Zombie Flicks: Night of the Living Dead (1990)

Long before I finally saw any of these films, whenever I would be in a DVD store and see this particular film, I would always become very confused. I knew that there was a black and white movie called Night of the Living Dead but then I would see the DVD for this, pick it up to look at it, and the photographs on the back would be in color. I was not quite old enough to understand what remakes were and, in fact, I had not even figured out that the Return of the Living Dead movies were not part of the series. With a title like that, you'd expect it to be a sequel, and then, you see DVD's for Return of the Living Dead Part II and 3, which adds to the confusion. I was like, "How many of these movies are there and how do they fit together?" Of course, I eventually saw the original films, got the confusion all sorted out, and that ultimately led me to this. Going into it, I had heard that it wasn't very gory, it was directed by Tom Savini, and it was almost exactly like the original, but I had never heard anybody say whether or not they thought it was good. I couldn't find any general consensus on it other than, "It's a remake of Night of the Living Dead. That's pretty much it." In my opinion, though, it is a good film. It may not have the weight and significance of the original, and there are times where it's a bit too much like the original, but, if nothing else, it's an entertaining zombie flick and is different enough from George Romero's film to where it can be looked at as more than just a mere rehash of it.

The reason for making this film was to finally make money off of the name, after Romero, John Russo, and Russ Streiner hadn't gotten much of anything from the original, especially after it ended up in the public domain. They'd taken the issue of rights to the film to court and had won their case but, unfortunately, for them, the distributor they were suing went out of business immediately after the court case. Out of options, and worried that someone might make an unauthorized remake, Romero and company decided that they'd best beat them to the punch, making this the first time since the original that they'd collaborated on something together. Sadly, the idea didn't pay off, as this movie bombed at the box-office and got lambasted by critics for being too similar to the original. While I can understand why it wasn't that popular at the time, although its status has grown in the years since, it's still a shame that this attempt to get some overdue money that the filmmakers deserved didn't work out.

George Romero handed over the director's chair to his buddy and effects maestro Tom Savini, which was quite an opportunity for him since he'd been asked to do the makeup for the original film but got drafted into Vietnam. It wasn't his first shot at directing, as he had done three episodes of Tales from the Darkside, which Romero created, but it was his first feature and a remake of a beloved classic of the genre, so it was a lot of pressure for him. Looking at the little featurette with him on the DVD and listening to his audio commentary, I would have never guessed that making this film was a miserable experience for him and that, although he's more enthusiastic towards it now, he actually hated the movie for a long time. Judging from an interview he did in the special Fangoria Legends issue on Romero's career and legacy, it seems like Savini was caught up in an overwhelming storm of difficult circumstances: he clashed with Russo and Streiner, who were the producers on the film, and didn't have Romero on the set to back him up, as he had to leave to begin work on The Dark Half (Savini says that, as a result, the final movie is only 30 to 40% of what he originally envisioned), the film's short schedule of just four weeks was a major constraint, and his wife filed for divorce a week into shooting, meaning that was weighing on his mind as well as the usual stress that comes with directing a movie. And the whole thing also caused some strain between him and Romero, although they've since patched up their differences. So, it's sad to hear about the crap that Savini went through on this film and when you combine that with the film not doing well, it's small wonder why he didn't direct again until the 2000's and even then, it's only been a video short, a special feature on a new edition of Red Scorpion, and segments in little-seen anthology films like Deadtime Stories and The Theatre Bizarre (at this time, he's directing a remake of Umberto Lenzi's Nightmare City, though we'll see how much publicity that draws).

The biggest reason I like this film so much is the cast: nearly all of the actors are either equal to or even better than their counterparts in the original. Tony Todd, in particular, is just awesome as Ben, proving to be more than a match for Duane Jones. Like the previous film, we learn very little about them but it doesn't matter because, while he is frightened himself, he comes in, takes control of the situation, and does everything he can to help the others trapped in the house, particularly Barbra. He also suffers a much worse fate here than in the original, as he does become a zombie before being shot in the head by the hunting posse (what's really poignant is that he seemed to recognize Barbra right before he bought it). There's nothing else I can say other than Todd's acting is top notch and, while we would prove to be excellent in the role, it's a shame he got typecast by the Candyman movies and didn't become the big star he deserved to be.

When it comes to Harry Cooper, as good as Karl Hardman was in the original, I think Tom Towles is superior because of just how unlikable he is. Cooper may have been an asshole in the original but, in this movie, he's absolutely loathsome. He's verbally and physically abusive to his wife (when she tries to unlock the basement door, he smacks her!), is always trying to force her to get back down in the cellar, takes a rifle from Barbra when she's trying to defend Ben when he's outside amongst the zombies, and, knowing damn well that his kid, Sarah, is now a zombie and can't be helped, he tries to kill Ben and Barbra when they try to protect themselves from her (his shooting Ben is what leads to him dying and becoming a zombie). Most infuriating of all is how, after he's shot Ben and tried to take a shot at Barbra, Cooper proves himself to be a selfish coward when he climbs up into the attic and barricades himself up there, forcing the wounded Ben to retreat down into the basement. And while he may shown some sympathy for his daughter in his unwillingness to let Ben and Barbra shoot her, I notice that he doesn't wonder what happened to Helen, who died after being sent down into the basement with Sarah. Needless to say, the ending where Barbra blows his brains out and lets the posse believe he was a zombie, leading to them burning his corpse, is satisfying as hell.

McKee Anderson's portrayal of Helen Cooper isn't much different from Marilyn Eastman's in the original: she's much more reasonable and willing to help than her husband, whom you can tell she has no love for at all and has to endure verbal and physical abuse from him. However, she's a lot more forceful in her fighting back against Cooper, at one point throwing a drawer at him when he's trying to drag her back down into the basement, although that doesn't stop her from being sent back down into the basement by him near the end, where she's again attacked and killed by the zombified Sarah (Heather Mazur). Speaking of Sarah, while Mazur, like Kyra Schon before her, spends the majority of her screentime lying down on a table in the basement, she has more of a threatening presence to her when she becomes a zombie (just look at that face) and gets to be onscreen a little bit longer before being shot, which didn't happen in the original.

This movie's biggest improvement over the original is the portrayal of Barbra. If you've seen my review of the original, you know that I couldn't stand Barbra there, as she was completely useless, whiny, and catatonic. In this movie, it seems at first like she's going to go the same route as she's clearly rattled by the opening cemetery attack and, while she has more life in her than Judith O'Dea did, she still looks and acts as if her mind is completely frayed. But, once the shit really starts to hit the fan, she comes out of it and, after a little spot of stir-craziness, becomes a survivor. Patricia Tallman is an absolute badass in this movie, one who's not only not afraid to blow the zombies' brains out (she's the one who kills Sarah) but also calls the others out when they won't stop fighting. And she even says something that I know many people had to have been thinking by this point: "They're so slow! We could just walk right by them." That was so awesome, I actually cheered. Finally, somebody with a lick of sense! It pays off, too, as she's able to escape and get to safety, although she ends up being too late to save Ben. She's not to late to pay back Cooper for the crap he caused, though, which is another cheer moment for her.

Frequent horror actor Bill Butler plays Tom, the character played by Keith Wayne in the original. Not much to say about him other than, as in the original, the character is simply a decent guy who's just trying to survive and does what he can to be helpful. Also like in the original, there's even less to say about his girlfriend, Judy Rose (Katie Finneran), other than she's a typical girlfriend who's worried about the safety of her beau and tries to help but ends up being more of a hindrance. Another notable role is Johnnie, who, this time, is played by Bill Moseley from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Rob Zombie's House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. While it's a small role and he has virtually the same exact lines as from the original ("They're coming to get you, Barbra"), Moseley brings a lot of life and energy to it, as he does to every role he plays, managing to be more obnoxious that Russ Streiner was. Streiner is in the film as well, this time briefly playing Sheriff McClelland at the end and saying the popular line, "Yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up."

For a film directed by Tom Savini, the "King of Splatter," you might be surprised to learn that there's very little gore in this film. You don't have shots of zombies tearing big, bloody chunks out of people, disemboweling people, or blood flying everywhere when they get shot, as you did in George Romero's two previous films. That was a conscious decision made by Savini and the special effects crew, as they felt that drowning it in blood and guts would be disrespectful to the almost bloodless original. In fact, I'd say this movie is even less bloody than the original, exemplified in the only truly bloody scene I can remember, where they pay homage to the spade-stabbing scene and tiny streaks of blood hit the wall rather than the gobs of it seen before. Instead of gore, the effects artists focused their attention on the zombies, which are quite well designed and a lot of them have their own unique looks. There's quite a variety of them as well: some have been dead for a while and are very decomposed, while others have died only recently and look like normal people shambling around. The cemetery zombie at the beginning is much more decayed and rotten-looking than Bill Hinzman was before and it's a whopper of a makeup, as well as the big hillbilly zombie, Uncle Rege, who Barbra encounters when she first enters the farmhouse: A very distinctive zombie is the grossly thin one that bursts through a window at one point and gets blown away by Barbra. According to Savini, the actor really was that thin, which makes me go, "Ugh." (I mean, look at him!) Another memorable zombie is one who falls to the ground and the lower half of his body is bent around in a very painful-looking manner (I also remember him for how enormous his forehead is, to the point where you can barely see his eyes). A rather touching moment with a zombie occurs when Barbra escapes the house and encounters a reanimated girl holding a doll. Unable to bring herself to shoot her initially, she tries to push her away but the zombie just tries to bite her again and even snarls at her, so Barbra has no choice but to shoot her, causing her to scream in frustration and run off. It's one of my favorite moments in the film and feature some good acting by Patricia Tallman. That's something of a prelude to the sad ending where a posse of riflemen arrive at the house and break down the basement door that Ben crawled through after being shot, revealing when we find out that he died from his injuries and became a zombie. He seems to have some humanity remaining, though, as he doesn't lunge at the riflemen when he walks up to the door and, like I said earlier, when he looks at Barbra, he even seems to recognize her. But, of course, that's not enough to save him from being blown away by the posse and burned with the rest of the corpses.

The themes from the original are still present in the remake, just not as much, no doubt due to it being made during a very different time period. Regardless, Savini still strives to get the idea across that they could probably overcome what's happening if they'd work together but, because they won't stop fighting amongst each other, they're not likely to persevere. He also makes it equal, too. Ben may be much more reasonable and level-headed than Cooper but he's not always right either, as in the scene where he thinks Cooper is trying to take a television set they find upstairs down into the basement with him and the fights he starts ends up breaking it. And like I said, I love it when Barbra calls them out on how stupid they're acting, yelling, "You can talk to me about losing it when you stop screaming at each other like two-year olds!" I was so happy that there was someone with some sense in this kind of movie. However, the best bit of social criticism in the film comes at the end when Barbra sees how crazy the people hunting the zombies have gone and how downright cruel they're being towards them, especially when she sees several of them hanging from a tree by ropes to be used as target practice. The zombies are not inherently evil but rather, like wild animals, are just doing what they do; the real people, however, are being much more malicious than the zombies ever could be. Barbra's final observation says it best: "They're us. We're them and they're us." Is this how we treat each other in the real world? Considering how much this stuff is identical to footage you see from war-torn countries or those ruled by a cruel dictator, it's not that far off. And the montage of pictures over the ending credits looks identical to the one in the original, not in terms of their content but the uncomfortable feeling of inhumanity they're getting across.

For all the praise I've given this film, I do think it has its faults, and its biggest problem is that it relies too much on the fact that it is a remake of a classic film. It's not a shot-for-shot remake like Gus van Sant's redundant "reimagining" of Psycho but it still doesn't take too many chances for fear, I assume, of upsetting fans of the original. I think when writing the screenplay, George Romero should've understood that he wasn't writing the original again but rather that this was a different movie altogether and should've gone farther with it. Another problem is that Savini seems to assume that everyone watching the film has seen the original, as he often throws in twists on the original's plot to surprise the fans. In addition to the radically different portrayal of Barbra, some examples include the opening taking place on a clear, sunny day rather than an ominous, overcast one, the man approaching Barbra in the cemetery turning out to not be a zombie, with the real one popping up out of nowhere, the aforementioned reference to the spade-stabbing in the original when the little girl zombie kills her mother and you see a shot of the blood hitting a spade, and the twist with Cooper surviving the night and Ben becoming zombie, although they both get shot at the end. Those are indeed nice little twists for those who've seen the original but, what about those who haven't? Just because a movie is famous, is considered a classic, and is the public domain doesn't mean everyone on the planet has seen it. This stuff wouldn't kill the movie for them and it might not confuse them either but, more than likely, it'll fly over their heads, making the effort in doing them wasted. Bottom line, you should really try to cater a remake or a sequel to both types of audiences rather than just those who are already familiar with what spawned it.

There's not much to say about the music score, composed by Paul McCollough, other than it fits the film well. There aren't many themes or pieces that stick out, save for the nightmarish theme that plays over the ending credits and goes well with the montage of disturbing, sepia tone images, but the music keeps the pace moving and is a nice match to the tone of the movie. Like the original film, this one is meant to scare you more than entertain you and the music helps maintain the vibe of terror it's going for you. Can't really say much more than that.

Night of the Living Dead '90 may not be an instant classic like its parent but I feel it more than holds its own and is definitely worthy of being included amongst the other films. It's a shame that Tom Savini had a miserable time making the film and, for the longest time, didn't really care for it, because it proves that he is quite a competent director with some nice technical skills and, in fact, I don't think you could have guessed that the movie was made amidst some turmoil because it's so well put together. It's shot well, is very nicely-paced, has some great actors, some of whom actually improve upon their respective characters' portrayals in the original, some nice makeup designs for the zombies, some nice twists on the original's plot, manages to keep the original themes intact, has a very satisfying ending, and a suitable music score. While it does suffer from being too similar to the original and relies a bit too much on the notion that many of its viewers will have seen it for its story elements, in my humble opinion there's enough good in this film that, if nothing else, it will always be an entertaining zombie flick and a nice companion piece to the original.