YOU'VE GOT REDD ON YOU

Redd Inc. aka Inhuman Resources (2012) Australia

Let's face it horror fans, the internet world of watching movies (outside of paid services) is getting dicey. Where many used to upload or download torrents, or just stream movies from a particular site, chances are they run into some bad mofo trying to hijack their computer. It's happened to me twice and I am so glad to have a strong security system and team to help me if I'm in trouble. But it has made me back up and off from using certain sites (even those 'approved' by my security software) and staying with my DVD's and Netflix. I've noticed that there's also a rise in movies being shown on YouTube.

That's fine but you've got to expect certain, umm, problems. For example, a lot of the time they're labelled with every horror synonym and description you can think of to try to get viewers on their page. I've seen lists of descriptions longer than my Google page. 

Another is that they often don't have the title of the movie on the main description so you have no idea if you've seen it, would never watch it, or if it even is a movie after all until the beginning credits get done. 

Also and this is a big one - when I watch music videos, I expect (especially with the Vevo ones) to see a commercial at the beginning. Irritating but livable. With some of these movies, there's a freaking commercial every, oh, I'm going to say ten minutes or so. That. Is. Horrid! I was trying to get info on a movie's credits when it went to commercial! By the time I could get back to it, it was over.

Aaaand of course there are lots of them that are only allowed on the site for hours or days before the link is pulled for one reason or another.

I found this movie by sheer accident. If you know a good place to watch it, go there. If not, don't enter the title to see it on YouTube, you won't find it. The link (as of 11/6/14) is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK1MpnfkNao


Why did I bother? In big letters at the beginning: Tom Savini, Special Make-Up Effects Supervisor. That was enough.

This movie is torture porn. I'm learning what that means and yeah, it can get pretty messy. This one, presented by Fangoria, had a story buried in it though, and it was almost (ALMOST) interesting. 

It starts with the capture, trial, and death by a fire at the mental hospital of a company president who happens to be an ax murderer who liked to chop the heads off of CEO's of big corporations. 

Six months later, we see Annabelle being interviewed for a job by Skype. Being interviewed by Skype? That scared me more than the whole movie... brrrr...

After the interview ended with a 'we'll call you' which you know never happens, Annabelle is contacted during her 'job' as an online stripper by a stranger offering her a job. She cuts him off, but minutes later is attacked and knocked out.

She wakes up in a room, locked to a chair which in turn is locked to a table filled with computers. There are five others with her. Okay, great - we've got the typical wake-up-with-strangers scenario. 

Their new "boss" is a man named Reddmann - the ax murderer who was supposed to have died. Apparently he cut off his left arm at the elbow to leave evidence of his 'death' in the fire. Ouch. He also is sporting a toupe' that some poor hedgehog gave his life for.

The people were not chosen at random (DUH THEY NEVER ARE). All are people who participated in his trial and conviction, whether cop or lawyer or just material witness. Mr. Reddmann's 'purpose' is to have his innocence proven, since he feels those involved with the trial 'didn't do their jobs properly'. 'Kay. 

If they screw up, they get a mark on their forehead with his new left metal hook. Five strikes and you're dead. He files all body parts in a file cabinet (very small chuckle).

He is quite insane. Now here is where it gets almost interesting. His insanity comes because of a certain doctor at the hospital he was committed to. You KNOW in horror movies that every doctor that works in an asylum (or hospital) is evil, nasty, crazy, demon worshiping, or plain sadistic. The doc did a great job to make this man as nasty and evil as he was supposed to be in the first place.

The movie goes in the order you expect - people screw up, people get tortured, people die. But did this guy actually commit the murders at the beginning of the movie in the first place? The participants are chained for days (some for months) to a table, expected to examine every piece of the trial - transcripts, statements, evidence, etc. to determine if they all had done their job 'properly'.

Hmm... try to guess what comes next. Ah c'mon guys - you act like you don't already know. OF COURSE these people didn't do their jobs properly or we would just have a cheap VHS torture porn tape. Evidence was hidden, depositions were 'lost', the cops were corrupt, the 'witnesses' didn't see what they thought they were looking at, and we won't even talk about the psychic the police hired to 'find' Reddmann or Redd as he wants to be called.


Tom Savini gets to make his cameo as the one witness who could have proved Redd's innocence (Redd was firing him at the time) because then the trial would have fallen apart. And on and on and on...

That was the main problem for me. The 'clues' took too long in between the 'torture' of the 'employees' (my ''''' key is just about wore out now) and the stripper suddenly becomes the MacGyver of the group and manages to plot an escape. Uh huh. The hero, if you can call her one, manages to get into a vent, knock Redd out cold with a dismembered leg and tries to free the others.

They use office supplies as weapons but whoops, more die. Of the two who survive, Annabelle and another 'witness' guess which one is the REAL ax murderer? Sigh. When he attacks and severely wounds the girl I almost said 'good' 'cause then it would be over. But no, it goes on ad nauseam and I do mean AD NAUSEAM. 

Somehow she lives but so does Redd and the real killer - and then another fast forward and she's home and healed. She's written a tell-all book about the experience so money is no longer a problem.

On her way to a book signing though, the killer comes to get her. As she runs into the night and the rain, she also runs into Redd, who saves her from the killer (Umm, what?) and then tells her he's on his way to a certain doctor to 'talk' to him about his, umm, methods... are we trying to copy Hannibal the Cannibal or are we doing an homage? Ah, forget it.

The ending was improbable but not too bad. Dressed fancy for her book signing, she shows with blood all over and the head of the killer, slapping it on the podium. Most horror writers WISH they could have a signing THAT cool.



                        

A BLOODY BREAK WITH THE HISTORY OF BLOODY GORE AND A BLOODY BLAST AT YOUNG BLOODY FILMMAKERS AND THEIR BLOODY CGI! (CAUTION: THERE! WILL! BE! BLOOD!!!)







Where Was I?

As I've promised (several times), a review of the opus Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2 is coming. It's not a blow-by-blow review (or else it would be a small book), but a critical view of what I thought was great, good, iffy, horrible, and downright stupid about the two movies. 

"NOW GO HOME TO YOUR MOTHER!"

I had to wait on the review for just a bit, because I found out that it was not presented as Quentin Tarantino wanted it to be (the censors got at it between the showing at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003, and what audiences saw afterward in theaters). So that changed my perspective about certain things, but there were still plenty of points that I thought were just bloody awful so...

Speaking of blood.

Nightmare On Elm Street

While working on the damned thing, I got off on a tangent, as I always do. I wasn't feeling well (natch), the dictation software was giving me fits (either I had stopped speaking English or it decided that it preferred Klingon), and even the hubby was giving some unsolicited advice that, though usually welcome, at that moment just made me want to chuck the whole thing. Which is why you're not reading it yet.

Speaking of blood.


I actually MADE my hubby sit and watch the infamous nightclub katana sword fight scene from Kill Bill 1. There were so many of the different elements (good, bad, stupid, etc.) in just that one sequence I thought he'd enjoy it... nope. I did get the chance to show him that Quentin apparently thought that human blood in the body is kept at an extremely high pressure, like a fire hose, so something like losing an arm (or a head) can cause a spray equal to kids breaking open a fire hydrant on a hot day. But I digress about digressing.

Speaking of blood.

NOT from Kill Bill...

So I wondered - with this two-movie opus, did Tarantino break any records with the use of fake blood? I decided to look around. Now my "findings" are not all inclusive of course - you probably know of a particularly bloody film that seemed to uses gallons of the stuff - all those produced before CGI of course. AND there is great debate on the amounts used so this contest may be invalid altogether but that never stopped me before.

Speaking of blood.


How much do I hate CGI? Let's put it this way: After watching one heavily CGI'd zombie movie (no it was not World War Z) I read a comment by a parent who said, basically, "Finally! A zombie movie I can let my children watch that is not just blood and guts." And there's your answer.

Speaking of blood.

...except maybe this guy.

Waaay back in the old days (she said drawing up her shawl and knitting needles) people died usually without much fuss, maybe a blood spot on the clothes, and the requisite drip of blood from the corner of the mouth. Blood meant death, no matter how small the amount. Character has a bloody nose? Gonna die. Blood when they cough or sneeze? Gonna die. I'm surprised they didn't try to convince their audiences that women actually were gonna die a little each month (actually that's not far off from the truth)...

Speaking of blood.

Audiences changed - which meant that the horror genre (where most of the blood was spilled) had to change. They wanted more - and more realistic. Enter the great makeup and special effects geniuses that made horror just so, so awful (which means they made it lots of fun to watch): 


Rick Baker. In my opinion, he made the absolute best werewolf I have ever seen (and the scene of a man morphing to werewolf) in An American Werewolf In London (1981) - it has not been done better, even with all the so-called advances. And I loved the poor, ever decaying friend Jack. This is an early picture of Baker making the original 'Baby' from It's Alive. His credits are way too numerous to count, his talent huge, and his fans, lots and lots (sorry to be so technical).

Greg Nictero. He and his eeeevil minions did such a wonderful job on the Evil Dead series. He formed the K.N.B. EFX Group which has worked on hundreds of projects - and no CGI, so there! And you can't mention Nictero without...

Tom Savini. He is the epitome of special effects (and the sexiest man ever born). He is known as the Godfather of Gore, The Sultan Of Splatter, The Come To My Bedroom And I'll Show... whoops, sorry. Ignore that last one. Starting as a makeup artist (that sounds really tame - it's not) he eventually branched out to acting, directing, producing, even doing stunts. 

The picture above is an early one of his work on the original Jason Voorhees for Friday The 13th. But back to special effects: Savini's 'process' is so revered, he runs the 'Tom Savini's Special Make-Up Effects Program' in Pennsylvania. His age may be greater than even mine (blush) but he is just one of those guys who'll be handsome when they're 1,000 years old - I'll wait.

Speaking of blood.


Dick Smith. This is getting too long (natch) but I'd be an idiot not to include at least Dick Smith, the reason why people cowered (or just plain vomited) during The Exorcist, watched a freaking HEAD explode in Scanners, and, despite all the titles Tom Savini has rightfully gathered for himself, it is Smith who is considered the Godfather Of Modern-Day Special Effects Makeup. His work didn't just include horror, but Taxi Driver, Little Big Man, The Godfather and countless others... the guy is just freaking sweet.

Speaking of blood.

See how easy it is to become distracted? I am typing this by hand 'cause I thought it'd be short - now I'll be moaning and wrapping my wrists, and gulping down the pain pills for the rest of the week.

Speaking of blood.

SO. Who is the champion of Most Fake Blood Used In A Single Movie? I was wondering if it was Kill Bill (considering the people with gallons of high pressure blood in 'em, and Uma slices up an awful lot) but I remembered a couple of earlier movies so I'm just doing A COUPLE of movies and how much fake blood was used. If my pick for 'Most Blood' is incorrect, please send a message - I am pleased to look things up and if I'm wrong, I have no problem with saying so. SO.

Speaking of blood.

The Shining (1980): I'm leaving Stephen King out of this one (Why not, Family Could Brick did... hmm? What was that? Oh, that's how my freaking dictation software kept insisting on spelling Stanley Kubrick, which is why I'm typing today.), which sucks 'cause it's King's story - please read the book, especially now that the book Dr. Sleep (the sequel) is out which, as far as I've gotten in it, is just soooo cool. But despite the movie's many flaws and conspiracy theories it had a doozy of a fake blood scene. A couple hundred gallons of the stuff sounds wild enough.

Speaking of blood.

But Family Could Brick insisted that the first two takes weren't 'real' enough and insisted on a third. So mop up the muck and try again, right? Nope. Each take took so long to set up that before Family Could Brick was satisfied, a WHOLE YEAR had gone by... and it was bloody but still extremely flawed. Check out the video of it - not only is the elevator... strange, but the mechanism that both propped open the door and made the blood shoot out from floor to ceiling quite clearly flops onto the floor. So much for dissin' old Stephen, huh Could Brick?

Speaking of blood.

In 1984's A Nightmare On Elm Street, a Wes Craven masterpiece and a starting point for several now-famous actors and actresses (the bedroom scene is shown above), the total amount of fake blood used for the movie (which was shot in 30 days) was over 500 gallons. According to sources that is. If you know of a different number, do tell.

Speaking of blood.


1992, a not-quite-world-famous-yet Peter Jackson made a little film in New Zealand (actually he made quite a few but I digress times infinity), called Braindead (Dead Alive for those lucky enough to see it in the States). It was dismissed as just a gross-out for the sake of being gross... until LOTR. THEN all of a sudden it became a 'cult classic'. Hmm. Being about nasty zombies from a bite spread by a Sumatran Rat-Monkey, the movie has since become discussed and debated (excuse me) to death.

Who the hell cares about if they used the same cemetery from The Frighteners (another Jackson film) or if the priest says 'ass' or 'arse'? I wanted to know how much fake blood was used. The amount passes up anything made up to then or since, even if I went with the low estimate of 5,000 gallons to the whopping post-production estimate of 20,000 gallons. That's... quite a mess. But fun. 

In one of the last scenes of DA, Lionel (our hero) uses a plain, one blade lawnmower as a zombie dismemberment machine. It is said that the lawnmower sprayed out five gallons of fake blood per second. Believe what you want, I'm just glad they kept the mess mostly to one room (okay, set).

Speaking of blood.

So Kill Bill (2003 and 2004), pales in comparison (pun intended) using only a couple hundred of gallons. Huh. So who's the winner? Depends on who you believe.

...umm, this is Ash in Evil Dead 2 by the way...

There are sites that claim (and I'm not buying it 'cause I've seen both movies) that the reboot of Evil Dead (2013) kicks ass for the Lord on a much greater scale than Braindead, using 'over 50,000 gallons' of fake blood. Uh huh. But this same source also claimed that Braindead only used 1,000 gallons. Not. Even. Close.

Speaking of blood.


Am I being totally obsessive about my love of red, messy, squishy, pulpy gore in my movies? Lets have a couple of bad examples, shall we? There are no GOOD examples of CGI. First, in the reboot of Fright Night (2011), a woman who has 'turned' exploded in the sunlight right next to Charlie (the, uh, hero) and yet not a drop of blood, guts, skin, clothes, etc. hits him, the lawn, or anything else. WTH? Second, there's been a couple of zombie films (which I refuse to name) in which zombies are blown apart and... evaporate, because there is absolutely not a shred of evidence that they were even there in the first place.

Yup. Give me my pulp, my mess, my icky sticky red stuff. You want CGI? Play video games.


Note: Goddammit now my whole column is blown. I just read (and this is unconfirmed but knowing the Whedonverse it is conceivable) that they used an impossible 200,000 gallons of fake blood in their 2012 movie The Cabin In The Woods. Somebody please write me to tell me this is wrong... still, it was an awesome movie that I faithfully watch several times a month...

BLOODBATH: A TWELVE MOVIE COLLECTION OF HORROR - SO THEY SAY. GET YOUR SEATBELTS ON KIDDIES, THIS IS GOING TO BE A VERY BUMPY RIDE PART SEVEN

Demonic aka Forest Of The Damned (2006) UK

This movie is another which puts a big name on the front (Tom Savini) even though he appears in maybe ten minutes of the movie and that's being generous. We also get to start with the use of a verse from an apocryphal book (meaning it's not part of the Bible) "And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied, that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of heaven, saw and lusted after them..." (Enoch 6:1-6). This is basically what is written in Genesis 6: 1-4 "Now when men started to grow in number on the surface of the ground and daughters were born to them, the sons of the true God began to notice that the daughters of men were beautiful. So they began taking as wives all whom they chose. Then Jehovah said: “My spirit will not tolerate man indefinitely, because he is only flesh. Accordingly, his days will amount to 120 years.” 

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and afterward. During that time the sons of the true God continued to have relations with the daughters of men, and these bore sons to them. They were the mighty ones of old times, the men of fame. (In other words, the Nephilim were half-breeds, children of fallen angels and human women.)

Now since Angels aren't really men nor women (though they are presented as man-like), they gave themselves the forms of men to, lets face it, boink all the pretty women they found. But since people (read guys) don't want to see a bunch of naked men cavorting around (umm... let's just leave that one alone) this movie changed the fallen Angels to the forms of women. Duh. Oh and they're cannibals too, just for that extra 'icky' touch.

So we get our annoying 20-somethings in a van that barely runs so of course they go way out into the country so there's absolutely nothing around when they break down. Things are quiet (except for the girls constant bitching) until they hit a woman in the road. They then see a mailbox and three try to get help while the others stay with the girl. So far, so bored.

The supposed point of the movie is that three Angels from heaven have left their place and taken up residence in this forest to play in the water and seduce (and then eat) men. And women, they're not really picky. Trouble is, they're not really all that pretty either. Yeah, I suppose it would be hard to find three lovely ladies willing to strip to nothing and romp through the forest, and submit to makeup jobs of bad eye contacts and stupid looking teeth whenever they, uh, vamp out I guess but really, these three? They couldn't catch a cold much less all mortal men in their icy stares. Massive duh.

Tom Savini plays Stephen, who lives in a house near where they hang out and apparently is also kind of a zookeeper as he provides fresh meat now and again from those stupid enough to come to his house. Well, it's not his house - his parents were driving through there when he was a boy and they got eaten. Apparently so did the house owners so he took over. There's no amenities there, but somehow he still manages to have guns and ammo and knows how to shoot. Maybe the creatures bring him take-out, I don't know.

Eventually (and not soon enough for me) all fall under their spell (ick) and get kissed and killed and eaten. All except one woman. She has looked in their eyes but because she wears a cross (A cross? Really? We're talking vampires then, right?) they hiss and scurry away.

Supposedly that now means she is the house's new owner and zookeeper as she 'catches' horror writer Shaun Hutson (playing himself) driving through the woods and secures him to a stake for her 'girls'. How sweet. How stupid. How much time did I waste on this thing anyway? 95 minutes? Yikes.

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OW OW OW MY FREAKIN' EYES C'MON YOU CAN'T DO THIS OW OW OW!!!




Robin Hood: Ghosts Of Sherwood 3D (2012) Germany/USA

I pity the poor idiot who watched this horrible piece of drek in 3D. It shouldn't be seen in 2D! Okay people, we're talking bottom of the barrel here and I'm not exaggerating. It is 116 minutes of excruciating cardboard acting, an 'action' film where the action seems to be to run from the forest to the castle back to the forest to the castle run to the witch back to the forest to the witch back to the forest to the castle... For 200,000 euro (that's $267,459.90 American) they obviously had to raid some beginners acting class for the cast so they could spend the rest of the money on Tom Savini and Kane Hodder. As for the 3D part, usually you can tell what shots they set up for it but in this one... nothing.

I'm seriously rethinking my position on watching any movie if a certain actor or actress I really like is in it. This horrid thing had Tom Savini playing the Sheriff of Nottingham which is the ONLY reason I plodded through it like a horse that knows it's on its way to the glue factory. This was actually in Netflix's 'horror' category although it it classified as an action/adventure/comedy. COMEDY??? It wasn't even horror much less comedy. The voices were obviously dubbed and the people read their lines like they were on thorazine. And here's how it went - briefly because just writing about it is giving me the same nauseous feeling I had watching it:

Robin, filthy hippy of Sherwood...

'Whether you're rich or poor, you're not leaving the forest.' With that witless tagline we learn that Robin Hood, although he tries to be sort of good is really an idiot and his merry men seem to keep more riches than they distribute around. Oh, and Robin Hood sucks with a bow and arrow - he can't even hit the ground. So he meets Maid Marian, kills her bodyguards and she's okay with that as long as he doesn't take their gold. She makes him promise to bury them with it. Of course he doesn't but after a small hissy fit she forgets it and supposedly they fall in love.

Maid In Japan Marian...

But Robin just plain sucks and he gets killed, almost - his friends are killed all the way. Hey, I didn't write this, stop complaining at me young ones. He ends up with a witch and since he was almost dead he gets a healing potion but his lifespan is now three years. His friends, dead under 24 hours get revived - the witch told him any time after 24 hours they don't come back - at least as humans.

Tom Savini actually thought he was attending a convention in Paris...

And she gives Robin a potion so that he becomes a master archer. Doesn't help him a bit though, he gets killed - AGAIN. So do all of his merry men. Except for some reason Little John (Kane Hodder) who just shows up out of nowhere. He provides the only comedy in this thing when he explains to Maid Marian that he WAS ugly but took one of the witch's potions to make him handsome - but he took too much so he's stuck being handsome. WAHAHAHAHA. That's it.

I am handsome! My mommy said I was!

Marian runs back to the witch with Little John but the witch knows the men will have been dead more than 24 hours and so refuses to give them anything so they just kill her and take it. These are the GOOD guys folks. Run run run and back to the bodies they give all the potion and wait. Sure enough, each wakes up, spitting up a ton of milk (not a whole lot for special effects here) and these dead-for-only-a-little-over-a-day men are now ravenous, nasty, rotting zombies - including Robin Hood. And Maid Marian is sooo heartbroken that she just cries and cries and cries...

Nope, I'm kidding with that one. Maid Marian DOESN'T GIVE A CRAP. Now she has to cover her ass so she and Little John sort through the potions they stole (which apparently are conveniently labeled) until they find a containment type of potion. Invoking it, it will keep all the zombies within Sherwood Forest. Maybe. They beat cleats out of there but not until Little John puts all the potions in his bag because, he says, if he has it he's an exalted wizard - if she's caught with them they'll burn her as a witch. That seems fair.

I'm the Sheriff - I don't wear helmets...

On their way back to the castle (And exactly why would they do that?) they meet up with the Sheriff and his pack of men. He asks if they've seen Robin Hood. They say sure, he's in the woods. Off they go and are never seen again - in this movie. Maid Marian runs the castle now and Little John is the Sheriff. Roll credits thank you God...

Good thing women's lib isn't for another couple hundred years...

Oh hell no! We're back into the movie with Sheriff Little John - he has a beginner witch in stocks and says she's gonna make potions for them or he'll burn her. These, I repeat, are the GOOD guys. And our horrid movie finally ends.

Horrid horrid horrid... this was released in Germany and straight to video in the USA - should have been straight to the müll.

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OUTRIGHT RIP-OFFS OF GEORGE ROMERO MOVIES - OH WAIT - NEVER MIND

Night Of The Living Dead (1990)

When I rediscovered my favorite movie critic Joe Bob Briggs, on his website was a video from a show (date unknown) where he had several from the original cast of NOTLD, as well as Tom Savini. Briggs was showing a double feature, both the original and the remake NOTLD that Tom Savini directed in 1990. I faintly remembered the remake, but decided to look it up anyway to kind of contrast and compare, as I'd watched the original again a short time ago. This is where I wish my friend Tim Forston could help me out because I'm sure he'd have some keen insights about the value of remakes - he always does. Hopefully we'll see him again here soon. But for today I'll have to do this on my own.

I was pleased to see that Savini kept faithful to the original in all the basic concepts, and thought it interesting where Romero reached out there with some really then-taboo type things, Savini seemed to draw in, making it a bit more tame. Not to say there wasn't gore - but it was mostly towards the end and very subdued. I was also surprised that Tony Todd was in it - I hadn't remembered that. This was before his every-word-makes-you-shiver vocal delivery, he was actually a pretty normal guy in a very abnormal situation.

We keep the need-to-see aspects of the film and Savini makes sure they're in there while inserting his own style into the story. Johnnie (a brief visit by the talented and horror movie regular Bill Moseley) and Barbara (great performance by Patricia Tallman, who was also in Army Of Darkness and also is a stuntwoman) are visiting their mother's grave. We get to hear the 'They're coming to get you Barbara' which Johnnie repeats - almost too much. We got it - we heard you, okay?

The movie follows much of the original - Tony Todd as Ben is still the strong figure and the one to rally and instruct the others how to survive. Savini, being about the best makeup artist on the planet still didn't get tempted and go overboard with the zombies either - they were understated as Romero made them which was nice - this movie was about the horror of the possibility after all, not the gore.

Things that were different: Barbara, at first as mousy and shell shocked as the original comes to and begins to be strong and aggressive, a welcome change from the original where she basically stared blankly through the movie. The ancillary characters are basically the same - the naive couple, the jerk with his wife and sick (read bitten) daughter and, of course, lots and lots of people coming out of nowhere to this house in the middle of, well, nowhere which is unexplained and we don't care 'cause this is a classic, right?

And Savini, being the effects expert he is does seem to shy away from certain gory aspects - the chewing scenes where the dead feed and all the intestine pulling begins, and the scene that was so shocking in the original, when the sick child becomes a zombie and kills her mother with a trowel was changed although a nod to Romero was definitely given. In this version, the child instead grabs and bites her mother on the neck, the blood squirting onto a trowel hanging on the wall. Pretty sneaky Savini - but very effective. The young couple die as in the original and it's their cooked bodies (they die in a gas explosion) that the zombies munch on - not as shocking as the original and interesting that he went in that direction.

In this version Savini kind of fiddles with the ending. We all know that Ben is the final survivor of the original, living until morning only to be cut down by over-eager rednecks having a blast (pun intended) wasting all the zombies. But now it is Barbara who manages to survive the night and is discovered, but not killed by the rednecks. She sees that to them this is practically like the County Fair - booths are set up for food, they've got a barbeque going (of food, not zombies - eww you guys) and they're having a raucous good time. 

She goes back to the house for Ben who had been wounded but unfortunately he did not survive and is cut down by one of the rednecks. She then sees the jerk, alive at the cost of the others coming out of the attic. She shoots him in the head without a second thought and tells the men when they come in 'another one for the fire'. She looks out over the devastation and the men shooting and hanging and generally having fun with the corpses and says the great Romero line, "They're us. We're them and they're us."

Brilliant. I know Romero was pleased with it, and with good reason. Tom Savini has a great brain in that gorgeous head of his. <blushes>

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