michellelocke007 Review of Night of the Living Dead

Night of the Living Dead (1990)

tom savini directed remake of a classic romero film *possible spoilers*

[6/10 · 15 September 2010]

i admired the fact that they remade this film for the 1990s and did a pretty good job with the end result. relying more on dialogue than just sheer gore and violence to keep the audience's attention, this film is definitely worth a second look. it was nice to see the main character named only as barbara develop from a once meek and frightened thing into a strong-willed, feisty and independent person who can hold her own against the hordes of the un-dead. she starts thinking for herself and finding different tactics to over-come the zombies as they descend on the small farmhouse she is holed up in with several other survivors. upon finding refuge, she meets another line survivor named ben played by tony todd famous for his role in the horror franchise candyman. i respected ben's take charge attitude and not letting anyone tell him differently. he always kept everyone in line and was open to suggestions and ideas on how they can continue to survive in such desperate times. tom towles who has a knack for portraying sleazy and despicable characters does a great turn as harry cooper, a man you love to hate. he merely scoffs at the others as they try their hardest to keep their spirits up and find means of survival. while he mocks and ridicules their ideas, he does nothing in aiding them except insisting the safest part of the farmhouse is the basement where his wife and ill child are being kept. one is just itching for someone to kill him off but you know by the end he's going to get what's coming to him one way or another. i however, did not like the character of judy rose who i found was just annoying and grating on the nerves. for most of the picture she's just screaming, crying and having a lengthy emotional breakdown while doing little else. it's difficult to sympathize with her as most of the time you just want to slap her to shut her up. i was thankful when she finally got killed off towards the end. otherwise a fine and intelligent update of a classic zombie flick.