George Romero's trendsetting NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), the first Midnight Movie, isn’t just one of the greatest horror films ever made, but one of the most influential. It took the western trope of the siege and transplanted it into a horror movie narrative. Many other films after NIGHT would utilize the concept of the siege; and from there, Romero’s film was cited as an influence. Films like Sam Peckinpah's STRAW DOGS (1971), other zombie movies like the creep-tastic CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS (1972) and John Carpenter's action thriller ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1977) all use the siege plot device.
Easily the most prosperous attribute of NIGHT is in how it rewrote zombie mythology; no longer were they automatons of some witch doctor but walking corpses with a taste for human flesh. Imagine the innate fear of seeing a friend or family member buried only to see them walking around a few days later. Imagine being in such a predicament and in your hesitation, revisiting what that person meant to you, time you spent with them, and now those memories are gone--replaced by empty, soulless eyes of a walking corpse that only wants to rip you apart and eat your flesh. Romero touched on the primal fear of these scenarios and made you not only think about them but made you afraid of them.
Whenever there’s an announcement that a new version of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) is being produced, there’s very little, if any, positive anticipation from the horror community. It’s generally assured the end result will have all the finesse of actual zombies having made it. Due to the carelessness of the film’s original distributor, the Walter Reade Organization, who somehow managed to forget to add a copyright notice on their prints, George Romero’s classic independent horror has remained plagued by inferior imitations and outright ripoffs.
This article examines ten films or instances where the original source is altered that either accentuate or devalue the legacy of the superlative 1968 original; ten examples that mostly take advantage of the film's public domain status. The novel that was intended to be filmed as a direct sequel to NIGHT is also covered. What’s most notable is how astonishingly superior NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) remains nearly 60 years after it was made. Only a few of the films discussed here are worthy of walking alongside Romero's Living Dead; the rest settle for a quick buck instead of a lasting impact. (Insert: a young George Romero)
RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD: THE NOVEL (1978)
George A. Romero and John A. Russo co-wrote NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) together. After their zombie opus was making lots of money for everyone but those who made it, Romero and his team pondered another horror film, this time an anthology of five terror tales. Deciding against this for the time being, they turned to making a movie in the spirit of THE GRADUATE (1968), the top-grossing movie of 1968. The end result was THERE'S ALWAYS VANILLA (1971), a romantic comedy that went nowhere. The two men eventually went their separate ways. (Insert: George Romero preparing to shoot a scene for a local TV station. Romero, John Russo in zombie makeup, Judith O'Dea and broadcaster Dave James)
With NIGHT continuing to play theaters all around the world, the two co-writers agreed that should they continue with additional zombie films, Romero would use 'of the Dead' in the title whereas Russo opted to use 'of the Living Dead'. Romero would continue directing with little success (till the end of the decade) while Russo turned to writing horror fiction, the first of which he novelized NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD in 1974. His second novel was 'Return of the Living Dead', a sequel novel to NIGHT that was published in 1978. Meanwhile, Romero was making a movie sequel to NIGHT, the epic zombie horror that is DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978), considered by many to be THE greatest zombie film ever made; it is most definitely one of them.
John Russo's novel treads the same ground, taking place ten years after the dead first rose and attacked the living. The main setting is once again at a farmhouse where a group of varied individuals barricade themselves to survive a new zombie outbreak. There's a mean-spiritedness to the sequel book that is absent from NIGHT. Romero's movie is downbeat and gloomy in that everyone dies but Russo takes things much further into the darker side of humanity; that living man can be just as dangerous as the living dead. The novel, which reads more like a screenplay, is far more despairing but also redundant in that the same scenario plays out multiple times; there are two farmhouses and a mansion where, with little variance, the same events play out. The story is detailed below:
It's likely a good thing this version of RETURN never made it to the screen. Elements of it did, however, in the 1980 zombie movie THE CHILDREN. In that film, a toxic cloud engulfs a school bus full of kids that turns them into zombies. They don't eat anyone, but they burn their victims to death by simply touching them. Instead of destroying the brain, the way to destroy the half-pint walking dead is to cut off their hands. Filming on Russo's book-to-screen adaptation was supposed to have begun in 1981 but stalled for several years. When Dan O'Bannon's version of RETURN was finally made, Russo wrote a novelization for it as well... which leads us to...
RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985)
Two workers at a medical supply warehouse accidentally unleash a toxic gas from a military canister stored in the building's basement that brings everything in the warehouse to life, including a corpse in a freezer. In an effort to cover up the incident, the body is cremated; only the toxic fumes then make their way into the sky and return to Earth in the form of acid rain. Seeping into the ground of a nearby graveyard, the chemicals bring the dead back to life ready to party and craving human brains.
Dan O’Bannon’s seminal and perfect merger of horror and comedy is the pinnacle of zombie films associating themselves with Romero’s timeless classic. After John Russo and George Romero, the co-creators of NIGHT, parted ways, Russo wrote a sequel novel to the film in 1978 titled ‘Return of the Living Dead’. It took several years for the film version to get off the ground, but when it did, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE's Tobe Hooper was originally attached as director. At this point, RETURN was still a direct sequel to NIGHT. As time went on, Hooper eventually left the project to film LIFEFORCE (1985) in London for Cannon Films. The co-writer of ALIEN (1979), Dan O'Bannon, stepped in as director and, feeling the original script was too similar to Romero’s work, rewrote it as the punk rock horror it is today. Unlike Romero, who would expand on the unique zombie mythos he created in 1978, again in 1985 with DAY OF THE DEAD and beyond, Russo’s RETURN was the best project post-NIGHT he was ever involved with.
Curiously, when Hooper made THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (1986) for Cannon Films, it was done in a similar, blackly comical style to RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD with the infusion of humor and a punk rock soundtrack. O'Bannon's movie rewrote zombie history, giving birth to the running zombie that became annoying as hell as the years went by. It did retain a connection to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) in that James Karen divulges to Thom Matthews that Romero's movie was actually a true story and the bodies the Trioxin gas brought to life back in '69 are stored in the basement. One of the film’s best attributes is that it’s such a fun experience, you don’t have to be a horror fan to have a good time with it.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD IN COLOR (1986)
The first major misstep in NIGHT's lengthy living dead lineage was the attempt to present it in color. There were good intentions to colorizing the greatest zombie movie ever made; unfortunately, the end result came off like a means to mine more money out of the public domain property. The initial colorized version from Hal Roach Studios was embarrassing and turned what was pure terror into unintentional laughter; the process made the zombies look green. It would take a few more tries before the color process would look good and that came from the specialists at Legend Films. Still, even though NIGHT finally looked presentable in blood-red color, there was something uniquely frightening about the film's original B/W photography that the transfer to color couldn't replicate.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1990)
As Tom Savini’s motion picture directing debut attests, the only admirable additions to Romero’s immortal horror film are those made by his closest associates. Savini’s remake is the best kind—it follows and respects its source, but takes new, inventive paths to build on the landmark motion picture that preceded it. There's some unique alterations throughout, and some unexpected changes in the latter half of the movie that will either surprise you or shock you. 1990s NIGHT vision only gets better with age.
Savini’s movie was recently released in a 2-disc UHD and bluray steelbook edition. One disc is the theatrical version and the other is the uncensored director's cut that reinstates cut gore footage removed for its original 1990 theatrical release. The opening graveyard sequence is now in B/W before switching to color right as the first zombie attacks Bill Moseley. When the remake first came out, the lack of excessive bloody scenes soured many genre fans on the film. By that point in 1990, fans expected blood and guts, especially from a zombie movie directed by Tom Savini. It’s only slightly gorier than the original. Once that initial shock wears off, the one genuinely good remake of Romero’s exemplar work is also the most respectable treatment.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: 30th ANNIVERSARY (1999)
We’re going from worthy addition to worthless regurgitation. The original film’s co-writer, John Russo, concocted this mess that should never have been made. When George Lucas decided to tamper with his original STAR WARS trilogy by shooting new, CGI-heavy scenes, it started a brief trend of filmmakers screwing around with their popular films; NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) was one of them.
Several of the original cast and crew worked on this project. Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman, who played the bickering Cooper couple (and were a couple in real life), helped out with zombie make-ups; Bill Hinzman reprised his role as the cemetery zombie, getting a useless backstory in the updated footage where he's noticeably older looking no matter how much batter is plastered to his face; he was also the director of photography for the new scenes. Russ "they're coming to get you, Barbara" Streiner produced it; and John A. Russo wrote and directed the approximate 18 minutes of new scenes. The new footage featuring the crazy preacher was possibly taken from Russo's 'Return of the Living Dead' novel from 20 years earlier. Vincent J. Gaustini provided new gore effects that are the only worthwhile thing about the 30th Anniversary. In the end, it turned out to be an absolutely terrible idea; the impending disaster of which should’ve been foreshadowed early on. The end-result is a near unwatchable mess. The original footage doesn't match the new scenes at all.
As for Russo, he himself played zombies in the original film; he’s the zombie that exits a closet to get at Barbara but dies by a tire iron planted into his forehead by Ben; and later he’s the zombie that catches fire from a Molotov cocktail thrown by Harry from an upstairs window. Both Romero and Russo had great affinity for their original work of zombie horror even if the former was the more successful of the duo in bringing them to the screen.
After Russo became a novelist, he later wrote two novels that he would turn into motion pictures: he wrote 'The Majorettes' in 1979. Russo would later write and produce a film version in 1987 that was directed by Bill Hinzman, NIGHT's cemetery zombie. Hinzman would likewise direct himself as the FLESHEATER in 1988, a Pennsylvania-lensed companion piece to Romero's more polished NIGHT. In 1980, Russo wrote the horror novel 'Midnight' and directed a film version in 1982.
The original NIGHT was like a family gathering—with each member bringing something to the table and pitching in wherever needed; this misguided overhaul was like a family reunion where, after 30 years, relatives have grown apart from one another and the younger generation can’t relate to the adversity and hard work of those that preceded them. Russo clearly had an enormous level of passion about NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. As it played out over the years, Russo--who was prolific as a novelist--was far more successful putting pen to paper than putting the image to film. (John A. Russo in zombie makeup)
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 3D (2006)
Johnny and Barbara are driving to attend their mother's funeral. They arrive at the cemetery and find no one there... that is till a handful of zombies show up and Barbara's mom exits her coffin. Barbara manages to escape, finding her way to an isolated farmhouse populated by a family of marijuana growers just as the dead are coming back to life to eat the living. The connection to the resurrected dead is the local mortuary run by Gerald Tovar, Jr.
Marijuana plays such a huge role in the plot it’s a wonder the filmmakers didn’t rewrite the script and try to get Cheech and Chong to star and liven things up. Imagine the possibilities: C&C arrive at the farmhouse after their van breaks down. Realizing the cannabis oasis they've stumbled into, C&C want to lock themselves in the basement to get high till help comes. But all the supplies are upstairs so there's turmoil over who gets the groceries. The smell of Devil's Lettuce is so strong, it exits the farmhouse like clouds of toxic fumes. The walking dead inhale, get high, and get even hungrier for flesh than they already were. THE END. The tagline could've been, "The end may be nigh, but the survivors are getting high!"
This was the first direct remake of Romero's original since Savini's version from 1990. Jeff Broadstreet's film starts off surprisingly well but quickly loses altitude, going into a nosedive. This 3D makeover rates nowhere near Romero’s living dead milestone nor Tom Savini's interpretation of it. Romero's original NIGHT probably holds the record for the film seen playing on television the most times in a movie; the weed-growing dwellers of the farmhouse are watching it when Barbara barges in. Sid Haig's participation and Cristin Michele’s stunning body are the film’s biggest recommendations. Aside from the opening and doom-laden finale, if tedium could turn you into a zombie, then this movie would cause an outbreak.
MIMESIS: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (2011)
Horror movie fans attending a horror convention are invited to a party at a secluded farmhouse. Drugged, they awaken the next day and realize they've been dressed up like characters from George Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. They see what they believe are zombies stumbling around the farmhouse, attempting to break in and feast on their flesh. The dwindling survivors soon learn that the truth is far more horrifying.
One of the most creative interpretations of the 1968 masterpiece is this shockingly good film whose title is Greek for imitation. What sets MIMESIS apart is that it’s not a remake of NIGHT, but a film about disturbed fans who are so obsessed with Romero’s classic, they act out a real-life version of the movie. Unlike a lot of the NIGHTmares on this list, there’s energy and adoration for the source material instead of lazily milking a few more dollars out of Romero’s property. Sid Haig sophomores his second NIGHT redux as a far better character here playing a famous horror filmmaker. He’s only at the beginning and ending but his presence is welcome. Courtney Gains, Malachai from CHILDREN OF THE CORN (1984), has a cameo and comes to a bloody end during the opening sequence.
MIMESIS stands out due to its refreshing approach and refusal to mimic Romero’s landmark movie strictly to make money off his property that is still in the public domain all these years later. This is the high point for the NIGHT influenced films of the new millennium; it's all downhill from here.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 3D: RE-ANIMATION (2012)
Mortician Gerald Tovar, Jr accidentally unleashes a zombie outbreak after dead bodies in his mortuary are exposed to toxic waste. Tovar's brother, Harold, drops in uninvited seeking a bite of Gerald's inheritance and eventually learns his brother has zombiefied their father.
Director Jeff Broadstreet returns with a three-dumb-ensional prequel to his 2006 3D do-over. Sid Haig's Mr. Tovar is now played by Andrew Divoff (the villain in the first two WISHMASTER movies). Jeffrey Combs (Dr. West of the RE-ANIMATOR movies) also stars. In more focused hands, this could've been a good horror flick with the brotherly rivalry and the two bickering lady embalmers offering a striking character dichotomy amid the rising dead. Instead, Broadstreet's screenplay doesn't know what to do with his movie nor the people populating it. Divoff and Combs have so much screentime and so little to do in it with pacing that's slower than the zombies in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968).
Broadstreet brings back the reefer for a nonsensical 15-minute weed-smoking sequence. Then there's the intrusively unfunny political humor that likewise seems to have been written while under the influence. There's one, albeit brief, moment of creativity found in a dialog exchange uttered by Jeffrey Combs regarding zombie outbreaks in '68, '78, '85 and '90; all of which were far more animated than this movie.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: RESURRECTION (2012)
A British family living in an isolated farmhouse in the middle of nowhere must deal with personal issues as well as a sudden zombie outbreak. As the number of zombies grow both inside and outside the house, a gang of violent teenagers attack the family.
This British interpretation is a boring, load of bollocks. Scenes riff on better movies like a moment where an old man turns his vehicle lights on but instead of a group of zombies standing in front of his car like in RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985), it’s a gang of psychotic youths. This band of thugs figure heavily into the finale when they lay siege to the farmhouse in the last 25 minutes. There’s a character named Ben whose participation is reimagined from that original NIGHT in 1968; that’s the extent of this film’s ingenuity. The anemic zombie apocalypse is sloppily handled, exemplifying just how passionate Romero was about his project back in 1968 with equally, if not an even greater, lack of resources.
There are scratches on the film for that old-school look, odd camera angles throughout and an occasionally mild sense of dread drudged up, but these fleeting moments are quickly dispatched by a growing amateurishness infecting the monetarily famished production. To be fair, there are some good ideas here (some of which appears to have been taken from John Russo's sequel novel), only they're never successfully realized on the screen. An ugly, nihilistic film, the last scene goes a few steps further when the would-be rescuers show up looking to do far worse than save the remaining survivors.
FESTIVAL OF THE LIVING DEAD (2024)
The granddaughter of Ben, the man who fended off a zombie horde during a 1968 zombie outbreak, gets tickets to a local festival commemorating the original tragedy. On their way to the festival, the teens run into an actual zombie. They later discover that this all-new outbreak is related to a crashed meteorite after they witness some of the festival attendees snorting the residue from the crashed rock like a drug. Before you can say "METEOR SHIT!", a new zombie plague ensues…. And eventual boredom.
Despite being well acted and looking more polished than most on this list, FESTIVAL holds the distinction of having the dumbest plot of the lot. An original production made by the Tubi streaming service, it's just another zombie movie attempting to attach itself to a genuinely great one. In a world where teens drink tide pods and set themselves on fire for internet clicks, the idea that influencers would do lines of space dust off a crashed meteorite isn't so farfetched. This meandering movie directed by the Soska sisters tries mightily to be hip with its premise, while fans of Rob Zombie's movies will rejoice at the sloppy script and use of the word ‘fuck’ every other sentence. The zombie attack on the festival goes on forever with little variance. FESTIVAL would probably play better without its crutch; with it, this expletive-filled pretender is incapable of shambling around on its own two feet.
NIGHT OF THE RISING DEAD (2026)
The only thing RISING is the terrible odor emanating from this movie.
This was originally going around as simply NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (2026); then, bizarrely, as BASED ON THE ORIGINAL NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. The title was then changed again, replacing LIVING with RISING. You can find it streaming under both titles, or better yet, don't bother. Regardless of the moniker, it’s yet another poor imitation that never feels like anything but another money grab. The acting is almost as bad as the CGI and the unspecified setting never looks like anything but modern; you need more than an old phone and vintage radio to recreate the year 1968. The movie can't make up its mind what time period it wants to be set in as much as it can't settle on a title.
Dee Wallace has become the horror genres cameo queen at this point. She appears during the opening CGI-infused zombie attack sequence in Beekman's Diner, which you only hear about in Romero's movie. Just like with the awful 30th Anniversary Edition of NIGHT where we needlessly learn who the cemetery zombie was, we now see what happened while Ben was at the diner; only RISING rewrites the original NIGHT's history. There is no longer a Ben as played by Duane Jones in the original and Tony Todd in the 1990 remake, but an Ellie played by Vivica A. Fox. There's also Robert Carradine in one of his final roles before his death on February 23rd, 2026. Then there's former professional wrestler Rob Van Dam and his modern hairstyle leading a vigilante group to stop the zombies--unlike the civil volunteers helping the police bring down the dead in the original movie... and Ben in that film's shocking final moment. The only thing shocking about the newest NIGHT is in how much of an unnecessary waste of time it is.
There are other versions of Romero's zombie horror classic, including an animated film and even a NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD LIVE! stage play that's been going since 2013. Many consider Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) to be the greatest zombie film of all time; it certainly widened the landscape in its depiction of zombies taking over the world. Containing unsurpassed gore effects by Tom Savini, it wasn't so much scary as it was fear sharing the screen with abject hysteria. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is certainly a scary, unnerving viewing experience. As good as the equally influential DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) is, you wouldn't have the DAWN without the previous NIGHT. Looking back, who would've thought a little independent movie that cost $114,000 to make would inspire countless flesh-eating ghouls the world over. There will always and only be one true NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. A film whose power lies in its documentary style of shooting; the dedication of the performances; and the passion of George A. Romero and his crew who fashioned the scariest and most pivotal zombie film of all time.
*Some images sourced from John Russo's The Complete Night of the Living Dead Filmbook*
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