When the original Night of the Living Dead was released, it was released without a copyright. This put the title fully into the realm of public domain. This allowed anyone the chance to use the title if they wished. It also meant that the original crew wasn't seeing all of the revenue from the film that they had hoped for. After 1985, George was seeing a lot of success from his 'of the Dead' films. Night was a cult classic. Dawn had proved that George wasn't a one trick pony with his stories. And Day definitely delivered on the natural evolution of how the fight for survival against the dead would go.
At the time, there were some people that were wondering how it would go to remake Night of the Living Dead. George had agreed that it would be a good way of getting some of the money they would have gotten from the original film. However, George was quick to say that he would not direct it. He had directed the original and that was enough for him. He was ready to hand it off to Tom Savini.
Now I had grown up watching this more than I had the original. So as great as the original is, this was my Night of the Living Dead. It for the most part follows the original story. But it updates things to well 90s modern day. But the strongest part of the film for me is the fact that Romero got to have Barbara survive and be more active in the story. For the most part, it's a very Ripley-ish Barbara and for me that wasn't a bad thing. Honestly most of the small changes were for the better. The cast of this film was also something that made it pretty damn special like the cast of the '68 film did. I mean we have Tony Todd in his first starring horror role as Ben. This interpretation was a bit in the vein of the original but for me it feels elevated. This isn't Tony Todd doing a Duane Jones impression. He is able to make the role his own. And for me, this was my Ben growing up. Patricia Talllman delivers an incredible performance as Barbara. She is able to stand toe to toe with Tony Todd's Ben as well as Tom Towles's Harry. She is someone that will not go down without a fight. And for the most part, she is the voice of reason. It's just the others have an issue seeing her viewpoint because they are so set that they are right. I mean if they had listened to Barbara - chances are it'd be a whole different ending for them.
Now this film does have its gore. It's not surprising as ya know, it's a Savini project. Savini was able to take the ideas of the walking dead from the original and bring them into a more modern time. They are more decaying. There is definitely a lot more variety to them as well. I mean at one point, we see a corpse that is probably a few hours old walking to reveal its scars from being prepared by the mortician. This was a pretty incredible reveal.
Overall, Night of the Living Dead 1990 still stands as one of my favorites. I have grown to love the original film, but for me this one works better.
Rating: 4.25 out of 5.
No comments:
Post a Comment