Night of the Living Dead remake: Tom Savini

[ProfessorChaos]

i've also never understood all the negative vibes towards night '90. while i do concur that it's not in the same league as the original, it's still a great film, imo. aside from the girl playing judy, i thought all actors did well. the music is weak at some points, but very good in others (i've always like the opening scene and music), and the dead look pretty legit, even by today's standards. and even thought it's 20 years old, it's aged pretty well, if you ask me.

[Trin]

The remake suffers from the main remake struggle. Someone says, "Hey, wouldn't it be great..." with whatever they hated in the original fixed. In this case it was, "Hey, wouldn't it be great if Barbra got off her butt and became a kick ass commando?" Hell, yeah... wait.... Hell NO!!

[DjfunkmasterG]

I hope they do a remaster and put it out on Blu-Ray, but in terms of remakes the DAWN remake is the best of the Romero remade zombie films.

[Neil]

I hope they do a remaster and put it out on Blu-Ray, but in terms of remakes the DAWN remake is the best of the Romero remade zombie films. IYHO... Personally I'd rather watch NOTLD90, just too much daftness in the Dawn remake for me to accept in one sitting But each to their own of course

[Legion2213]

The more I watch Dawn 04, the more I see it as a "what if" kind of thing more than a remake...these non-GAR zombies are so fast and aggressive it is frightening...no feeble pawing at the door whilst moaning a bit, they are coming through it and looking for you!!! I love the speed that order collapses/gets overwhelmed. Edit: The biggest flaw in "04" for me is several characters who I just don't care about and the lack of seeing more of civilisation getting destroyed - I really love that kind of thing. .

[Trin]

IYHO... Personally I'd rather watch NOTLD90, just too much daftness in the Dawn remake for me to accept in one sitting But each to their own of course I need to go re-watch NOTLD90. I haven't seen it but a couple times and both of them were in the 90's. Sadly, Encore has been showing "Dawn of the Dead ('78)" in their listings but have actually been running Dawn '04 when you flip over to it. How bitter is that? The more I watch Dawn 04, the more I see it as a "what if" kind of thing more than a remake...these non-GAR zombies are so fast and aggressive it is frightening...no feeble pawing at the door whilst moaning a bit, they are coming through it and looking for you!!! I love the speed that order collapses/gets overwhelmed. Dawn '04 is the ultimate attempt to fix the original. The zombies aren't scary. They're too slow. Viola - velociraptor zombies. The mall is too enclosed, too safe, too boring. Voila - Andy's gun shop. Add some big explosions and some harrowing car chase scenes. Oh, and human drama. Should we kill the bit guy? What about the preggo gal? And poor Michael. The funnest thing about Dawn '04 is the collapse and watching them deal with their little mall society as the rest of the world dissolves around them. Edit: The biggest flaw in "04" for me is several characters who I just don't care about and the lack of seeing more of civilisation getting destroyed - I really love that kind of thing. You didn't like zombie baby? I wept for that poor little guy. And for the franchise that created him. The one thing I truly missed in Dawn '04 was the securing the mall. They just kinda wandered in and everything was already secured.

[bassman]

The one thing I truly missed in Dawn '04 was the securing the mall. They just kinda wandered in and everything was already secured. They covered that with one line of horrible dialogue from the stereotypical mad-at-the-world black guy -- "Shattaproof glass, asshoe" No need to secure the mall. Shatter proof glass. Oh and I'm also one that really likes Night 90. I watch it more than the original and consider it the only remake that is worthy of Romero's name and work.

[krakenslayer]

The Night remake is by far the best of the Romero remakes, for me. You can really tell it was made by the Romero "family", whereas in Dawn 04 that atmosphere is gone. However, I am a bit of a gorehound and I thought it could have used a little more grue.

[darth los]

However, I am a bit of a gorehound and I thought it could have used a little more grue. So did Savini.

[krakenslayer]

So did Savini. Touche, although Savini's original cut wasn't much more gruesome than what we saw. A shotgun decapitation and some extra blood spurts around headshots, but gut-munching was conspicuously absent even in the workprint. If you're gonna have bullet hits, you gotta have some gut-munching to balance it out, otherwise it just comes across as people kicking zombie ass for an hour-and-a-half. It's still an awesome zombie movie, despite that one drawback. I wouldn't even call it a flaw, it's just a personal taste thing.

[darth los]

Touche, although Savini's original cut wasn't much more gruesome than what we saw. A shotgun decapitation and some extra blood spurts around headshots, but gut-munching was conspicuously absent even in the workprint. If you're gonna have bullet hits, you gotta have some gut-munching to balance it out, otherwise it just comes across as people kicking zombie ass for an hour-and-a-half. It's still an awesome zombie movie, despite that one drawback. I wouldn't even call it a flaw, it's just a personal taste thing. Imo, the subject matter in these types of movies is of the mature, gory variety. In order for the story if these horrific ghouls to be told what is is that they actually do must be shown. As you said, anything else comes off as disingenuous, like the ghouls really aren't that much of a threat.

[Legion2213]

The one thing I truly missed in Dawn '04 was the securing the mall. They just kinda wandered in and everything was already secured. They covered that with one line of horrible dialogue from the stereotypical mad-at-the-world black guy -- "Shattaproof glass, asshoe" No need to secure the mall. Shatter proof glass. Both valid points, although it's fair to point out that the folks in this version didn't have a chopper to land on the roof, or a nice gun shop to raid in order to obtain the weapons and ammo needed to clear a mall full of zombies. I'd much rather be in Monroeville Mall than Dawnville 04 mall in either situation...shatter proof glass or not. .

[darth los]

Both valid points, although it's fair to point out that the folks in this version didn't have a chopper to land on the roof, or a nice gun shop to raid in order to obtain the weapons and ammo needed to clear a mall full of zombies. I'd much rather be in Monroeville Mall than Dawnville 04 mall in either situation...shatter proof glass or not. . Also, for the record, when the protagonists from the original first went down into the mall all the shops were convieniently secured as well. With a couple of exceptions I might be forgetting, the only things they really had to secure were the entrances.

[bassman]

Well now if you think about it they had to do a lot more to set up shop in the original. They had to build the fake wall, set up the trucks, stock the "living area", take out the (hundreds?) of zombies already inside the mall, do something with the bodies, make an escape plan, etc, etc. In the remake it's like "Hey! There's a mall!", "We're in the mall!", "Only two zombies in here!", "they can't get in through the shatterproof glass, so let's not even bother!". That's pretty much it. The whole "plan" of taking over the mall consists of them walking through the doors and shutting them behind them. No blocking the doors, no setting up of living areas, not enough zombies to hurt anyone, no stocking, no escape plans, nothing.

[ProfessorChaos]

..."they can't get in through the shatterproof glass, so let's not even bother!"... shattaproof, asshole.