Really? Really, Adam? This is going to be your first movie review? Well, yes. Mainly because it is more fun to review a movie that I have never seen before (right after watching it, of course), and while I have seen both other vesions of NOLD, I never got around to this iteration.
What can you add to the 1968 Night of the Living Dead that isn't already there? Number 1: Gore. Number 2: Color. Number 3:???? I don't know. That's probably about it. Maybe you really shouldn't add anything.
The original didn't have to be in black and white, but I'm sure the gore would have looked much more fake if it had been in color. Also, it just wouldn't have had that classic feel. I wonder if I would even be writing any of this if the original been made in color.
Since the 1990 version happens to have been made in color, it had the opportunity for some realistic gore, and Savini delivered. Right from the beginning, we can see living corpses dripping bodily fluids. The shot of a severed arm falling from a balcony looked better than any POV shot I ever saw in Night of the Living Dead 3D. (I will begrudgingly touch on that film soon).
I really liked the fat farmer zombie in the overalls. He reminded me of one of the zombies in Doom 3. I wonder if the Doom character was inspired from this zombie. It's too late for me to google for that...I'd probably get off track and not finish this article.
Oh, the hammering scene? Too. Damn. Long. I've seen episodes of This Old House that had less hammering. Seriously.
Key Quote: "Let's try and work together and get some of this damn shit done". I guess the main character, Ben, is allowed to be dramatic and use the F-bomb; but the redneck kid, Tom, gets lines like "damn shit". That's some Damn Shit.
Barbara is a totally different character in this version. She's pretty much a badass instead of the typical 60's female role. I really liked the fact that she had almost no lines for the first half of the movie before she started kicking ass. I have always believed that some of the best movie characters only speak when they have to.
The music in this movie seriously sucked. I watched the movie on Comcast's On-Demand and it only had 2-channel stereo. I don't expect a movie this old to have digital surround, but if the music hadn't been so crappy, I might have been tempted to try some sort of simulated surround sound. I have an old Casio keyboard somewhere around the house that could have probably provided the soundtrack for the entire movie.
A quick IMDB Search shows that this is the only theatrical release that Savini has directed. I find that pretty damn amazing. I have seen quite a few horror movies that had worse direction than this. Savini is a huge name in horror...yeah, that goes without saying, I mean, he's been on the Simpsons. Anyone who is that connected in Hollywood could direct a whole mess of films. I'm sure that before I die, even Paris Hilton will have directed a movie. I wonder why Savini hasn't directed any more than this one. I would be up for watching his stuff.
Oh, I guess I did say that I would mention NOTL 3D before I finished. Sid Haig is in it. That's about the only good thing I can say. It's no "Captain Spaulding" performance, but he's not bad. Some of the DVD cases are funny because they read "Night of the Living Dead 3D" "2D Edition". Also, on the DVD extras there's an audience that interviews Haig. One member of the audience asks Haig a specific question about the zombies. His answer is something like: "you've got to remember...these things aren't real."
The ending? Not quite as meaningful as the original. It is somewhat shocking like the original, and it also has a message. However, this time the message is "Don't be a dick." It didn't have any of the racial undertones or anything like that to go along with it, but it was still kinda cool.
So my final verdict is- see this one if you don't have to pay for it. I would definately recommend any of Romero's sequels before this one. I would also probably recommend most of the "Return of the Living Dead" series as well. I haven't made it through all of those yet, but if you don't mind a little humor with your horror, those are pretty good.
What can you add to the 1968 Night of the Living Dead that isn't already there? Number 1: Gore. Number 2: Color. Number 3:???? I don't know. That's probably about it. Maybe you really shouldn't add anything.
The original didn't have to be in black and white, but I'm sure the gore would have looked much more fake if it had been in color. Also, it just wouldn't have had that classic feel. I wonder if I would even be writing any of this if the original been made in color.
Since the 1990 version happens to have been made in color, it had the opportunity for some realistic gore, and Savini delivered. Right from the beginning, we can see living corpses dripping bodily fluids. The shot of a severed arm falling from a balcony looked better than any POV shot I ever saw in Night of the Living Dead 3D. (I will begrudgingly touch on that film soon).
I really liked the fat farmer zombie in the overalls. He reminded me of one of the zombies in Doom 3. I wonder if the Doom character was inspired from this zombie. It's too late for me to google for that...I'd probably get off track and not finish this article.
Oh, the hammering scene? Too. Damn. Long. I've seen episodes of This Old House that had less hammering. Seriously.
Key Quote: "Let's try and work together and get some of this damn shit done". I guess the main character, Ben, is allowed to be dramatic and use the F-bomb; but the redneck kid, Tom, gets lines like "damn shit". That's some Damn Shit.
Barbara is a totally different character in this version. She's pretty much a badass instead of the typical 60's female role. I really liked the fact that she had almost no lines for the first half of the movie before she started kicking ass. I have always believed that some of the best movie characters only speak when they have to.
The music in this movie seriously sucked. I watched the movie on Comcast's On-Demand and it only had 2-channel stereo. I don't expect a movie this old to have digital surround, but if the music hadn't been so crappy, I might have been tempted to try some sort of simulated surround sound. I have an old Casio keyboard somewhere around the house that could have probably provided the soundtrack for the entire movie.
A quick IMDB Search shows that this is the only theatrical release that Savini has directed. I find that pretty damn amazing. I have seen quite a few horror movies that had worse direction than this. Savini is a huge name in horror...yeah, that goes without saying, I mean, he's been on the Simpsons. Anyone who is that connected in Hollywood could direct a whole mess of films. I'm sure that before I die, even Paris Hilton will have directed a movie. I wonder why Savini hasn't directed any more than this one. I would be up for watching his stuff.
Oh, I guess I did say that I would mention NOTL 3D before I finished. Sid Haig is in it. That's about the only good thing I can say. It's no "Captain Spaulding" performance, but he's not bad. Some of the DVD cases are funny because they read "Night of the Living Dead 3D" "2D Edition". Also, on the DVD extras there's an audience that interviews Haig. One member of the audience asks Haig a specific question about the zombies. His answer is something like: "you've got to remember...these things aren't real."
The ending? Not quite as meaningful as the original. It is somewhat shocking like the original, and it also has a message. However, this time the message is "Don't be a dick." It didn't have any of the racial undertones or anything like that to go along with it, but it was still kinda cool.
So my final verdict is- see this one if you don't have to pay for it. I would definately recommend any of Romero's sequels before this one. I would also probably recommend most of the "Return of the Living Dead" series as well. I haven't made it through all of those yet, but if you don't mind a little humor with your horror, those are pretty good.
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