Night of the Living Dead (1990)

Review

Night of the Living Dead (1990) is a remake of the original movie Night of the Living Dead (1968). This time the movie is filmed in Color, with outstanding make-up. Special make-up effects artists John Bulich and Everett Burrell spent months of research to create authentic living corpses. They gave their zombies a yellowish skin hue, based on their research instead of gray for authenticity.

The zombies follow all of the basic premises established in the 1968 version.

The original characters are still there with the same or similar names except for the Cooper's daughter. In the original movies her name was Karen however her name is Sarah in the remake. Even though the movie is a remake, the story is different. While in the original movie Barbara loses touch with reality, in the remake Barbara is real presence throughout the movie. She has ideas of her own and is an excellent shot. Other characters also have different personalities as well.

I will not attempt to compare the two movies because they are different types of movies. The first movie is carried with character development and interaction. The acting is good but the movie is carried by the outstanding special effects and realism. The second is worth seeing even if you have seen the original.

For a review of Night of the Living Dead (1968) click here.

Story

The movie starts, right after all of the credits are shown, with now famous or infamous line

"They're coming to get you Barbara".

The scene opens with Barbara (Patricia Tallman) and Johnny (Bill Moseley) arriving at the cemetery to place flowers on their mother's grave, a trip they have made 4 times in past three months. In the original they were going to place flowers on their father's grave, a trip they made yearly. When Barbara and Johnny get out of the car Johnny says the line again.

Barbara and Johnny

"They're coming to get you Barbara".

They see a man walking towards them but he is just a man that is dazed and confused with a cut on his head. Then from out of nowhere a zombie attacks Barbara. This scene is for the benefit of viewers who have seen the original Night of the Living Dead. In the original movie, the first man attacked Barbara, where as this time the first man is a decoy, and an unexpected second man attacks. Johnny and Barbara both fight the zombie before Johnny is killed by falling and hitting his head on a tombstone.

Barbara attacked by zombie

Barbara is able to run and get into the car before the zombie can catch her. She sees another man walking towards her but notices that he is also acting strangely. Both men start trying to get into the car. Then the original zombie picks up a rock and breaks the window. He reaches in and grabs Barbara who has the presence of mind to release the brake allowing the car to roll down a hill until it crashes into a tree. Barbara gets out of the car and runs to a house.

Barbara enters the back door of the house and is attacked by one of the living dead, just as she runs out of the front door Ben (Tony Todd) drives up. Ben gets out of the truck and they both run back into the house. Both Ben and Barbara kill a zombie in the house. Ben then goes outside and kills another zombie.

Ben

Ben tells Barbara that no one knows what is going on. He tells her that some reports are saying that escaped prisoners are responsible for the attacks, while other reports are saying that a chemical spill is causing people to go crazy. Ben and Barbara realize that the zombies are not a live.

When Ben goes up the stairs to take care of a dead body we learn that there are other living inhabitants in the house. The others are Harry (Tom Towles) and Helen Cooper (McKee Anderson) along with their sick daughter Sarah (Heather Mazur). There is also a couple, Tom (William Butler) and Judy Rose (Kate Finneran). While they are trying to decide whether to stay upstairs or down in the basement they notice that more zombies are walking towards the house.

Harry Cooper

Helen and Sarah Cooper

Tom

Judy Rose

News reports speculate that the phenomenon is being caused by anything from the ozone layer, chemical weapons or Voodoo. Scientist from the CDC believe the cause to be a germ or virus.

We also learn that Karen is sick because a zombie bit her.

The rest of the movie shows the interaction between the living inhabitants of the house while trying to get to a place of safety.

Sarah as a zombie