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| The persuasive (for horror fans anyway) poster for Tom Savini's Night of the Living Dead |
Master director George A. Romero's (Dawn of the Dead (1978)) great zombie classic Night of the Living Dead (1968) received a color-conversion remake 23 years after its release at the behest of Romero himself, who reworked his and John A. Russo's (Voodoo Dawn (1991)) original script for the purpose. The reason was partly copyrights issues concerning the original film, which, due to slobby paperwork, had not turned out the profits for Romero that it should have, (the film was a tremendous hit.) And partly due to a wish on Romero's part to secure control over the first remake of his own classic. For the job, he persuaded his friend, special make-up effects wiz Tom Savini (Day of the Dead (1985), special make-up effects) to take on the job of directing the film. Prior to it, Savini had only directed 3 episodes of the TV-series Tales From the Darkside (1984-88)).
A pair of siblings visit the resting place of their deceased mother but are attacked by living dead. The woman flees to a nearby house, where she fights for survival with some other strangers.
The plot is largely the same as in the original and nothing much has changed in the way of style or tone either. Savini has added some gore and zombies, but not as many as one might have expected. The opening cemetery scene is perhaps the film's most enjoyable, riffing on the original, great scene somewhat humorously.
From then on, the closeness to the original film begins to play as a distracting, ongoing show in the back of the minds of most audiences who are familiar with that film. The color and close repeating of the original's storyline dispels the eeriness that that film had, and what is left seems like a mostly unoriginal rehash of a truly beloved horror movie.
The details:
Fine actor Tony Todd (Candyman (1992)) is good in the role of strong African-American protagonist Ben (originally portrayed by Duane Jones (Ganja & Hess (1973))), who gets a different SPOILER, but still tragic, fate in this new version.
He plays opposite fiery redhead Patricia Tallman (Army of Darkness (1992)), who does alright here but gets stuck with some pretty bonkers material, especially towards the end I thought, as, for instance, SPOILER she addresses the rednecks with quasi-philosophical comments about their barbaric behavior after surviving the zombie massacre.
This remake doesn't seriously hurt anyone in the long run, (Romero's oevre is full of other misfires, which can't detract from his best work), but it is unquestionably redundant and disappointing.
Savini has called the making of it "the worst nightmare of [my] life", because the film's producers made his vision for the direction of the film impossible, which is a sad but not uncommon phenomenon in movies. Since then, he has reportedly been known to show some of his discarded gore material from the film at fan conventions, (the film lost some 'weight' to obtain its R rating.) And Savini has stayed away from directing after Night, besides a short film and segments in two horror anthologies.
Related review:
Tom Savini: Dawn of the Dead (1978) or, Mall of Death (make-up and cosmetic effects, stunts, actor)
Watch the original trailer here
Cost: 4.2 mil. $
Box office: 5.8 mil. $ (US only)
= Uncertainty
[But almost certainly a big flop. The film was poorly received by critics. It made 0.2 mil. $ in Spain. It has since grown in standing among some (overly) nostalgic horror fans. But don't let yourself be fooled.]
What do you think of Savini's Night of the Living Dead?
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