Night of the Living Dead | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Tom Savini |
Screenplay by | George A. Romero |
Based on | |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Frank Prinzi |
Edited by | Tom Dubensky |
Music by | Paul McCollough |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 88 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $4.2 million [2] |
Box office | $5.8 million [3] |
Night of the Living Dead (also known as George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead) is a 1990 American horror film directed by Tom Savini (in his feature directorial debut) and starring Tony Todd and Patricia Tallman. It is a remake of George A. Romero's 1968 film of the same title; Romero rewrote the original 1968 screenplay he had originally co-authored with John A. Russo. [4] [5]
Like the original, the film follows seven strangers as they meet and survive in a rural farmhouse, following the awakening of cannibalistic zombies. It is the only "official" remake of the 1968 film, with other "unofficial" remakes coming out after, as a result of the source material's lack of copyright ownership (resulting in being in the public domain).
Night of the Living Dead was released by Columbia Pictures in the United States on October 19, 1990. The film received negative reviews upon initial release and grossed $5.8 million against a $4.2 million budget. Modern reviews have been more positive.
One idyllic August afternoon, siblings Barbara and Johnny visit their mother's grave in a remote cemetery in rural Pennsylvania. An elderly man with blood on his forehead bumps into them there, garbles something and bolts in terror. While offering to help him, they are attacked by a zombie. Johnny is killed while Barbara flees the cemetery and discovers what appears to be an abandoned farm house. She seeks shelter there, only to find another pack of zombies. Shortly after, a man named Ben (who fled Evans City) arrives and helps Barbara dispatch the zombies. The two quickly form a bond and clear the house of the undead and begin barricading the doors and windows as night falls.
They soon discover other survivors holed up in the cellar: a man named Harry Cooper; his wife Helen; their daughter Sarah, who was bitten by a zombie and has fallen seriously ill; and teenage lovers Tom Bitner and Judy Rose Larson. The group is divided over what their next course of action should be. Harry insists that everyone retreats to the cellar and hunker down to wait for the authorities. Ben disagrees believing that the cellar is a "death trap" and they would be better off fortifying the house and fending off the horde. Noticing the zombies' limited mobility, Barbara suggests that they leave the house on foot. The discussion quickly turns hostile as tensions flare. A scuffle between Ben and Harry leaves the Coopers in the basement to tend to Sarah, while the other survivors continue reinforcing the doors and windows upstairs. The loud construction attracts a mob of zombies to the farmhouse. It doesn't take long for the infected to hem in, leaving the group trapped with nowhere to go.
The group devises a plan to escape using Ben's truck, which is out of fuel, by refueling at a locked gas pump nearby. They find a set of keys in Uncle Rege's corpse (the farm's owner) and proceed to drive up the hill toward the gas pump, but their plan begins to unravel when Ben falls from the bed of the truck and is left to defend himself. To their horror, the key to the gas pump is not among the set they brought with them. Realizing they are out of time, Tom shoots the lock off, causing gasoline to ignite a burning torch in the cargo bed. The truck and gas pump explode, killing both Tom and Judy.
Ben has no choice but to make his way back to the house, only to find things beginning to dissolve into chaos. Harry has wrestled Barbara's gun away from her and is now armed while the horde bursts their way in. The house is now completely overrun. Unbeknownst to the survivors upstairs, Sarah has succumbed to the bite on her arm and has transformed into a zombie; she attacks and bites her distraught mother. When Sarah makes her way upstairs, she triggers a shootout between her father, who is trying to protect her, and Ben and Barbara, who are trying to protect themselves. Both Ben and Harry are badly wounded, and Barbara shoots Sarah. Harry retreats upstairs to the attic, while Ben staggers down to the cellar, where he shoots a reanimated Helen. Ben gradually goes into shock, and after realizing the gas pump key has been in the cellar the entire time, he laughs mindlessly at the irony before dying from his injuries.
Meanwhile, Barbara leaves the farm house alone and attempts to find help. She eventually joins a group of countryside locals who are clearing the area of the undead, and awakens the next day in a makeshift camp surrounded by the safety of the media and townspeople, led by Sheriff McClelland. Noticing a group of hillbillies drunkenly antagonizing a small group of captured zombies, she comments on the similarities between the living and the undead. She returns to the farmhouse to find Ben, who is now zombified; he gazes at Barbara before being shot. When Harry emerges from the attic alive, Barbara kills him in a fit of rage and retribution for causing Ben's death, and turns to leave the house, telling the vigilantes they have "another one for the fire." Barbara watches grimly as the bodies are burned on a pyre. The final photo shot of Barbara clearly shows she is disturbed by the actions of the living and the death of her brother
Night of the Living Dead (1968) director and co-writer George A. Romero said that the remake came about in part because of issues over profits of the original film. A lengthy court battle over the rights to the film, plus an oversight that caused the copyright notice not to be included, caused Romero to see little in the way of profit. Romero's production company, Image Ten, eventually won the lawsuit, but the distributor went out of business before they could collect any money. Another issue was the fact that the filmmakers were worried that someone else might make an unauthorized remake. Romero contacted Menahem Golan when he heard that 21st Century Film Corporation was interested in a remake, and Romero, John A. Russo, and Russell Streiner collaborated for the first time in 20 years. [2] Tom Savini was initially hired to perform the special effects, but was persuaded to direct by Romero. [6] Savini was drawn to the remake because he was unavailable to do special effects on the original. [7]
The special effects team intentionally kept the effects restrained, as they felt that excessive gore would be disrespectful to the original film. [2] To keep the effects realistic, they used as inspiration a real autopsy, forensic pathology textbooks, and Nazi death camp footage. Savini said that he wanted to keep the film artistic despite his reputation as "the king of splatter". [2] The zombie extras were recruited easily, as the film's reputation drew them from as far away as Kentucky. [8]
The production was not easy for Savini, who described it as "the worst nightmare of my life". Savini said that only 40% of his ideas made it into the final film. Without Romero on set, he clashed with the producers, who did not allow him to explore his vision for the film. [7]
To avoid an X rating, Savini had to cut several scenes from the film. Savini attributed the film's lack of popularity among horror fans to these cuts. [7] A Blu-ray version was released in a limited edition of 3,000 on October 9, 2012, by Twilight Time. [9] Australian film distributor Umbrella Entertainment released a special edition of the film featuring a restored print, alongside the 1968 original on Blu-ray on April 6, 2016. [10]
The initial response and critical consensus among both audience members and critics was generally negative. [8]
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly rated it D+ and wrote, "In the history of bad ideas, George Romero's decision to produce a color remake of his disturbingly frenzied 1968 zombiefest Night of the Living Dead has to rank right up there with New Coke...The original Night was taken by some to be a statement about the Vietnam War; this one isn’t about anything larger than Romero’s desire to make a buck." [11] Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times , Roger Ebert awarded the film one star out of a possible four, writing, "The remake is so close to the original that there is no reason to see both". [12] Caryn James of The New York Times wrote, "There was no real need to remake a film that lives on the campy cult appeal it has acquired over time. But as B-movies and remakes go, this one knows how to bring tired zombies back to life." [13] Variety called it "a crass bit of cinematic grave-robbing". [14] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "While this Night hasn't the chilling, almost cinema-verite credibility of the original, it is certainly a well-sustained entertainment". [15] In The Washington Post , Richard Harrington criticized the film as a purely financial effort that lacks the shock of the original film now that zombie film tropes have become clichéd. [16] Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune rated it three out of four stars and wrote that although Savini's direction is a bit too literal, the film "contains some intriguing further development of the ideas of the first film, as well as some mistakes corrected and dramatic relationships tightened." [17]
Modern criticism has been more appreciative. [18] As of 2023, Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 68% of 34 critics have given the film a positive review; the average rating is 6.3/10. The critical consensus reads: "Night of the Living Dead doesn't quite reinvent the original's narrative, but its sleek action and amplified gore turn it into a worthy horror showcase." [19] On Metacritic it has a score of 54 out of 100 based on reviews from 18 critics, indicating mixed to average reviews. [20] Bloody Disgusting rated it four-and-a-half out of five stars and wrote, "This film works on so many levels. Normally, remakes are horrible, and diverge so much from the original film. This one is so close to the original it's scary." [21] Reviewing the Twilight Time Blu-ray, Adam Tyner of DVD Talk rated it 3.5/5 stars and wrote, "We'll never get a chance to see the remake that Tom Savini set out to direct. Still, despite the many missteps of this severely compromised version, Night of the Living Dead manages to distinguish itself as one of the more effective horror remakes out there." [22] Reviewing the same disc at DVD Verdict, Patrick Naugle rated it 83 out of 100 and called it "one of the superior zombies movies available". [23] In a retrospective at PopMatters, academic Cynthia Freeland compared the racial politics of the original film and the gender politics of the remake. Freeland concludes that the original film's depiction of Barbara makes for better cinema, and the more feminist-friendly update of Barbara is too derivative of standard "final girl" tropes. [24]
Savini often screens an uncut work print VHS copy of the film at conventions. [25] According to Savini, "Years later I was at a midnight showing and did a Q&A before the movie, and I wasn't going to sit down and watch it, but I did...And it was the first time that I saw it objectively, and it's good!" [25]
Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent horror film directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, written by Romero and John Russo, produced by Russell Streiner and Karl Hardman, and starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea. The story follows seven people trapped in a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania, under assault by reanimated corpses. Although the flesh-eating monsters that appear in the film are referred to as "ghouls", they are credited with popularizing the modern portrayal of zombies in popular culture.
Day of the Dead is a 1985 American post-apocalyptic zombie horror film written and directed by George A. Romero, and produced by Richard P. Rubinstein. The third film in Romero's Night of the Living Dead series, it stars Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato, Jarlath Conroy and Richard Liberty as members of a group of survivors of a zombie apocalypse sheltering in an underground bunker in Florida, where they must determine the outcome of humanity's conflict with the undead horde. Romero described the film as a "tragedy about how a lack of human communication causes chaos and collapse even in this small little pie slice of society".
Dawn of the Dead is a 1978 zombie horror film written, directed, and edited by George A. Romero, and produced by Richard P. Rubinstein. An American-Italian international co-production, it is the second film in Romero's series of zombie films, and though it contains no characters or settings from the preceding film Night of the Living Dead (1968), it shows the larger-scale effects of a zombie apocalypse on society. In the film, a phenomenon of unidentified origin has caused the reanimation of the dead, who prey on human flesh. David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger, and Gaylen Ross star as survivors of the outbreak who barricade themselves inside a suburban shopping mall amid mass hysteria.
George Andrew Romero Jr. was an American-Canadian film director, writer, editor and actor. His Night of the Living Dead series of films about a zombie apocalypse began with the original Night of the Living Dead (1968) and is considered a major contributor to the image of the zombie in modern culture. Other films in the series include Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985).
Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 action horror film directed by Zack Snyder in his feature directorial debut, with a screenplay by James Gunn. A remake of George A. Romero's 1978 film of the same name, it stars an ensemble cast that includes Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer, with Scott Reiniger, Tom Savini, and Ken Foree from the original film appearing in cameos. Set in Milwaukee, the film follows a group of survivors who try to survive a zombie apocalypse holed up in a suburban shopping mall.
Land of the Dead is a 2005 post-apocalyptic horror film written and directed by George A. Romero; the fourth of Romero's six Living Dead movies, it is preceded by Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, and succeeded by Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead. It was released in 2005, with a budget of $15–19 million, the highest in Romero's Dead series, and has grossed $46 million.
Thomas Vincent Savini is an American prosthetic makeup artist, actor, stunt performer and film director. He is known for his makeup and special effects work on many films directed by George A. Romero, including Martin, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Creepshow, and Monkey Shines; he also created the special effects and makeup for many cult classics like Friday the 13th, Maniac, The Burning, The Prowler, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.
Living Dead, also informally known as Of The Dead is a blanket term for the loosely connected horror franchise that originated from the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. The film, written by George A. Romero and John A. Russo, primarily focuses on a group of people gathering at a farmhouse to survive from an onslaught of zombies in rural Pennsylvania. It is known to have inspired the modern interpretation of zombies as reanimated human corpses that feast on the flesh and/or brains of the living.
Night of the Living Dead 3D or Night of the Living DE3D is a 2006 horror film made in 3D. It is the second remake of the 1968 horror classic Night of the Living Dead. The first remake was released in 1990 and was directed by Tom Savini from a revised screenplay by George A. Romero. Unlike the first remake, no one involved with the original is involved with this version. The original film was never properly copyrighted, and so it has fallen into the public domain, making this remake possible with no permission from the original's creators.
John A. Russo, sometimes credited as Jack Russo or John Russo, is an American screenwriter and film director most commonly associated with the 1968 horror classic film Night of the Living Dead, which he co-wrote with director George Romero. As a screenwriter, his credits include Night of the Living Dead, The Majorettes, Midnight, and Santa Claws. The latter two, he also directed. He has performed small roles as an actor, most notably the first ghoul who is stabbed in the head in Night of the Living Dead, as well as cameos in There's Always Vanilla and House of Frankenstein 1997. He was the Publisher and Managing Editor of the magazine Scream Queens Illustrated that featured popular stars of Horror films and other genres.
The Return of the Living Dead is a 1985 American comedy horror film written and directed by Dan O'Bannon from a story by Rudy Ricci, John Russo, and Russell Streiner, and starring Clu Gulager, James Karen, Thom Matthews, and Don Calfa. The film tells the story of how a warehouse owner, accompanied by his two employees, mortician friend and a group of teenage punks, deal with the accidental release of a horde of unkillable, brain-hungry zombies onto an unsuspecting town.
Children of the Living Dead is a 2001 American direct-to-video zombie film written by Karen L. Wolf, directed by Tor Ramsey, and executive produced by John A. Russo.
Russell William Streiner is an American film producer and actor. He is the older brother of actor/producer Gary Streiner.
Diary of the Dead is a 2007 found footage horror film written and directed by George A. Romero. Although independently produced, it was distributed theatrically by The Weinstein Company and was released in cinemas on February 15, 2008 and on DVD by Dimension Extreme and Genius Products on May 20, 2008.
A zombie is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in which a zombie is a dead body reanimated through various methods, most commonly magical practices in religions like Vodou. Modern media depictions of the reanimation of the dead often do not involve magic but rather science fictional methods such as carriers, fungi, radiation, mental diseases, vectors, pathogens, parasites, scientific accidents, etc.
Texas Frightmare Weekend is a horror-oriented for-profit media event held annually in the Dallas, Texas, area. The weekend is a way for fans of the horror genre to connect with fellow horror lovers, meet guests that work in the genre, discover new films, and buy merchandise.
Night of the Living Dead is a zombie horror media franchise created by George A. Romero beginning with the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, directed by Romero and cowritten with John A. Russo. The franchise predominantly centers on different groups of people attempting to survive during the outbreak and evolution of a zombie apocalypse. The latest installment of the series, Survival of the Dead, was released in 2009, with a sequel, Twilight of the Dead, in development. This would be the first film in the series not directed by George Romero, who died on July 16, 2017.
Mimesis: Night of the Living Dead is a 2011 American horror film directed by Douglas Schulze, written by Joshua Wagner and Schulze, and starring Allen Maldonado, Lauren Mae Shafer, Taylor Piedmonte, and David G.B. Brown.
Night of the Animated Dead is a 2021 American adult animated zombie horror film directed by Jason Axinn and featuring the voices of Josh Duhamel, Dulé Hill, Katharine Isabelle, James Roday Rodriguez, Katee Sackhoff, Will Sasso, Jimmi Simpson and Nancy Travis. It is an adaptation of the 1968 George A. Romero film Night of the Living Dead.
Numerous Night of the Living Dead remakes have adapted and reimagined the seminal 1968 horror film. It has been remade more than any other movie. The distributor mistakenly released it without a copyright and directly into the public domain. When changing the title from Night of the Flesh Eaters, The Walter Reade Organization also removed the only copyright notice in the film. This absence of copyright protection allowed filmmakers to adapt the original work without permission from the film's production company. A protracted court case found that the creators, Image Ten, did not hold the copyright, and the film's creators received little of its millions in revenue. Bill Hinzman, who played the cemetery zombie in the original film, directed Flesheater in 1988. Flesheater has similarities but is considered an homage rather than a direct remake. The first official remake in 1990 roughly followed the original film's script and involved members of the original crew. They were partly motivated by the missed revenue from the original film. The 1990 version was atypical for a Hollywood remake in having the support of the original film's director, George A. Romero, and other creators. Rumors of another studio planning to remake the public domain film without his involvement spurred Romero into action. In the following years, there were many unofficial remakes. The film has seen an official color remake, an unofficial 3D version, and many independent remakes.