Night of the Living Dead (1990)
- written June 2002
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John and Barbara are out to say some prayers for their father when out of nowhere comes “the living dead.” John is disposed of and Barb ends up at an abandoned house. Soon enough she is joined by Ben and a few stragglers in the basement. 7 people against the world. The “Living Dead” surround the house and eventually make their move. The 7 must work together to defeat these beasts, but that will be just as hard as killing their attackers.
Overall for 1990 Re-make: Same story as the 1st one, however the film does give us a new ending and other new and exciting changes. The biggest improvement on the first film is the movie is in color. That by itself is an improvement only in that it is much scarier that part 1. It’s hard to have a scary film when what is intending on being the scariest stuff is the zombies and film being in black & white doesn’t bring out the most the costumes have to offer. The colors now help make the experience better in the scare department and maybe even more realistic (if zombies are realistic). The problem now is that these actors are clearly worse than their predecessors. The actress playing Barbara is just terrible; every scream from her mouth really looks like she is holding back laughter. The curves of her mouth just are made more for laughing than screaming. Also, outside of Tony Todd the other actors are just over-acting. They aren’t believable at all and prove why their careers never went anywhere in 12 years. And who wrote this script? Use of the words/phrases “lame brain” and “bunch of yo-yo’s” just confirms these writers couldn’t write an appropriate line if Shakespeare himself wrote it for them. The story drifts away from the creation of the zombies due to the mysterious events and instead focuses on their hunger. The film’s color helps ensure the gory details but at times we just see the zombies feasting, which gets us no closer to the real plot. The ending is interesting, maybe a little bit more “fair” than the original but still a cheesy way to end the film. The guys who save Barbara remind me of the Beverly Hillbillies...Hollywood actors who couldn’t play inbred redneck if they were born brother to one. Skip this film and if you have to watch a zombie film stick with the Italian film “Zombie 2.” Comparison: Blair Witch Project meets Dead Alive |
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