Tina Romero Continues Father’s Legacy with Queens of the Dead

Tina Romero, daughter of the late George Romero, is finally dipping her toes in the horror genre with Queens of the Dead, which she describes as a “conga line through the zombie apocalypse.”

Fangoria announced the news today exclusively with an interview with the filmmaker. Known in the New York City club scene as DJ TRX, Romero attended NYU Film School and has produced several shorts and music videos, but Queens of the Dead marks her first foray into feature filmmaking. She says she purposely avoided the horror genre until she had a story she could authentically tell.

“People have always asked me, ‘Don’t you want to make a zombie movie?’,” Romero says. “I would always say, ‘No, I want to make a gender-swapped Peter Pan!’ I didn’t want to do a zombie thing unless I knew how to do it authentic to me, as an artist, and as something that felt of my world, and felt like a story I could tell.”

Queens of the Dead, which begins filming this month, centers on a drag show in Bushwick where the lead act has dropped out, leaving the promoter to scramble and desperately ask a retired queen to revive their act one last time. That’s when the beginning of a zombie invasion begins.

“Our motley crew of characters find themselves holed up in a Bushwick nightclub, having to decide ‘do we get out of here or do we board the place up?’,” Romero adds. “They’ve got to survive the night. It’s about a group of non-fighters finding the survival skills deep within.”

Romero co-wrote the script with novelist and comedian Erin Judge, but did get to pitch the idea to her father before his passing in 2017.

“He said, ‘Take it, run with it. I love it.’,” she says. “Unfortunately, he passed before I had a draft. But then COVID hit, and it gave me this opportunity to really hunker down and get the script done, get the pitch together and take it out.”

Natalie Matzger and Matt Miller, who produced Werewolves Within in 2021, are on board to produce the film, which is slated for release in 2025. Check out the full article from Fangoria for more information.