Night of the Living Dead (1990) DVD Review
In this remake of the 1968 Night of the Living Dead, Tom Savini directs a cast of actors that, by and large, favor the original actors quite heavily. Beyond delivering fantastic performances in respects to pure acting ability, the cast worked well in the roles that were cut out for them over 20 years before and brought fresh originality and believability to each character. The tension between Tony Todd’s ‘Ben’ and Tom Towles’ ‘Harry Cooper’ can be felt every moment they are on the screen.
The screenplay, beyond where it intersects with the original George Romero/John Russo collaboration, was helmed by George Romero himself. The story starts out the same with a few twists on the original to add a bit more suspense, but takes a marked turn for the better when the main character, Barbara, pulls herself together to become a gunslingin’, corpse-droppin’ bad-ass rather than a whimpering, glassy-eyed head case like the 1968 story. This new Barbara is a character that more people would like to identify with, rather than being completely frustrated with in the original.
The special effects in Night of the Living Dead are outstanding, aside from the initial kill scene where Bill Moseley’s character ‘Johnny’ is represented by an obvious dummy when he falls head first on a head stone. Regardless of the obvious dummy, the scene works as it proves to be a real wince-inducer every time. The zombie make-up in this movie is, in my opinion, the best zombie make-up in any movie made to date. The cloudy-eyed, sunken-featured, pale-faced ghouls of Night of the Living Dead are my personal favorite. The special effects team of Everett Burrell and John Vulich worked fantastically here.
Even die-hard, purist fans of the original Night of the Living Dead should thoroughly enjoy this remade classic. It’s personally my favorite zombie movie and easily one of my top favorite movies of all time. If for some reason you’ve never bothered to check this one out, there’s no better time than now especially with all the bonus features on the DVD available now. Extra gory scenes that were cut to receive an R rating rather than NC-17 are featured as well as a full look back and ‘making of’ documentary. I highly recommend you check this out.
