Night of the living dead (1990) is better than the original!!! Master of splatter fx & gore the brilliant Tom Savini directed this BRILLIANT remake & it really is a better film in every way!!! BRILLIANTLY directed & with beautiful cinematography & a fantastic performance by TONY TODD he's excellent in this also Patricia Tallman gives a fantastic performance as Barbara who starts out terrified & useless but becomes a tough hero & that's so cool to see a strong Ripley (Aliens) type woman fight back!!! The atmosphere is scarier & darker & a better musical score!!! Romero was still producer so that's cool but Savani just made a better more exciting film a real good bit of late night entertainment!!! The zombies look much BETTER & the old farm house looks AWESOME!!! The setting is Fantastic & exciting, i remember FIRST seeing this one late night on t.v & thought it was incredible just an excellent zombie movie with good characters & drama & the whole boarding up the house scenes always stuck with me. Not only is this a much better film than the original it's also one the greatest zombie films ever MADE!!! Love this movie,TOM SAVINI you are AWESOME

Now, it has to be said that I generally don't condone remakes, unless they are done for a point. Especially in today's world where such classics as PSYCHO and THE HAUNTING are being remade for money and nothing else, it seems a bit greedy and unoriginal that we have to seek inspiration from films 40 years old. Of course, there are a few exceptions where the remakes actually surpass the original film (THE FLY, THE BLOB, and INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS to name but three). NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD doesn't surpass the original, far from it, but it is a pleasing, entertaining film if you don't compare it too harshly with the 1968 classic (or indeed, haven't seen it!).There are numerous differences between the two films. Romero's original had important social commentary, while the 1990 version lacks that and thus appears to have the moral messages overemphasised. The newer version is also in colour, in order to appeal more to today's audiences. I have no problem with this at all. The look of the film is very good, with the colours adding to the overall glossy feel (which doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing). I did see the film in a widescreen version which may explain the reason I like the look of it so much. Director Tom Savini (famous in the early '80s for his gory special effects work) includes numerous stylistic touches in his film to differentiate it from the original (such as the severed hand shot). It may not be as powerful as the '60s classic but it's quite entertaining. There are a lot of shock scenes involving the zombies, as to be expected, but also by contrast we have generally atmospheric build ups too.The film benefits from having a relatively unknown cast of more than competent actors. Patricia Tallman plays Barbara firstly as the snivelling wreck we know from the original, but then as a gun-toting killer, more in line with Sigourney Weaver's portrayal of Ripley from ALIENS than anybody else. This is something of a welcome, if clichéd change. Tony Todd, best known to audiences as the frightening hook-handed villain from the CANDYMAN films, is actually excellent in his role of the young drifter and admirably fills the shoes left by Duane Jones. He brings a genuine warmth to his tragic character, who is doing what he believes his right, and we can sympathise with him because of this. Tom Towles is also notable as the manic Harry, and is totally obnoxious. He overacts a lot here and it's great fun to watch the shouting matches between him and Todd.Surprisingly, although the film is violent it is actually quite tame compared to other zombie offerings (notably DAY OF THE DEAD). In fact there is little gore in the film, which comes as something of a surprise and a bit of a disappointment. I was looking forward to some more of the excess gore we have come to expect from Tom Savini but not this time around. This film is nowhere near as horrific or powerful as Romero's original - which may have you asking what the point is. It is, though, a fleshed-out, entertaining zombie romp, which is nicely filmed, has a good cast, and has enough action scenes in it to keep the boredom from setting in. My only complaint would be the comedic scenes at the beginning of the film, especially as regards the zombies, but these disappear as the film takes a more downbeat tone as it nears the finale. Not to everybody's taste, and criticised by horror fans, some of whom consider it a sacrilege, I find it very watchable and a mildly successful 1990s remake. I would ignore the many detractors of this film and instead give it a go. Who knows, you might even like it...

I'm not really a "zombie movie" guy. I was always more of a werewolf movie fan than a zombie one. However, there are aspects of the genre that do fascinate me and there are 2 zombie flicks in my top 150 favorite movies of all time. (REC) is the the first one, and this is the second. I haven't actually seen the original classic, but just on its own, "Night of the Living Dead '90" is every bit a masterpiece in its own right. This is an incredibly smart, compelling and tense thrill-ride, everything I wanted it to be and more.Patricia Tallman is outstanding as Barbara; her arc from weak victim to fearless badass is handled perfectly. Barbara goes through some pretty hellish and life-scarring situations in this movie, but these experiences only make her stronger, even downright ruthless near the end. That said, she isn't entirely cold and callous, and Tallman does a great job bringing some true emotional weight and depth to a character who very easily could have become an unrelatable hardass in the case of a less talented actress. If anything, I think that Barbara is something of a feminist icon in a movie genre that's severely lacking in pro-feminist characters.While Tallman does a fantastic job, the "Candyman" himself Tony Todd totally steals the show as Ben, a man very much thrown into a leadership position that he admittedly might not be 100% ready for. Ben becomes more and more emotive over the course of the movie as tensions rise and circumstances become more dire. Tony Todd has to get a wide range of emotional depth for this character; from hope to fear to anger to sadness to compassion. He's a character that has so much pressure on his shoulders and even when he makes the wrong decision, you can understand why he did. There wasn't a single moment where I didn't want this character to get out of this situation alive. William Butler, Katie Finneran and Tom Towles turn in fine performances as well, though admittedly Towles's character Harry was a bit of a one-dimensional whiner."Night of the Living Dead '90" is a movie that is just DRIPPING in atmosphere. From the superb, chilling musical score by Paul McCollough to the haunting and claustrophobic farmhouse set, the atmosphere truly adds to the tense and heart-pounding nature of the film.While the acting, characters and atmosphere are all excellent, my absolute favorite parts of the movie are the themes. The film touches on some very interesting themes about war and disaster in general and the affect that it can have on individuals (Such as the strength and ruthlessness gained by Barbara and the growing emotional nature of Ben) and social groups (shown by the constant feuding between characters eventually leading to outright bloodshed). The movie also has a very intelligent message about the power of fear; the power to bring strength as well as weakness, to bring unity as well as destruction. For a zombie movie, it's surprisingly deep in subtly examining these themes.As I said before, I'm not a zombie movie fan. But I don't have to be a zombie movie fan to know that "Night of the Living Dead '90" is a phenomenal movie and one of the best of the genre, if not one of the best horror movies ever. Whether you've seen every zombie movie, played every game and read every book or you're an outsider to the genre like me, I highly recommend you check this wonderful remake out.

If you ask me - I don't believe that George Romero could've taken more than, say, 2 minutes to write the screenplay for this atrociously awful, scene-for-scene, remake of his original, 1968 version of "The Living Dead".And, with that said, I think that little, giggling George so rightly deserves a good, swift kick in the ass for his unwelcome involvement in this utterly dead-end production.With this entire dumb-ass film being completely inferior and anti-climatic to the original (in every way imaginable), the one word that I think sums up 1990's "The Living Dead", in a nutshell, would be the word "embarrassment" - 'Cause, believe me, that's all that it was from start to finish. (And, nope, I'm sorry, but more graphic gore didn't make this film better) And, finally - While the original, 1968 "Living Dead" was made on a $114,000 budget, this remake cost $4.2 million in all. That rounds off to this remake costing about 37x more than what the original did and yet its total mediocrity (on all levels) rendered it as being nothing but a putrid heap of horror-movie excrement, in the long run.Tom Savini should be banned, outright, from ever directing movies, regardless of their genre. He clearly doesn't know what the hell he's doing.