“We’re them, they’re us.”– Barbara

I haven’t seen Romero’s original in a while, so it wouldn’t be fair for me to compare the remake with it. All I remember from the 1968 classic is that it felt dated and that Barbara was a yelping banshee. I’ll have to hit this remake as a stand-alone.

Sometimes simplicity pays off and this flick is Night Of The Living Proof of that. The story here is character/situational driven and sticks to the basics. The zombies are just "there" and we’re never given an explanation as to why they’ve returned from the grave (I loved that approach). The directing also serves the movie, never standing out to a point of distraction and the makeup effects are kept grounded in reality. Nothing fancy here and it works!

Character-wise, I really got attached to Ben (Todd) and Barbara (Tallman). Ben’s survival instinct and good heart really appealed to me. As for Barbara, witnessing her evolution from a vulnerable young woman, to a strong and resourceful fighter was very engaging. Strong female characters always appealed to me more than the whole “helpless dame” thang. We can now add Barbara to the Ripley, Sarah Connor list of ass-kicking chicks. You go, girl! The film itself moves at an even pace, has a truckload of suspenseful moments, offers mucho zombie/human confrontations and even takes the time to make a statement about the evil that men do at the end. Yes, I started feeling sorry for those poor living chumps.

From a negative standpoint, some of the effects weren’t always up to par. Am I the only guy that thought that the “Uncle Rege” zombie sometimes looked like a huge yellow balloon? And am I the only one that spotted him deflating when Barbara gave him “le coup de grace”? That took me out of the vibe a bit. Then we have the dialogue which for some reason often sounded like it was straight out of the 60s. For example, who calls somebody a “yo-yo”? I mean, you’ve got living corpses wanting to chew your balls outside! I think words like “FUCK”, “MOTHERFUCKER or SHIT would be more appropriate than “yo-yo”. Maybe it’s just me. On a script level, two things really irritated me: 1) Barbara suggests outrunning the zombies early on and it's clearly obvious to me that it’s the best idea. But Ben poorly rationalizes that it would be safer to lock everybody up in the house instead. Didn’t make sense to me and I didn’t buy it. The screenwriter could’ve thought of a more convincing argument to keep the characters at that location and 2) What kind of moron shoots the padlock on a gas tank with a 12-gauge shotgun? He was just asking for that one! 'Nuff said.

The first cut of this film was given an "X" rating by the MPAA. Several cuts were made to ensure an R-rating.

The budget of the film was $4.2 Million.