Night of the Living Dead (1990) / Z-View
Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Director: Tom Savini
Screenplay: George Romero based on The Night of the Living Dead original screenplay by John A. Russo and George Romero
Stars: Tony Todd, Patricia Tallman, Tom Towles and Bill Cardille.
The Pitch: “Hey, let’s update (and copyright) a remake of ‘Night of the Living Dead’!”
Tagline: There IS a fate worse than death.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Tom Savini takes the helm of an updated version of Night of the Living Dead. All the key players and set pieces are in place but it’s like watching a historic event from a slightly different timeline. There are little changes in character but none of them are for the better.
Barbara starts off the same — overcome with shock from the realization that the dead are rising to eat the living, but partway through the movie she is ready to pick up a gun and go Rambo on zombies or humans that tick her off. Ben is now as much of a hot head as Harry Cooper.
And the zombies aren’t like the zombies we’ve grown used to. They’re not as scary. Of course part of THAT problem is that when the ONOTLD was made, the zombie genre was being invented. We’re almost 50 years from that and zombie expectations are much different. (Only a true horror aficionado would understand that!) Also being filmed in color doesn’t help either.
The movie was still fun and I think most fans would enjoy the ride.
Rating:
