Back around the turn of the century, George A. Romero came to visit my film school. He was a guest of faculty member Gerald S. Paonessa, the executive producer of Monkey Shines. While I was a fan of his Dead movies, the big project Romero was working on the time was an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. Part of the film was getting filmed at Fenway Park since Tom “Flash” Gordon was a closer for the Boston Redsox. I told him when he went for a location scout visit to ask the team executive giving the tour to take you through the dugout so his first view inside the park would be like a player. The film was never made. Romero had no intention at the time of making Land Of The Dead. Otherwise I would have been begging him to let me play one of the numerous undead roaming the screen and hopefully dying one more time in an extremely memorable day. Jeanie Jefferies got to do exactly that in Dawn of the Dead. But she was more than a featured zombie. Jeanie’s Face Exploded is a short documentary that lets us know about her time with Romero and make-up wizard Tom Savini and the mystery as to why she vanished from the Pittsburgh movie scene.
Jeanie explains how being a model for Pittsburgh’s Iron City Beer eventually led to a chance encounter with Tom Savini on the streets of the city. He saw something in her make up that made her offer her a job during their brief encounter. It wasn’t just any job, it was being part of the make-up crew on Dawn of the Dead that was shooting a nearby shopping mall. The film was already being shot so she was immediately behind the camera ready to touch up the undead and nearly dead between takes. Later she gets to play a memorable undead attacker who has her face shot off. We learn about what could have gone wrong at that time. But she trusted Savini since they were becoming a couple. She enjoys the filmmaking process and is part of the crew for Romeros next film Knightriders. She tells a few fun stories about dealing with Ed Harris who was not eager to have his royal biker character wearing makeup. Why didn’t Jeanie end up doing make up for Romero’s Creepshow or his Tales From the Darkside TV series? I don’t want to spoil what happened except it is not about creative differences or a tiff with Tom Savini. It really makes the short film about her more than the usual show biz story.
Since the documentary about Jeanie Jefferies is short, the rest of the disc is filled with other short projects from director Chad Campbell. It’s a retrospective on a disc which works since his film are about a Godzilla marathon, the closing of a videostore and an ongoing Halloween video event. The films float into each other. I’ll go into details in the bonus features section. Jeanie’s Face Exploded is a charming time with an undead actress.
The Video 1.78:1 anamorphic. The film is recorded in video so it looks good along with most of the images from Jeanie’s life. The Audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. The film is mostly her talking so everything sounds fine. The movie is subtitled in English.
Full, raw interview with Jeanie (86:24) let you experience all her stories.
Commentary Track features Chad Campbell and Roger Schwartz talking about how the short came about. He gets into his editing choices.
Roger’s Nest (3:42) takes us inside the house where Jeanie was interviewed. Turns out there’s more to see than the giant bookcase of home video. Roger Schwartz is from a family of obsessed collectors.
Trailer (0:54) shows her bit scene in Dawn of the Dead and the mystery of where she went.
Last Day for Videos (8:42) won a Hubbie-Award Winner from Joe Bob Briggs. The movie gets an introduction from Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman. He talks about how the video store carried his titles unlike Blockbuster. The film’s focus is the final days of the Family Video Store. Chain was doing well in 2014 with 800 stores. Their store in Kalamazoo, Michigan shut down in February of 2021 because of COVID. The older audience that still rented home video didn’t want to leave their houses at the time. The store couldn’t make it. We see the remains of the place with only a few discs on the remaining shelves.
Last Day for Videos: Acoustic Cut (7:19) is an alternate edit that’s partly in 4:3 with a black-and-white. It makes the store shutting down feel sadder.
Commentary Track for Last Days for Videos (7:19) has Chad Campbell talk about working with musical associate. Family Video was his favorite store so it’s a sad film for him. He talks about how he gives a bigger chance to a movie on physical media whereas he’ll swap off a streaming video after a few minutes.
Halloween Movie Marathon XX (17:35) is a short that Chad Campbell made about a yearly evening of scary films that has happened since 2003. The folks who attend remember their favorite movies and odd incidents during the night. I miss having people over for my Halloween triple feature of terror.
A Week of Kaiju: Godzilla Vs Music Box (6:20) gives us the background on a Kaiju festival at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre in Chicago. They even projected 35mm copies of the film. Chad Campbell takes the camera into the theater so you see how this amazing festival was presented that week.
SRS Cinema presents Jeanie’s Face Exploded. Directed by Chad Campbell. Starring Jeanie Jefferies and Godzilla. Running Time: 21 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: March 10, 2026.
