Review of Night of the Living Dead (1990) by Caleb V — 30 Sep 2013

The original Night of the Living Dead is warmly embrace by audiences even to this day entertaining and frightening viewers. It introduced the template that started an entire sub genre of zombie films yet few have surpassed it near perfect execution. The question being how does one remake a film that created the blueprint for an entire sub genre? Personally I have no idea how one would do that successfully and neither do the filmmakers behind this remake who failed to bring originality to a game changing film.

Night of the Living Dead is about a group of people hiding from bloodthirsty zombies in a farmhouse. Anyone who seen the original will be turned off how closely this remake resembles the original. It's a textbook definition of a by the number remake where the only good narratives elements come from the original. Things start off badly upon the first few minute spending time with an annoying character torturing you as long as he can before he dies. Specific changes like the lack of radio and television broadcast detract from scope. We're not given much of an idea of how big the epidemic is when thrown into it. The message delivery is muddled and ultimately lost because of the new characters changes. In the original "Night of the Living Dead" we had normal people working together for survival even if their differences wanted them to kill each other. Acting like real people second guessing if their action were the right one. In this remake we have seven bickering characters dictating for others to follow their rule. Characters are nothing more than a heavy handed representation of failure to remove yourself from hysteria in a dire situation leading to demise. Most upsetting is it even more backhanded ending aiming to enlighten that perhaps the living is no better than the walking dead. This falls short when you see the characters disregarding common rationalize for an action hero approach in a horror situation. One major upgrade was giving the women larger roles, but even that backfires. Barbara for example goes from being a helpless damsels to an insane killing machine....I mean plot device. Her character is only here to attempt to bring originality in a film that fails to recognize the difference between change and laziness.

As a standalone horror film it falls prey to the trapping of horror conventions. The main issue with the film is jumping for scares without buildup. Everything is rushed from character development and pacing that it becomes exhausting. Things that hold true to bad modern horror flick can be applied here. Containing an unnecessary one dimensional and forced unsympathetic villain creating non-conflicts. Stupid characters that rush into every situation without putting much thought (even by horror movie standards having a character shoot a locked gas pump with a shotgun at close range is idiotic). Finally only one logical character that makes it out alive only to fall victim to what they experience changing them. Lessening the fear and having the viewer gripping to their seats with frustration is too many zombie set pieces. An overexposure to the creature that causes fear will diminish what fear it strikes. For an example of how it done correctly take a look at Jaws. In Jaws it plays on your expectations whenever the shark was going to attack keeping you alert not knowing if it was the shark or just the ocean. In this remake zombies are always in position to attack eliminating suspense. It fails to be a standalone piece of horror to stand apart form another generic zombie film and fails as a remake to do anything new with the material.

Acting is generally mixed. The actors seem to confuse shouting for dramatic delivery to the point of ludicrous. Whenever the actors are not shouting they are tolerable performing average at best. Some imitating the original actors and others attempting to bring something refreshingly new to the remake. The special effects when it comes to the zombies serve their purpose. There's certainly enough gross makeup effects to make you cringe. Sadly the great make up effect are ruined when it comes the direction. Not everything will look effective in color as it does in black and white. Often being too close to the zombies reveals the secret behind the illusion or to far exposing the visible weak points in the zombies strategy. Music is out of place all the time. It score plays whenever character dialogue is minimal taking away immersion when there is a lack of silence.

Night of the Living Dead remake removes the brains ending up just as lifeless as the film creatures. Nothing in the film outshines anything in the original and even as a standalone piece it falls victim to many conventions to strike fear. If it wasn't baring the same name as the beloved classic this would been long forgotten as nothing more than another generic horror flick with nothing interesting compared to what inspired it.