Review

Anyone really need a plot outline? For the odd reader living in outer Mongolia, this is a remake of Romero's classic zombie flick of the same name. Johnnie and Barbara arrive at an isolated Pennsylvania cemetery to pay their respects to their departed mother, a visit neither seems overly keen on. Pretty quickly we learn that "they are coming to get you, Barbara" �as the dead walk again, bringing along a taste for living flesh. Johnnie goes down trying to rescue Barbara and it's on for young and old.

Barbara flees to an isolated farmhouse where she teams up with Ben, the Coopers, and Tom and Judy. They attempt to board up the farmhouse and wait for rescue but all decent plans come to nothing in a horror flick. Facing an overwhelming force of the undead it's a question of who is going to survive till morning. One of the better remakes ensues. Ready to fight off the zombie hordes?

I can't imagine what the outcry would have been like back in 1990 when they announced a remake of Romero's classic Night of the Living Dead (NOTLD) was being made. The howls of displeasure over Romero allowing a colourisation of his movie to be released even reached Downunder but we were pretty much unaware of a remake as Savini's take on NOTLD wasn't released in this part of the world. End of day I had to import an R1 DVD copy to get a look at one heck of a controversial, amongst horror fans, movie. There's been a bit of tarting up of the old homestead, but did Savini get it right?

Guess a good place to start this review is with the differences between NOTLD original and the 1990 remake. Yes, Savini pretty much includes all the major scenes from Romero's 1968 black and white classic, but there's enough changes made under the hood to warrant some exposure. Firstly, the character of Barbara is completely different. In 1968 she went catatonic on us in the face of overwhelming horror; in 1990 she reflects the new view of woman and is kicking zombie arse left, right, and centre. Personally I loved the new and improved Barbara, check out the scene where she changes from the gingham dress to the pants and then goes Daniel Boone with the rifle, awesome stuff and hello the new Ripley. Johnnie does pop up late in the movie but in an entirely different fashion to what we are expecting. What else, Sarah Cooper (character called Karen in the original) still goes for that good old matricide but in 1990 it's via the old zombie love bite rather than the garden trowel that we expect. Interestingly enough, Savini includes a splash of blood over a trowel hanging on the basement wall to remind us he hasn't forgotten what Romero had going down back in '68. Possibly the guardians of all that is fit and proper, i.e. the MPAA, objected to death by trowel as they suck and all.

A drag queen going drama isn't exactly an engrossing psycho antagonist, sorry Billy being honest here mate

We could possibly dissect this movie like Dr Fisher, google it kids, but two major changes stand out between Savini's remake and Romero's original, and no I'm not talking the fact that Savini is filming in colour. Firstly, any notion of Romero's social commentary is completely missing, and secondly the gore quota is notably down. I'm sort of half and half on the lack of subplot and theme, "heck, I dialled in for a zombie flick" but I was more than surprised at the lack of claret considering this is a movie helmed by genre effects legend Tom Savini. Guess the difference there was Romero filmed as an entirely independent filmmaker whereas Savini is under studio guidelines, hence the difference in interpretation of MPAA requirements. Romero didn't give a crap, Savini had the studio demanding an "R" rating.

What really works for Savini is the zombie makeup effects. The undead class of 1990 are looking a heck of a lot better, well worse but you know what I mean, than the shambling hordes Romero showed us back in '68. Savini's zombies look like they are dead, grooved on the eye thing, and are a lot more intense if that's possible. Full kudos to the director for showing Barbara able to dance around them when she goes solo, often wondered if that was possible.

Savini may have jettisoned the whole political and social statement thing, though I guess you could put in a reading on female roles in modern society, but if anything he nails the whole Ben versus Mr Cooper thing to a greater extent than Romero did. We basically have two alpha males going head to head, though neither the cowardly Cooper nor heroic Ben are proved to be right at the conclusion of the movie. Here Savini has Barbara surprisingly going zombie arse kicker ala Ripley, and proving she is more hip to the main chance of survival than either of the two males. I was applauding how that ended up as the end credits rolled.

As a director, Tom Savini shows a lot of promise with NOTLD 1990, though he doesn't try for anything left field in his scene developments. The Director manages to up the tension in places, has the atmospherics down pat, and shows why he elected to shoot some of the scenes involving his makeup effects in other movies. Watch out for some of the classic scenes from the original; Savini is having fun presenting them with enough twists and unexpected turns to leave you wondering what he's going to do next. Particularly loved the graveyard scene where the shambling dude in the background turns out not to be the zombie we expect; we still get one, but Savini has a little treat in store for you there.

The Candyman himself, Tony Todd (Ben), top bills in the remake and pulls off one heck of a fine performance. Patricia Tallman (Barbara) was a lot of fun and scores well with the at times hysterical yet tough as nails character the remake threw in our direction. Tom Towles (Mr Cooper) was spot on as the obnoxious and cowardly dude, you'll just love to hate him in this movie. McKeee Anderson (Helen Cooper) did what she could with a poorly developed role, surprisingly no changes made to the script there. William Butler (Tom) and Katie Finneran (Judy Rose) do okay but are outclassed on the day. There are also a whole bunch of cameos going down.

T&A is pretty light, guys get to check out Patricia Tallman's legs and white knickers in one scene, and there is a reprise of that naked zombie chick. Girls draw the short end of the stick once again and have to settle for nothing.

Paul McCollough waved the baton around and produced one heck of a fine horror score. Loved the almost groaning aspect to it in parts, and it certainly hit all the right notes in respect to Savini's visuals. Some country rock intrudes from time to time to offer variation.

It's taken me sometime to get around to Savini's Night of the Living Dead remake due to the movie being unavailable in Australia, and the whole re-shooting a classic thing. Savini hits all the right scenes, but manages to mix things up enough to keep you interested. I've actually viewed the movie four times in a row, as I was really grooving to the beat going down here. Still think the original is the better movie, but Savini goes damn close and if this wasn't a remake then it would be viewed as a horror classic.

Night of the Living Dead (1990) remains unavailable in Australia for no apparent reason but can be picked up off eBay, Amazon, or any half decent North America online DVD store. For the purposes of this review I watched the R1 package, which packs a couple of decent extras that are worth checking out. The movie managed to gross just under $6 million at the box office in North America, international figures are unavailable, and as far as I'm aware the movie never achieved cinema release Downunder.

If you like zombie movies then Savini's take on Night of the Living Dead is must-see stuff. Don't listen to all the naysayers online, they wouldn't know a decent zombie flick if it got out of its coffin and bit them on the arse. Savini does full justice to the script by zombie master George A Romero and has delivered perhaps the best remake of a Romero classic ever. Shamble down to your local DVD store and grab a copy, or if Downunder then hit the internet.