Tom Savini’s Night of the Living Dead 1990 is getting an uncut release next year

In 1968, director George A. Romero re-defined the word “zombie” with his feature debut Night of the Living Dead, one of the most highly respected and beloved horror movies ever made. Unfortunately, Romero and his collaborators didn’t make as much money off of that film as they should have, due to a copyright mistake that instantly put Night of the Living Dead in the public domain. So twenty-two years later they decided to produce a remake with legendary special effects artist Tom Savini directing. The 1990 version of Night of the Living Dead (watch it HERE) didn’t have the smoothest production – in fact, Savini  has described the experience of making Night ’90 as “the worst nightmare of my life,” and says that the finished film only represents a small percentage of the vision he had for it. The rest was lost due to budgetary limitations, clashes with the producers, and the wrath of the MPAA… But now, it looks like the film is going to be getting a new release that brings it closer to Savini’s original vision!

During an appearance at the Frightmare in the Falls convention, Savini revealed, “If you like that movie, next year something very wonderful is going to happen with that movie. It’s gonna be re-released by Sony and it’s gonna be completely uncensored and uncut. They really put a lot into it. My original thought was, the movie should start in black & white and then eventually become color as an homage to the original film and then this is the new one, and that’s exactly what’s going to happen now. I used to say the movie was only 30% of what I intended, now it’s more like 60.” The folks at The Living Dead Weekend note that Sony has been working on this release, creating special features for it, since 2022.

Scripted by Romero, Night of the Living Dead 1990 has the following synopsis: For reasons unknown, the recently deceased are rising from the grave as flesh-hungry zombies. Fleeing from the undead horde, a small group of survivors, including Barbara, Ben, and Harry, sequester themselves in a remote farmhouse. With the zombies outside the house multiplying, tensions flare, as the group argues over the best way to escape their increasingly dire situation before they are overrun completely.

The film stars Patricia Tallman, Tony Todd, Tom Towles, McKee Anderson, William Butler, Katie Finneran, Bill Moseley, and Heather Mazur.

Are you glad to hear that Night of the Living Dead 1990 will be getting a new release for its 35th anniversary that will bring the film closer to Tom Savini’s vision for it? Let us know by leaving a comment below.