“Night of the Living Dead” 1968
Perhaps the greatest testament to this amazing film is that despite it being it being nearly 60 years old, black and white, technically crude, cheaply made in every conceivable way, it still holds up, it still provides shocks, scares, and a nihilistic ending that was unheard of at the time. Bottom line; it works.
It pioneered an entirely new genre: the modern zombie horror film. It also fathered a great number of bastard children. Let’s look at some of them.
“Night of The Living Dead” 1990
The first remake kept the same basic story but upgraded it in nearly every conceivable way. The story is essentially the same but the nature of some of the characters have been tweaked. I love this movie nearly as much as the original. The character of Barbara is reimagined as an emotionally damaged, yet strong woman, holding her own and so much more. She and Ben provide the emotional center of a great film. This film stands on it’s own as something much more than just another remake.
“Night of The Living Dead 3D” 2006
A poor remake, a poor 3D effort, a poor film, this is interesting only for Sid Haig, who is almost always worth the price of admission.
Note: The commentary of the following films is second hand as I’ve not seen them.
“Night of The Animated Dead” 2021
A supposedly shot-for-shot remake in (apparently poor) animation. Viewers have praised the voice cast and performances and overall vision of the effort.
“Night of The Living Dead Reanimated” 2009
Perhaps the most original vision of a remake, this film (apparently) features the sound and voices from the original film, using imagery from various artistic styles and sources.
There are several, perhaps many more films that feature the original title, either identically or in some manner, which are materially different in plot or narrative so that I didn’t feel they should be included. Please note as always, I could be wrong about that as I’ve not seen them.
Next up we’ll look at two excellent films in the modern zombie genre: “Zombie” 1979 and “Queens of The Dead” 2025.
See you then.
