Cover Art

Credits

Director: Tom Savini Starring: Tony Todd, Patricia Tallman, Tom Towles, McKee Anderson, William Butler Screenplay: George A. Romero (based on a script by George A. Romero and John Russo) Music: Paul McCollough Tagline: There IS a fate worse than death Country: USA

This is actually a remake of Romero's 1968 chiller of the same name. This time around Romero is in a producer role with Tom Savini making his directorial debut. Savini does a fantastic job and brings enough imagination and inventiveness along with him to make this something special. Many might think that Romero's is a classic not to be tampered with or, as here, remade. I disagree, if done properly a remake can sometimes bring something new and fresh to the original concept.

The story pretty much follows the same route as the original, a couple, Barbara (Patricia Tallman) and Johnny (Bill Mosley), drive up to the cemetery to visit the grave of Barbara's mother. Once there a zombie attacks them, Johnny is killed and Barbara escapes and so we are catapulted firmly into zombie territory. Barbara flees to a nearby house and, well, wanders about a bit having hysterics. It's not long before another human survivor arrives at the house in the form of Ben (played capably by Tony Todd) who instantly gets the house as secure as he can and dispatches a few zoms in the process. He manages to calm down Barbara enough to find out who she is and does she have a car. His truck is outside - but out of gas (of course).

Ben quickly discovers a shotgun upstairs clutched by some dead dude who had obviously shot himself for some reason. So, after killing a few more zoms and pondering on their situation some more stragglers appear from
the basement within which they had barricaded themselves in. One of these guys is Mr Cooper (Tom Towles), who really doesn't hit it off with Ben and tension begins to mount within the house as well as out.

The two parties have differing ideas on how to survive - one group wants to remain barricaded in the basement whilst the other wants to remain above. Things start to get real messy from this point on with an onslaught of zombie attacks; the conflict within resulting in a shoot-out; an exploding truck; and general mayhem galore.

I won't say who survives or what the final outcome is - you'll just have to see it for yourself! But it does have a deliciously dark twist towards the end and finishes on a decidedly grim note.

Savini directs with a sure hand and competently pulls this off - very impressive for a directorial debut. The cast is first class with reliable and enthusiastic performances from both Tony Todd and Patricia Tallman. And…yes…there are zombies by the truckload! The gore is a bit anaemic, especially for a film by Tom Savini, but this is explained in the commentary and documentary - the MPAA demanded cuts and the toning down of certain gore scenes. Thankfully, these deleted scenes are present in the documentary, so at least we get to see what was originally intended.