SGM Month of Halloween Horror Movie from Oct. 8

"Night of the Living Dead" (1990)

Themes: Zombies; trapped victims
Synopsis (from the back of the box): Seven strangers are trapped in an isolated farmhouse while cannibalistic zombies – awakened from death by the return of a radioactive space probe – wage a relentless attack, killing (and eating) everyone in their path.

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Tom Savini helmed this remake of the 1968 Romero classic, and it’s not a bad homage to the vastly superior original. Pleasantly, contrary to most people’s expectations when it comes to remakes, this one doesn’t suck that bad.

Filmgoers lately have gotten their undergarments in a bunch about the constant flurry of remakes coming to theaters lately, but really, is this any different than what we’ve witnessed in other areas, in other genres, time and time again? Look at how many cover songs come out from a multitude of artists; aren’t those technically remakes? Plus, it’s not like horror film remakes are even anything new in our fine new millennium; look at “King Kong” (1976), “The Blob” (1989), “The Bride” (1985), “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1978), “Cat People” (1982), “The Fly” (1986), “Mark of the Vampire” (1935), and “House of Wax” (1953). And that’s merely a handful of the remakes that came out prior to Savini’s “Dead.”

Savini’s “Dead” marked the first trip to the director’s chair for the special effects artist, and it came out on the heels of “Pumpkinhead,” directed by Stan Winston, also a special effects artist who, like Savini, specialized in horror films. What might have appeared to be a trend, however, stalled out the gate; one wonders what might have become of the genre had this continued and, say, a Rick Baker taken the lens for a film or two. After all, who would you expect to have more insights and respect for horror movies, than the people in charge of bringing those horrors to life?

As far as the film goes, it tweaks the formula of the original “Night” for more conventional, Gen-X movie goers of the time. Romero’s “Night” had a message hidden in its subtext about civil rights, society and its grace under pressure; it seems that all of Romero’s zombie films use their zombies as a cultural yardstick. Savini in turn updated this approach for the new nineties, adjusting characterizations and situations to reflect the Gestalt:

1) Barbara, a character who in the original film is an embodiment of a Jell-o mold, becomes a Ramboesque engine of zombie destruction, in an attempt to move away from the “helpless heroine” motif.

2) The ending from the original was changed for Savini’s take; neither of which I’ll spoil here. Suffice to say, as cynical as Romero’s statement was with his film, Savini ups the ante by a factor of two.

Savini turns in a more than adequate take on a classic, which, even as relatively little as I knew about horror back in 1990, made me want to see what he could do if given free reign on an original film. Unfortunately, the critical and financial response to the new “Night” killed any momentum there might have been; they can’t all be “Pumpkinhead.”

Rating: 2 1/2 count