When siblings Barbra (Patricia Tallman) and Johnny (Bill Moseley) visiting their father's grave are set upon by a viscous disheveled man, Johnny is killed and Barbra is forced to flee for shelter in a nearby farmhouse. Barbra, still shaken from the shock of seeing her brother killed is eventually joined by Ben (Tony Todd) and the two take measures to fortify their farmhouse hideaway as more flesh eating ghouls bear down on them. As the two find other survivors in the house they must navigate the hazards of the living dead as well as their own interpersonal friction if they are to survive the night.
Night of the Living Dead is the 1990 remake of George A. Romero's 1968 influential horror film of the same name. While the film had done extraordinary business upon release, failure to provide a copyright notice as well as legal battles with the distributor ended resulting in Romero and the producers seeing very little profit from the film. In 1986 Romero had secured a new copyright for Night of the Living Dead and brought the film to Menahem Golan's 21st Century Film Corporation after hearing Golan was interested in a remake and wanting to produce one before other opportunistic producers could produce an unofficial version (as had been the case with the various Italian "Zombi" films). Tom Savini was brought on for the special effects, but was eventually convinced by Romero to direct. Tom Savini described the experience as "the worst nightmare of my life" and clashed with producers when Romero was not on set with Savini only taking credit for 40% of what's in the movie. Upon release critical reception wasn't kind with many critics feeling the remake was unneeded or "a case of cinematic grave robbing" in Variety's case. The film was also a box office failure opening at 6th place and being pulled from theaters after two weeks making only $5.8 million against its $4.2 million budget. In the time since its underperformance, the 1990 remake has undergone some re-evaluation and is seen by many as a respectable remake of the classic 1968 film. While it's not the genre defining work the original film is, it's a solid update that tells the same story but with changes to account for advancements in filmmaking techniques and cultural attitudes.
While the filmmaking and resources for this version of Night of the Living Dead are more plentiful and polished this time around, the film is still very much an isolated limited location chamber piece with committed performances giving their own take on the characters of the original. Tony Todd is a worthy successor for Duane Jones in the role of Ben and anyone who has seen Todd's roles as the mortuary attendant in Final Destination or Candyman in the eponymous Clive Barker series knows Todd typically plays darker edged more sinister characters. While Todd does have that edge to his performance as Ben, he's still very much an everyman and is the smartest most rational person in the room as he was in the 1968 original. Other performances such as Tom Towles as the confrontational Harry Cooper or William Buter as the "in over his head" Tom are pretty similar to the roles they played the first time around, but they're also introduced a lot sooner here so they're given more opportunity to make an impression. By far the biggest change is in Patricia Tallman's character Barbara who in the original was played by Judith O'Dea, and this is where the movie really earns its status as one of the better remakes. If you recall Barbara's character in the original film, she spent a good chunk of the movie in a semi catatonic state before eventually being eaten by the ghouls. While Barbara does act in a state of shock for the first act of this movie once she meets up with Ben she taps into her survival instincts including taking down a re-animated corpse and takes on a more hardened "battle ready" approach as the story goes on. While Barbara is expanded and refined greatly in the film, she acts more as a co-lead along with Todd's Ben so it feels like it's complimentary instead of acting as a substitute.
There are of course some issues we see in the film. Some of the dialogue is a little clunky with Harry Cooper's lines of calling the other members of the group "a bunch of Yo-Yos" feeling rather forced and given the freedom afforded by an R rating you probably could've made that character sound a bit more natural by including some expletives instead of something that feels like a substitute for expletives. The movie (mostly) keeps the original film's bleak ending, but it does feel the need to more directly comment on it rather than letting it play out and be shown which isn't overly intrusive but it's one of the changes from the original I'm not certain is for the better.
Night of the Living Dead is a respectable remake of a classic genre defining film that doesn't eclipse the original but is well made and does enough new to justify its own existence with some welcome updates that work well. While some parts of the movie feel like they could've used some additional finetuning, it's a solid and worthwhile companion piece to the original.
