‘Queens of the Dead’ Director Tina Romero Puts Personal Stamp on Her Father’s Zombie Legacy [Interview]

Filmmaker Tina Romero grew up with zombies as the daughter of late horror master George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead), but she never thought she’d actually make a zombie film.

Not only did Tina Romero prefer musicals over horror as a child, but the idea of even broaching her father’s enduring zombie legacy was intimidating. That changed when the filmmaker struck on the concept for Queens of the Dead, inspired by her experience as a DJ in New York City. 

In Queens of the Dead, a zombie apocalypse breaks out in Brooklyn on the night of a giant warehouse party, where an eclectic group of drag queens, club kids, and frenemies must put aside their drama and use their unique skills to fight against the brain-thirsty, scrolling undead. It’s the type of glam-gore setup that provided fertile ground for social commentary, a George A. Romero staple, while letting Tina Romero put her personal stamp on the horror subgenre.

“I am such a huge fan of my father’s, as a person and as a filmmaker,” Romero tells BD of her debut film’s origins and growing up with a master of horror. “I loved his movies and I loved him very much. I was hesitant to dabble in the zombie genre for a long time. When I went to film school, a lot of people would ask me, ‘Don’t you want to do a zombie movie?’ And I would always say, ‘Hell no. I want to do a gender-flipped Peter Pan. I want to do fantasy. I want to do musicals.‘ Because that’s really the stuff I grew up on.

“I describe myself as an edgy cheese ball. I was in my bedroom at night watching Pippi Longstocking, West Side Story, all the ’80s Disney flicks, and then I would walk to the bathroom and tiptoe past a horrifying movie poster of a terrifying monkey or Fluffy’s crate from Creepshow, which I knew was fake, but still I would walk a little bit more quickly past.”

Romero continues, “So, my world was very much this mashup of dark and light. My dad was also a big cheese ball. He was the most gentle giant who made some really dark and twisted movies, but he was really a silly, fun-loving person who loved to laugh and loved movies. He exposed me to so many movies from a young age. That’s was one of our primary forms of activities, was sitting together watching movies. He had a very strong itinerary of movies he wanted to expose me to. One of the things that really affected me was the way he was so willing to be unabashedly moved by the opening sounds of the overture of West Side Story. It would just move him to tears, and he would weep in front of me just as if it were nothing. I just saw from a young age the power that movies have to move people. That’s kind of where the bug really bit me, seeing the power that cinema can have over a person.”

“Anyway, it wasn’t until many years later, when in my experience as DJ TRx in the queer nightlife scene of New York, there was an event that happened that resulted in this manifesto being posted, asking the question, ‘When will the community stop devouring its own?’ It hit me that this would be the way for me to tackle zombies,” Romero recalls. “I didn’t want to do it unless I had an in to the genre that felt authentic to me, a story that I could tell with characters that I knew. And queer nightlife is just so full of incredible characters, the most DIY, creative, make-it-work, scrappy individuals. I wanted to see what would happen if these characters went through a crazy night of the dead coming to life.”

Tina Romero explains, “I think the thing that I feel now that the movie is done is I’m really proud of how this is not a George Romero movie. This is a movie that he would not have made. He was a bit more of a pessimist than I am. I think in general, he had a bit more of a nihilistic view on the world, and perhaps I’m a little bit more of an optimist. This is a zombie movie where I really hope people leave the theater with a pep in their step. Of course, I hope they’re thinking about some things too, because we do tackle the dark stuff of life. I can’t be his kid without making sure there’s some good social commentary in there. I am proud of how it’s a movie that he would not have made. However, I hope that people also feel his spirit in there because one of the things that I felt almost a responsibility to, if I was going to play in his sandbox, I want to make sure it’s like a Romero sandbox where you can feel him and you can feel the monster that he created and you can feel his spirit because his spirit is in me.“

Even the zombies are different in Tina Romero’s world. She explains, “Personally, I was bored of seeing zombies with hyper-realistic rotting flesh and ripped up flannel and jeans. I wanted to make these zombies a little bit more fabulous because that is the world of queer nightlife, and that is the world of the queers. I wanted to take it back to Dawn of the Dead. Let’s paint them green, and let’s also add a little bit of shimmer. Christina Grant, our amazing head of makeup, nailed the look. She got exactly what I was going for right away.

“We kept their eyes raw. We don’t have contacts; we didn’t VFX them. I think that actually seeing the actor’s eyes makes a big difference. It actually allows you to see the human side of the zombie, which is the whole point of a zombie, in my opinion, to hold up the mirror to your human self and ask, ‘Okay, what does this reflect about me? What does this monster reflect about being human?’ My dad always described the zombie as the most democratic blue-collar of all the monsters. There’s no discernible factor. It’s not elitist like a vampire. You don’t have to be chosen. It could be anybody. It could be your neighbor, it could be your grandma, it could be your kid. Anyone is fair game. I think, in a way, it makes it a really rich monster for social commentary because it is just an immediate reflection of us.”

As proud as Tina Romero is of her debut feature and its unique blend of gore and glam, she doesn’t intend to stick around the zombie subgenre for long.

“I am curious to keep pushing the genre blending,” she tells us. “I do love to stay outside of the rules a little bit, but I also love things that are a little bit irreverent and surprise you and feel different than anything you’ve seen. I really hope this is the start. I’m so inspired by Edgar Wright‘s career. I love how he’s done a musical, I love how he’s done a zombie film, I love how he’s done a thriller. I have so many interests, and I’d love to tackle a lot of things. Perhaps one thing I definitely don’t want to do, like my dad, is get pigeonholed into the zombie genre. He came to love doing zombie films, but he did get a little stuck in there. That’s what people wanted him to do. And I don’t see myself as the zombie guy, if you know what I mean.”

Queens of the Dead releases in theaters on October 24.

Read more from Bloody Disgusting’s Fall Horror Preview 2025.

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