As the director tells it, George A. Romero was driving the 35mm print of his maiden feature film voyage Night of the Living Dead from Pittsburgh to New York City for its world premiere.
Romero has made 6 “official” Dead films, with a 1990 remake serving as the 7th sidebar entry in the series.
Night of the Living Dead was a horror movie that he and his partners at The Latent Image had made in order to get into the feature film business.
Understandably shaken, Romero couldn’t help draw the murder back to the events of the film that lay coiled in cans in his backseat.