Another Night of the Zombies
"There coming to get you Barbara" says Johnnie to his sister Barbara after they make the long round trip to place flowers on their mother's grave. But it turns out it was Johnnie who ends up got when a zombie attacks Barbara and as he tries to rescue her he ends up a victim. Having gotten away a shell-shocked Barbara hides in a farm house where she meets Ben who has sought sanctuary there from the increasing number of zombies. And it turns out they are not alone as in the house are Harry, Helen, Karen, Tom and Judy all trying to keep out of sight of the living dead. But with issues mounting outside issues are mounting inside over what they should do.
I recently watched the 1968 version of "Night of the Living Dead" for the first time and whilst it didn't blow me away in the same way it has many others I could appreciate what others saw in it and why it is referred to as a horror classic. It was because the original "Night of the Living Dead" didn't blow me away I was interested to see how the 1990 remake, directed by Tom Savini, would come across as it was sure to have some of the more modern touches which quite simply I enjoy in zombie movies.
So as the 1990 version of "Night of the Living Dead" started it seemed that director Tim Savini was almost going for tongue in cheek as it referenced the original movie whilst bringing in more violence when it came to the horror as well as comedy from some dodgy special effects and I thought great. For those brief few minutes I thought that they had got it right and this remake was going to embrace the comedy of zombie rather than trying to be thrilling. But sadly it then discards the initial humour and tries to turn dramatic and thrilling, for all sense and purpose trying to recapture the tension of the original and these people stuck in a farm house. But it doesn't work and sadly whilst some of the changes improve on the original it can't create the same desperate atmosphere or get the same character interactions which made the original.
What this all boils down to is that sadly the 1990 version of "Night of the Living Dead" just didn't do it for me and ended up a strangely uninteresting movie which seemed to miss a trick by trying to be dramatic rather than embracing the humour of the living dead.
Tags: Zombie Movies
