Director: Tom Savini
Cast: Tony Todd, Patricia Tallman, Tom Towles, McKee Anderson
Have I Seen it Before: Never. What with my well-known apathy towards the zed-word, it’s entirely possible I wasn’t even aware a remake of the original Night of the Living Dead (1968) existed, until it was put on the schedule of season-premiere for Beyond the Cabin in the Woods.
Did I Like It: While I felt like the last act of the film descended into the kind of zombie-sameness that works better than a horse tranquilizer* that keeps me from being a complete convert, the first half works far more effectively. Savini wastes no time just starting the action apace. This no-nonsense approach to the genre very nearly lulls me into a false sense of security that this will be a breathless chase against the forces of Judgment Day. If things had kept up with this pace, the characters might not have had any time to slow things down and slowly realize that the non-dead are just as much monsters as the undead.
But it was not meant to be. Had things stayed with just Todd and Tallman, we could have had an almost perfect minimalist entry in the genre. But there just had to be more people in the cellar…
And a group of rednecks who are just itching to domesticate the ghouls.
And a news broadcast that tells us about the unravelling of human society that can only be ebbed by destroying the reanimated’s brain.
And a beloved character who is turned before the end credits, followed immediately thereafter by another beloved character who is prepared to re-enter the world, unbitten but no less dehumanized.
*It’s probably unfair to judge it too harshly for these sins. The Walking Dead may have completely killed in me the thing that allows people to like depictions of zombies, but Walking Dead was just aping Romero’s work in beating that undead horse.