Night of the Living Dead remake: Tom Savini

[darth los]

Nah...I think the real question is whether or not he was helping the real zombie out. It was a tag team event. If you watch it, he comes from Barbara's right and the zombie ends up coming from her left. Surely the crazy old dude saw it? Then on top of that, as he's walking away he turns around as the zombie is attacking and does nothing but watch! Go to 4:00 Holy shit dude that was funny. He's Obviously is a big fan of frannies' tap dance while watching stephen struggle with a ghoul at the airport.

[MinionZombie]

Right. He had obvious wounds on his forehead and elsewhere, but the fact that he speaks and then walks away from Barbara makes it pretty obvious that he wasn't dead, imo. Indeed. Plus that guy has a great bit part in the movie, he's so memorable - the guy looks batshit freaked out. Didn't care for Barbara's haircut in the remake ... ... gotta say ... it always bugs me, it's so 1990. Also at times the film can look and sound a bit 'TV Movie' ... this is mainly, for me anyway, in the opening sequence. Just tiny, silly niggles I've always had with the movie. Still can't stand Judy Rose. Goddamn she was annoying. Mr Magruder does look seriously awesome as a zombie though, that cloudy-eyed, slack-jawed, moaning stammering shamble he does is just awesome.

[Neil]

Nah...I think the real question is whether or not he was helping the real zombie out. It was a tag team event. If you watch it, he comes from Barbara's right and the zombie ends up coming from her left. Surely the crazy old dude saw it? Then on top of that, as he's walking away he turns around as the zombie is attacking and does nothing but watch! Go to 4:00 I think the rubber dummy at 5:10 is terrible It looked soooo bad! Maybe should have done it with the head facing the other way to hide the non-human looking Johnnie face of it...

[MinionZombie]

I think the rubber dummy at 5:10 is terrible It looked soooo bad! Maybe should have done it with the head facing the other way to hide the non-human looking Johnnie face of it... Tell me about it. I'm stunning they decided to do it that way, it just looks dreadful. A high angle or close up of the actual hit in a brief shot cut in between a low angle (that would hide a crash mat), would have covered that moment better in my view, rather than a wide with a really obvious dummy. Or could a rubber tombstone have been the way to go? A real actor, and a fake tombstone would have worked better, surely. I still really like the movie, don't let my moaning about little things suggest otherwise ... but yeah ... that dummy, good lord.

[darth los]

It's funny because the passage of time invariably makes sfx look dated, however, this looked horrible in 1990.

[bassman]

It's been a long time since I've seen the whole flick, but as I recall that's really the only bad effect. What makes it even worse is that this Tom Savini's flick! One of the greatest special effects wizards of all time! And he let this slide by? huh?

[darth los]

It's been a long time since I've seen the whole flick, but as I recall that's really the only bad effect. What makes it even worse is that this Tom Savini's flick! One of the greatest special effects wizards of all time! And he let this slide by? huh? Alot of things were out of his control on this film. We all know the story but, once again, if your going to hire the chef you need to let him buy the groceries.

[CooperWasRight]

Tell me about it. I'm stunning they decided to do it that way, it just looks dreadful. A high angle or close up of the actual hit in a brief shot cut in between a low angle (that would hide a crash mat), would have covered that moment better in my view, rather than a wide with a really obvious dummy. Or could a rubber tombstone have been the way to go? A real actor, and a fake tombstone would have worked better, surely. I still really like the movie, don't let my moaning about little things suggest otherwise ... but yeah ... that dummy, good lord. You have it right about the choice of lens and angle... However a rubber tombstone would not work at all... The would be no good angle to disguise the crumple effect, and it would have to give otherwise it may as well be made of stone.

[MinionZombie]

You have it right about the choice of lens and angle... However a rubber tombstone would not work at all... The would be no good angle to disguise the crumple effect, and it would have to give otherwise it may as well be made of stone. The only possible way would be for part of the tombstone to be rubber, and only imply the hit - i.e. we don't see tombstone-meet-head, we instead see the head in front of the rubber portion of tombstone (from the camera's perspective) - hopefully hiding any bend that the rubber would provide, but implying the strike itself. That would require the strike to come from a different angle too, like starting nearer the camera, and then descending away from the lens and down onto the rubber portion - you could even have a blood pack on the back of his head which would burst on the strike, then just make sure he falls the right way, and it would possibly work.

[Neil]

The only possible way would be for part of the tombstone to be rubber, and only imply the hit - i.e. we don't see tombstone-meet-head, we instead see the head in front of the rubber portion of tombstone (from the camera's perspective) - hopefully hiding any bend that the rubber would provide, but implying the strike itself. That would require the strike to come from a different angle too, like starting nearer the camera, and then descending away from the lens and down onto the rubber portion - you could even have a blood pack on the back of his head which would burst on the strike, then just make sure he falls the right way, and it would possibly work. There are two dummies, the human and the zombie. Notice how the human one looks less real than the zombie one? This is mainly because you can see its entire face, and we're rather good at recognising those. So its made very easy for us to detect/see it's not a real face/person. If the face had been turned to look down, or even away slightly, we would be harder pushed to tell it wasn't real.

[shootemindehead]

Have to say, the first time I saw it, I was convinced. it was only after repeated viewings that the dummy thing started to grate. A little better editing and the scene would have sufficed though. The only problem is that the camera lingers that little bit too long.

[Neil]

Have to say, the first time I saw it, I was convinced. it was only after repeated viewings that the dummy thing started to grate. A little better editing and the scene would have sufficed though. The only problem is that the camera lingers that little bit too long. Yeh, if they had cut away the moment the instant the impact happened, and then went for a close up on the real actor with a wound? That way we would never have seen the stationary dummy and had even less time to see it for the fake it was...

[Trin]

"dummies... dummies... dummies..." Couldn't resist.

[bassman]

"dummies... dummies... dummies..." It's funny how it's simply impossible for me to read that in my own voice. I can't hear that word without repeating it twice more with the doctor's voice...

[darth los]

Have to say, the first time I saw it, I was convinced. So was I...When i was 12 ! I kid, i kid.