as a whole and exhibs who book the pic, as
well as raising doubts about the future of the regional cinema movement
and the moral health of filmgoers who cheerfully opt for relieved sadism."
Roger Ebert, the movie critic of the Chicago Sun Times, caught Night of the Living Dead at a Saturday matinee and was horrified by what he saw. the audience was mainly children, "dumped" by their parents for an afternoon at the movies. early on, Ebert thought, the kids seemed to be enjoying the film's deliciously spooky thrills. then the movie turned dull and talky for a spell. And then something else started to happen and it freaked the critic out. As Night of the Living Dead rolled inexorably on, Ebert noticed that "the kids in the audience were stunned. There was almost complete silence. The movie had long ago stopped being delightfully scary, and had become unexpectedly terrifying. A little girl across the aisle from me, maybe nine years old, was sitting very still in her seat and crying. i don't think the younger kids really knew what hit them. they had seen horror films before, but this was something else. This was ghouls eating people -you could actually see what they were eating. This was little girls eating their mother. this was being set in fire. Worst of all, nobody got out alive -even the hero got killed."
The film was created and released, Midnight Movies points out, during the same season martin Luther King was assassinated and Robert Kennedy was gunned down and the extreme turmoil all of America was experiencing at that time. They conclude, "Night of the Living dead was not only an instant horror classic, but a remarkable vision of the late sixties -offering the most literal possible depiction of America devouring itself."
=================================
Ghosty Girl and Kyra chat among the Undead
It was so great meeting her. I liked how everything instantly turned to black and white, just like an early ghoul movie. I felt like such a star. I decided to ask her a few interview questions as a treat to bring back home to my readers at the Midway. Here goes...
GHOSTY
QUESTION #1:
So Kyra, did all of you see yourself and the film in this greater social
commentary context (IE: the way the Frankenstien story is a metaphor
for bad parenting and bad fatherhood or the way Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
is a metaphor for the dangers of alcoholism)? Because it's pretty neat
to see the devouring undead in a serious context of our "regular
cultural history", and imagine how it could have been summoned
as a sort of mirror that was happening all around you and the filmmakers
at the time of its making (a changing America in the late 1960s).
KYRA:
I'm sure the adults around me were keenly aware of the social context,
but at that age I didn't know what a social context was. For me it was
just a chance to be a zombie and chomp on people. It wasn't until I
saw the movie again years later that its cultural relevance occurred
to me.
GHOSTY
QUESTION #2:
When you look back on your fictional character's childhood role in horror
culture do you see it in terms of a kind of shared kiddie monster childhood
with other childhood monster stars like young Linda Blair as Regan in
The Exorcist and Kirsten Dunst as Claudia in Interview with the Vampire
and Butch Patrick as Eddie Munster in The Munsters? Because I think
I lump you all together that way. What a fun sandbox!
KYRA:
I don't really see it that way. I was only on screen for a few minutes,
and although the mother-stabbing scene is recognized as being a pivotal
moment in horror history, I see my participation as being relatively
minor and I don't consider myself in the same class as those other actors.
GHOSTY
QUESTION #3
Variety (October 16, 1968) concluded, "Until the Supreme Court
establishes clearcut guidelines for the pornography of violence, Night
of the Living Dead will serve nicely as an outer-limit definition by
example." As a little kid did you have any clue stakes this high
were being discussed around your character?
KYRA:
Wow, I never heard that quote. Pretty amazing! Night of the Living Dead
did break new ground in terms of the depiction of violence and gore.
GHOSTY
QUESTION #4
As a full grown woman, how did you re-start identifying with zombies?
Is there a story behind it?
KYRA:
I fully embraced my zombie-hood after attending my first convention
way back in 1988. Until then life as a zombie had been somewhat uncomfortable
for me, when I even thought about it at all. Doing the movie was a totally
positive experience, but the aftermath was less than fabulous. I really
hated the attention -- positive and negative -- the role brought me.
As a result I didn't even talk about the film. Some of my friends, however,
would introduce me to people as "the little girl in Night of the
Living Dead." Something about that always felt kind of creepy to
me; it made me feel like I was an exhibit in a freak show rather than
a person in my own right. The outpouring of love for the film from fans
at conventions changed the way I viewed the movie and my experiences
and I'm grateful for them. I've always loved zombies, but now I love
the fact that I had the opportunity to be one.
GHOSTY
QUESTION #5
Recently you had a big movie star night out in Pittsburgh, PA with the
release of a newer zombie flick. Being that you are zombie-royalty,
care to share a bit of what that evening was like?
KYRA:
The evening of the "Land of the Dead" premiere was amazing
and I had to keep reminding myself that I was only a few miles from
my home. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez were there; Simon Pegg
and Edgar Wright of "Shaun of the Dead" came from England
to be there (they also had cameos as zombies in LOTD). Of course, the
usual Pittsburgh suspects were there as well: Tom Savini, Greg Nicotero
(who is originally from here), most of the cast of George's other "Dead"
movies, and so it was also a "family reunion" of sorts. The
film premiered in the same location as Night of the Living Dead in 1968,
so there was a sense of deja vu for me that night. Coincidentally, the
after-party was held at the Deja vu Lounge!
GHOSTY
QUESTION #6
You run an advice column from the zombie's point of view. What advice
do you give when you get real live wack-jobs who write you wanting to
experience tasting real human flesh (in a Jeffrey Dahmer sort of way)?
KYRA:
To my knowledge, I haven't heard from any real-life cannibals. Then
again, I do get the occasional plea for hypothalamus recipes, so I could
be wrong.
GHOSTY
QUESTION #7
Recently I was watching a short Frosty the Snowman cartoon and it reminded
me of a kind of Frankenstein story in that life gets breathed into this
inanimate thing and it leaps up and dances around. Maybe what I saw
in Frosty was more of a Jewish Golem story meets Pied Piper thing going
on. Anyway, my question to you is, do you have weird thoughts like this
all the time too?
KYRA:
My weird thoughts usually involve Photoshop. Life would be so much simpler
if our little dilemmas could be managed with a real-life, 3-D Photoshop
program. We could paint our walls with the click of the mouse button,
remove slow cars and their drivers from traffic, remove annoying people
from our lives, fix leaking roofs, leaking pipes, etc. I think this
means I spend too much time on the computer. Another weird thought is
my recurring fantasy about having the powers of levitation and invisibility.
GHOSTY
QUESTION #8
You make your own spades. I really like them! I'll have to get one and
bring it back to hang it in the hotel kitchen as an additional delightful
handy cooking utensil. How did you get into making them? And, we're
collecting creative recipes for the hotel kitchen. Speaking strictly
zombie here, got any recipes one might use one for?
KYRA:
Well, Ghosty Girl, they are actually masonry trowels, so they wouldn't
be very handy in the kitchen unless you wanted to kill the cook and
hide the body behind a hastily-constructed brick wall. But you didn't
hear that from me.
The Horror Channel sponsored a recipe contest in conjunction with the Land of the Dead premiere last summer. The winning recipe was Beer Can Cadaver and it's perfect for summer Bar-B-Qs!
GHOSTY
QUESTION #9
You've never eaten kitty, have you?
KYRA:
I'm aghast that you would even ask! Aside from the occasional human
spleen, I am a strict vegetarian.
GHOSTY
QUESTION #10
Speaking strictly zombie again, if you stayed a while in the hotel, as a grown up zombie (for future reference
of our guests), what area of the hotel do you imagine we'd most likely
bump into you lurking around? The dungeon basement? The attic rafters?
The kitchen? In the halls? The Monkey Room?
KYRA
The cellar is the safest place. (You have a Monkey Room?)
GHOSTY
QUESTION #11
Again, speaking zombie here, if we were dining together in the Grand
Midway hotel kitchen and could serve you anyone... let me rephrase that...
if you could eat any person from all of history, who would it be and
why?
KYRA:
There are so many it's hard to choose. However, for sheer quantity,
I'd have to go for Henry VIII. He was meaty and not very nice.
Yikes! She was so wonderful. What a zombie! That was the coolest!!!
-Ghosty