The word “remake” usually makes film fans go into a fit of rage, especially horror fans. Why remake a classic when chances are you'll never even come close to the original? Well, studios don't really care about much besides the bottom line and remaking an already proven concept is a safe investment that all those types will buy into.

All remakes are hampered by the start thanks to this, but once in a while a few manage to overcome and become just as good, if not better than their source material. This happens when the right people are behind the project.

The right people were definitely behind this remake of Night of the Living Dead – Tom “The Moustache” Savini as director and George Romero as the writer and executive producer.

I've already written about NOTLD, so to recount the same exact story would be boring ( or more boring than most of these articles usually are). Instead, I'll be trying to point out things that are changed in this film.

For one, the film begins with a spoooooooooky full moon on a foggy night. I guess this is done to re-iterate the fact that yes, this movie takes place at night. After the title credits are done, we find ourselves at the familiar graveyard that Barbara and Johnny drive to.

The dialogue is sort of changed to fit in with modern times, with Johnny asking Barbara when the last time she had a date was. The old Barbara probably never even conceived of having a man in her life besides Johnny.

The new Barbara is prim and proper looking in her pink flowery outfit and her coke bottle glasses. The new Johnny continues his perverted ways, telling Barbara how horny the dead people are and that they want to do her. What an awesome brother.

The remake picks up the pace much faster than the original, as Barbara and Johnny only talk for about two minutes before getting attacked. At least this Barbara fights back, kicking and stabbing the zombie, although most of the time she ends up stabbing Johnny instead.

As Barbara is escaping in the car, she encounters my favorite zombie of the movie. He's risen out of his grave and torn his tuxedo, exposing his bare ass. Eventually the entire suit rips off and you've got a naked zombie chasing after people. Can't a dead man have his dignity?

The make-up for the remake zombies is really good and fits in more with the Day of the Dead zombies than the ones in the original NOTLD. Those just looked like regular people.

Once Barbara is inside the house, she's almost immediately attacked by zombies. The coolest of these zombies is the Tor Johnson lookalike that falls off a banister just to get to her. Ben arrives in his Ford truck and mows down a zombie.

This time around Ben is played by Candyman! That's damn good casting. Barbara's still sort of off hinge at this point, but more of a laughing crazy than the catatonic crazy of the original.

Hell, she even takes out a zombie by herself by stabbing it with a fire poker. She makes a pretty quick transformation from meek to a female Rambo.

A really welcome edition to the remake is some actual music. The original used some of the worst, cheapest stock music available, so it's nice to see a version of the film with a tailored soundtrack to suit it (Although I guess the minimalist music of the original really suits it well).

Ben's a little more of a “hell on earth” profit this time around. He's less like the original Ben and more like Ken Foree from Dawn of the Dead. Instead of finding the shotgun in the closet, this time around Ben finds it on the corpse of one of the house's residents that shot himself in the head.

After taking the shotgun, we're introduced to the people downstairs, Harry and Helen Cooper, Tom, and his girlfriend Judy Rose. Tom's a little bit of an over actor, trying ever so hard to be a country bumpkin. At least it gives him some personality this time around. His story has also been changed to make him related to the people who own the house.

Harry Cooper's alright I guess, but it's hard to match the super asshole performance of the original. The original just seems more of an asshole thanks to the black and white color, the stubble, and is drunken glassy look. The new Cooper is more like a guy acting snide instead of a man who's an asshole down to his very core.

Barbara takes the initiative to start boarding up the windows this time around while Harry Cooper goes into the cellar. The best insults to Ben that Harry can muster are “LAMEBRAIN” and “YO-YO.” This guy's real tough.

Helen Cooper is more of a dignified character this time around because she's wearing pearls and a nice dress. That's about the only change. Barbara's in full on Rambo mode now, proposing that they just go outside with the guns. The zombies are so slow that she thinks they can easily get away from them.

Ben decides to play it safe and continue boarding up the house. Ben's a very soft hearted fellow now, and before going upstairs with Tom he covers up his relative's body with a sheet. With the movie taking place in a more modern time, you'd think they'd update the TV in this remake, but it's just as old and crappy as the original.

This time around Ben and Tom demand Harry Cooper open the door because there's valuable wood in the cellar. Harry takes part in a little wife beating before finally opening the door. Judy Rose takes a more stand-up role in this film, getting really pissed off at Ben and Harry fighting in her house. If they don't want to work together, then they can just get the hell out. I liked it better when she kept her damn mouth shut.

Barbara continues her transformation by taking off her dress and switching into slacks. Helen goes upstairs when she hears about the gas pump outside and frantically tries to help out by searching for the gas pump key. Harry tries to grab her and drag her back downstairs but she throws everything she can at him.

One of the zombies breaks into the house and Barbara takes the initiative again by shooting him in the head. Most of the people refuse to believe that they're zombies, so when another one breaks in she shoots it time after time asking “Is it dead? IS IT DEAD?” before finishing her point by shooting it in the head.

Ben asks her if she's losing it, to which she replies that she's the only one who's thinking rationally. Man, she's the polar opposite of the original in almost every way.

Harry heads upstairs where a television broadcast has come on the air. It's finally been announced that the dead are coming back to life. The original offered the Venus probe as the cause, while the remake offers such theories as the o-zone layer hole and chemical warfare.

Harry takes the television downstairs but Ben stops him before he can (thinking that Harry's taking it into the cellar) and they get into a fight and it ends up falling down the stairs and getting smashed up. While outside checking a corpse for keys to the gas pump, Barbara shoots the zombie from the beginning of the film that killed Johnny.

Barbara makes her case for running through the zombies yet again but Ben resists it. Judy finds the keys on the corpse and the gang heads back inside to formulate a plan.

There are no Molotov cocktails from Harry this time around, but Ben, Judy, and Tom have no trouble getting to the truck. Judy's the crazy woman driver in the truck this time and ends up taking a turn so sharp that Ben falls out of the truck. The keys don't work on the gas pump and so Tom tries to shoot the lock off. It doesn't work as well as it did in the original and he punctures the hose, spraying gas onto the torch in the truck and making everything explode.

The whole gas on the torch thing seems so set up it should be in a Final Destination movie. Helen goes into the cellar where she gets eaten by her daughter, who is WAY too fucking old to be wearing such baby doll dresses. Nice job on the casting there fellas. Harry tries to take the gun from Barbara while she's being held onto by zombies through the window.

Eventually he gets the gun but Barbara gets free as well and lets Ben in the house. Harry's daughter comes up from the cellar, but Harry refuses to shoot it. When Ben tries to shoot her, Harry shoots him.

Barbara saves the day again and shoots the girl, but then Ben shoots Harry. Harry shoots Ben again, Ben shoots Harry again, Harry shoots Ben again. So it goes. Amazingly enough, no zombies come through the open door this entire time.

Harry climbs upstairs to hide in the attic because he's of the smartest men to ever be in a zombie movie. Barbara wants Ben to leave with her, but he's too hurt to move. She promises to bring help if she can and then goes off into the woods. Ben stumbles down into the cellar to hide and has to take care of the zombie Helen. He also finds a clearly labeled key for the gas pump and goes into a psychotic laugh after doing so.

Outside, Barbara has no trouble evading the slow moving zombies. There are some amusing zombie gore scenes during her trip. For example, one zombie would rather play with his food, beating another zombie with a severed hand before a zombie steals it from him and eats it. She eventually stumbles onto a redneck zombie hunting party that has her dead brother in the back of their truck.

In the morning, she awakes to find a variety of redneck zombie fun. They've got a zombie corral where they poke at and throw shit at the zombies. They've got zombies hanging from trees with ropes which make them easy targets. The redneck crew eventually comes to the house. Some rednecks cut down the door of the cellar and out pops zombie Ben.

He shows some recognition when he looks towards Barbara, but then he gets shot in the head by rednecks. Where's the part where they coat him with honey and let him get killed by bees?

Harry Cooper comes out of the attic and tells Barbara that “She came back” for him, but she responds by shooting him in the forehead and telling the rednecks that he “another one for the fire.” The still black and white photograph montage ending from the original is redone, with photos of Barbara's piercing gaze inter-spliced in the different photos. It's a nice touch.

Not all of the changes were necessarily better than the original ones, but that's not what a remake is about. Gus Van Sant remade Psycho shot for shot, producing nothing more than a worthless piece of shit.

The point of a remake is to change a few things, to make them more contemporary, and to keep people familiar with the film on their toes. I enjoyed the various changes to who lives and who dies since it kept me involved in the movie until the very end.

The filmmakers also kept in the best stuff from the original like the still photo ending. It's a great mix of the old and the new, which makes a refreshing movie no matter how you cut it.