The 1968 Night of the Living Dead is one of the most important films in the history of horror, defining the zombie subgenre for generations to come. Yet, merely twenty-two years after its original release, it was ‘officially’ remade by special effects wizard Tom Savini, working hand-in-hand with legendary creator George A. Romero to update the classic film for the modern day and infuse it with new life.
Just like the original, Night of the Living Dead follows a group of strangers holding up in a farmhouse as the outside world succumbs to a zombie apocalypse. These strangers include Barbara, a young woman whose brother was killed in front of her, and Ben, who fled the nearby Evans City in an attempt to survive. As tensions rise between the survivors, and more of the undead slowly arrive at the farmhouse, Ben and Barbara try their best to make it through the night. Much of the remake follows the original film’s plot beat-for-beat, featuring a revised script from George A. Romero who fleshes out the character of Barbra significantly and in doing so, changes the story’s infamous ending.
A huge element of this remake is the modernization of the themes of the original, giving Barbara more agency and a more consistent presence in the story as a ‘fighter’. This fixes the original film’s biggest flaw, which is that her character completely succeeds to the background very quickly despite her initial importance in setting up the plot. Thus, Night of the Living Dead adds societal commentary on gender and misogyny in addition to the pre-existing commentary on racism seen in the original film, enriching the text for a more modern audience and crucially tackling a genuine flaw with the source material.
Patricia Tallman is wonderful as Barbara, taking the new material and running with it to update the character as a compelling and capable final girl. Yet, the best part of the entire film, quite frankly, is the inimitable Tony Todd as Ben. Todd commands the screen in one of his finest performances, giving Ben a sense of righteous anger that is fueled by an underlying care for Barbara and a wish to survive. All of the film’s best lines go to him, and he’s impossible to look away from whenever he’s on screen. Todd was a true master of the craft and one of the greatest Scream Kings we have and will ever have had. He is sorely missed.
Night of the Living Dead may ultimately live in the shadow of it’s legendary source material, but it’s a phenomenally acted, really well-directed remake with great special effects that, in my mind, stands on its own two feet as a great zombie movie in its own right. By tackling what makes the original dated, it updates it beautifully for the modern day, and in my mind is an underrated essential in the zombie subgenre that you should absolutely revisit this Halloween season.
