It's grizzly, ghoulish other-worldliness made it instantly eerie and immediately frightening. When somebody colorized the original black and white, I guess Romero decided it was time to re-film it. In 1990, Tom Savini directed the re-make produced by Romero. Savini had created the remarkable grizzly original special effects in the first version and had went on to be as successful as Romero in the horror film genre. Savini's version is as terrifying and as original as the Romero black and white.
Flesh eating zombies always seem to be eerie and scary.
And Savini makes his zombies as ghoulish as the originals. What is different in the re-make is the strength of the women characters. In the original the women are meek and terrified. In Savini's version, the women are strong and in control, in fact, the main character emphasis in this version is shifted from the black man to the woman. The ending is as surprising as the original's ending without copying it.