Review of Night of the Living Dead

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1990) *** Tony Todd, Patricia Tallman, Tom Towles, McKee Anderson, William Butler, Katie Finneran, Bill Moseley, Heather Mazur. Make-up wiz Tom Savini's big-screen directorial debut is a a doozy: a remake of the seminal zombie horror classic for a contemporary day audience doesn't disappoint with more than enough tension, terror and violence. Teaming up with frequent collaborator - and the original's creator/director - George A. Romero (who also does a better turn with the screenplay), the film echoes its counterpart nicely yet layers on the dread. While Todd does a comparatively equal (if not better and tougher) job as the Duane Jones hero, Tallman is a bit off for the most part (a bit stiff and then suddenly gung-ho makes an uneasy transition) while Towles is perfectly cast as the obnoxious loud- mouth whose negativity is only second to the slow-moving corpses taking a stranglehold on their holed-up farmhouse sanctuary. The original is the bellwether curve for modern-day horror and this well-produced homage is just as good.