Product: Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Rating: 5.0
Surprisingly good.
I bought Night of the Living Dead as an impulse buy. I wasn't expecting much, but the movie quickly became one of my favorites. After viewing this film, I went and purchased every of George A Romero's "Dead" films.The movie is a powerful social satire. The start of the movie has some unknown epidemic causing the dead to return to life - the unknown force is slowly taking over the world. The dead are driven by one primitive desire: eat live flesh. Due to an unknown force, people are suddenly unable to determine what to do. I believe Romero meant the characters to be a reflection of the audience. Everyone would want to make it out alive, but the problem is that since no one knows what is going on - i.e. central authority is gone - everyone is skeptical of the next person's opinion and believes his or her own opinion is the best option to staying alive. The movie portrays this in two ways. One, the television has newscasters being skeptical on what is going on - scientists are saying a satellite blew up and spread radiation, while others are saying, "Hell just ran out of room" - no one really knows what is going on and everyone is just forming opinions. Two, the main characters are not sure of what is going on, and the characters are a bit skeptical that the dead could return to life. By the end of the movie, we see that due to the doubts, people cannot cooperate. Due to this uncooperative nature, the group of people destroy themselves before the zombies can.Night of the Living Dead is great in my opinion. Most zombie movies are either too funny, or tries to be too serious which ends up being unintentionally funny. Romero's film just places characters right into the middle of their world, and the movie offers no conclusive explanation to as what is going on - only the facts that a group of people is trying to survive the ordeal. With this in mind, the film can appeal to horror fans and people just looking for a movie with some good meaning behind it.The one thing I don't like about this DVD of Night of the Living Dead is that on the back of the box it says that due to a satellite blowing up, radiation caused the dead to return to life. This is untrue as in the film, and by Romero's discussion, it seems that no one knows what is going on, and never well - and it is left up to the viewers to decide.Overall, I loved this movie. I suggest watching the original 1968 version of the film as well. The original is drastically different than the 1990 remake. The differences - besides the obvious colorization - includes key plot details and character developments. I thing the 1990 remake is great, but I think any Romero fan should watch the original. I also suggest all of the Dead originals by Romero (Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, and the upcoming new one due out 2008 on dvd).