Reviews: Night of the Living Dead (1990) Movie Review
Subgenres: Zombies, Apocalypse, Isolation, Splatter
Night of the Living Dead (1990) shocked audiences with its ending. Our spoiler-free review explains the scares, themes, and what makes this film unforgettable.
Night of the Living Dead (1990) is a 1h 32-min American horror film that is a remake of George Romero’s classic Night of the Living Dead (1968), but the 1990 version had a bigger budget and was shot in color. A few other differences are that the 1990 movie has better camera equipment, special effects make-up, different cast, and Tom Savini as the director. Director Tom Savini did a fantastic job executing his first full-length movie to being an entertaining watch with great action scenes. Night of the Living Dead started the same way the original started which I was not shocked by because this movie is based on the original screenplay with some minor revisions.
Barbara (Patricia Tallman - Army of Darkness (1992), Jurassic Park (1993), Babylon 5 (1995-1998)) and her brother Johnnie decide to visit their mother’s grave in a secluded Pennsylvania cemetery. It did not take long for a zombie to attack Barbara leading Johnnie (Bill Moseley - The Devil’s Rejects (2005), Army of Darkness (1992), Halloween (2007), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)) to rescue her but dies while defending his sister. Barbara ran for her dear life from the cemetery stumbling across an abandoned farmhouse where she seeks shelter only to find more zombies. Ben (Tony Todd - The Man from Earth (2007), The Rock (1996), Candyman (1992), Platoon (1986)) arrives shortly after helping Barbara kill the zombies and barricades the doors and windows. Ben and Barbara found other survivors hiding in the cellar of the farmhouse.
The group is not sure which route or what action they will take next but Harry Cooper (Tom Towles - Halloween (2007), Miami Vice (2006), The Devil’s Rejects (2005)) suggests that the group stay in the cellar until authorities come. Ben thinks that they will die if they remain in the basement because it is a death trap and should concentrate on fortifying the house. Barbara suggests that they should walk to their next destination because the zombies mobility is not fast enough to chase them if they encounter one or a few. The group had to devise a new plan as a horde of zombies is heading their way. The movie progresses to being an entertaining adventure where members of the group met horrific deaths.
I am a fan of this film and has watched it numerous times because it is something that my family enjoys watching. This movie showed us how Barbara grew stronger as she faced different situations and helped us understand our characters better with a little backstory. The makeup department did a fantastic job with the zombies and characters who all look spectacular. The screenplay was, of course, solid which leads the director to have an easier time executing the film with minor goofs/mishaps. All of the actors did a fantastic job with their performances including Johnnie, who did not have much screen time.
Similar films like Night of the Living Dead can be found in monster movies, monster movies, zombie movies, and zombie movies sub-genre(s), check them out for more movies like Night of the Living Dead.
Sources Used to Shape This Review
Insights in this review are drawn from director interviews, fan commentary, production notes, and long-form breakdowns across genre-specific platforms. Content is written uniquely and reviewed for accuracy.
- Night of the Living Dead Rating Scores
- Our Score: 7/10
- Overall Score: 6.52/10
- IMDB: 6.8/10
- MetaCritic: 5.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 6.6/10
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