Episode 253 - Night of the Living Dead (1990)

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Salutations. Welcome to Podmortem. I'm Travis Hunter-Syappan, joined as always by my co-hosts, my sister and my brother-in-law. Hi, I'm Renee Hunter-Vosquez. Hi, I'm John Paul-Vosquez. This week, we're broadcasting live from the Evans City Cemetery, discussing the 1990 horror film, Night of the Living Dead. This film was directed by Tom Savini from a screenplay by George A. Romero, based upon an earlier screenplay written by Romero and John Russo.

Driven by financial and creative incentives, the original team behind the iconic and sub-genre-spawning 1968 classic sought to craft a remake. With a talented cast, updated character dynamics, magnificently macabre makeup effects, and a remarkable retelling of a familiar tale, Night of the Living Dead would defy its initial mixed critical reception in the 35 years since its release and is now widely considered one of the better horror remakes of all time.

This film was suggested to us by friends of the show, Nisa Hunter, Daniel Laurent, Smelly Poopoo Head, Josh Grimes, Pancake the Panda, Chuck Darling, Topher Williams, Half Price Horror, Lucy Thane, Chuck D, Beth Bauer, and Martin Shaw. We'd like to thank each and every one of them for their continued support of the show, as well as this suggestion. So, Night of the Living Dead, what were your first impressions on the film?

so this was the first time a first time watch for me i get a lot of these confused because as they go on there's a lot of of the dead so i think for a long time i was thinking and i think i said this with another movie as well that i thought this was land of the dead but it's not that again yeah again yeah more they own a lot of land but i did enjoy this um

This was pretty close to the original from what I remember. Kind of like we're getting in the same place setting and kind of the same thing that's going on. I did enjoy this a little more. I'll be honest. I did enjoy what was happening here. There is a little bit of... I don't want to use the word like I was ever lost, but I think it was just kind of like a little...

It's on and it's off. I don't know if it's the pacing or what was kind of with it, but it did feel a little bit kind of like I was just kind of watching at some times. But I really did like this movie. I love this movie. I haven't seen it in a really long time, so it was really cool to revisit it. I don't remember.

the episode itself of Night of the Living Dead that we covered because it was a very long time ago and you are welcome to go back and listen to it, but I will not be. But I do remember my feelings and opinions and my gripe with that film was the handling of the character of Barbara.

And I feel like this film really corrects that in a way that is almost to the extreme. But I love it. I mean, I love the effects. It's fucking Tom Savini at the helm. You know that the effects team is going to do nothing less than be up to his standard. You know what I mean? Tony Todd, forever a legend, forever an icon. I think that this is.

just such a fun watch there are some emotional moments um more toward the beginning uh there are a few moments of comedy the effects like i said i i'm obsessed with the effects work i love what they did with barbara i just really really love this remake i think that it's a really good time the only drawback that i have is john paul i have to agree with you there is some

issue with pacing toward the middle where it feels like our objective at the time might go on for about 85 to the point where it was a little funny to me that I'm like oh we're still doing this it is but I mean I don't care you know what I mean like this movie is I really really really enjoy it yeah it is good but it's like um

if you're playing a survival horror game or something, you do have to build what's going on. That is true. It's kind of like, oh, we're still doing this? Yeah. It's like they're down again. I definitely enjoy this film a lot as well. In retrospect, this is the Night of the Living Dead that we grew up on. Okay.

I was talking to my mom about it and she was telling me that it was on a lot when me and they were growing up. And so I think that might be also why whenever we watched the original, which we covered on episode 17, by the way. Jesus Christ. We kind of were expecting.

other things to happen. Right, right. That simply did not. That makes sense. And could kind of lead to, at least when it comes to Barbara's character, a bit of disappointment. I'm like, what the fuck? What is this? If I'm not mistaken, I think her character just completely disappears. I know for a while she is like fully dissociating. That does not happen here. No, no, no. Thankfully.

This Barbara clocks it. Yes. And she works overtime. Yes. But I think that it does exactly what a remake should do, which is to have very clear and obvious reverence for the original that came before it and to also add something new to it.

Yeah. And I feel like especially with the change of those dynamics, it really does add something new. I think that the only thing that is kind of a drawback is sometimes just how much it does adhere to the original. Yeah. There are things that could, I think, especially when it comes to conflict, at least for me, be improved a little bit. Yeah. OK. Because maybe in, you know, 68.

did work a little bit better that way right right different kinds of tensions more prevalent but here it's just like we're still arguing about this no we we have some things that linger for a little bit you're really holding on to this yeah some characters with one track mind yeah but the the performance is as you said fantastic

Especially the late, great Tony Todd. And I really, really want to give flowers to Patricia Tallman. There are a lot of things that are asked of her in this role. It's not simply just being a badass. It's not simply, you know, there's so much there. A lot of those emotional beats that you talked about. And there is this really, like, surprisingly...

emotionally effective scene towards the end. Yeah. That I'm like, wow, did she know that? I mean, it's really, it's really sad. But I think that the only other thing that I have a complaint about, and this is not even the fault of the creators, which I will get into a little later, but I feel like they could have gone a little further, especially it being a remake in the 90s. They could have gone a little further with the gore. Okay. Yeah.

And especially it being Tom Savini, especially the fact of what we've seen him do specifically in the Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead. Yeah, yeah. Films of the franchise. It was kind of surprising how far they didn't go. It was for him subdued. I think it was very, it just, it felt a little more grounded in realism. Yeah. Because a lot of his stuff is very over the top.

which i love oh yeah but yeah this was more like oh that's probably what would happen if you if you did that to us and again we're playing the game oh exactly yeah that is what we have to do but i do want to talk a little bit about the production of this film

I got all of this information from quite a few sources, a featurette called The Dead Walk, an article in Fangoria, an article in Film Monthly, and an article in the Los Angeles Times. But to hear George A. Romero tell it, he is quoted in Fangoria as saying that the reasons for this remake's existence were purely financial.

I assure you, though, it is not as bad as it sounds, and I will explain. Okay. Yeah. So back in 1968, the original title of Romero's original film was Night of the Flesh Eaters. Upon learning that another film had this name already and they couldn't use it due to copyright, the title was then changed to Night of the Living Dead. Okay. The film's distributor, Continental Pictures,

After this change was made, they failed to put a copyright notice on the picture's new title, which is not only how the film ended up in the public domain immediately. Oh, wow. Yeah. But the resulting revenue from the film for the creators and the investors ended up being pennies compared to what they deserved to make. All from this one error. Yeah. So eventually, the creative team, George Romero, Russell Streiner, and John Russo,

sued continental pictures using all the money that they did make from the film to wage a five-year legal battle against them okay this eventually resulted in a three million dollar judgment and the rights of the film diverting to the creators of the film yeah the only problem is continental releasing went bankrupt and they never paid this three million dollars

So they have the rights to the film, but not much else to show for it. And it isn't until 1986 when the original producers had just wrapped up another legal battle over an unauthorized colorization of the film. Oh my God. That Russo started to fear this idea that someone might eventually try to remake Night of the Living Dead without authorization. Okay. And they would be well within their right to do so.

So almost on cue, they learn of plans that a crew in Texas has to do just that. And so Russo realized that they need to beat them to the punch. Yeah. So he calls up George Romero and he kind of tells him what's going on. But they had this deal that the three of them made together that no remake of Night of the Living Dead from either of them could be made unless all three agreed. So.

Russo is basically just calling him to say, please don't stand in our way. But Romero, upon hearing this news, was more interested than they expected him to be. And he ended up, as we know, writing the screenplay for this film. But after they all three agreed to remake Night of the Living Dead before the other crew had the chance to, they decided that it wouldn't only bolster their copyright to do this.

But it would finally allow them and their 26 investors to make money off of this thing they created in 68. Yeah. So they struck a deal with Menaham Golan and 21st Century Fox to finally get this remake off the ground. This is when Romero does pin the script and he said himself that his plan was to not just redo exactly what they had already done.

but he wanted to write what he perceived to be previous wrongs with the first film that he made. And so there are quite a few changes. There's a little more ambiguity in this film. Yeah. Because there's some, I guess, theory that apparently was the...

reasoning behind the zombies in the first Night of the Living Dead that I just kind of put out of my mind completely about a probe returning from Venus or something. All right. And I thought it was ambiguous in the first one. Yeah. But everybody's like, no, it's all about that probe. Oh, all right. And even Romero was like, I shouldn't have done that probe. And he said that he that was one of the biggest things he wanted to change. Yeah. And one of the other big things we talk about at the top already. Yeah. Barbara. Yeah.

But after he does pin this screenplay, the production still needs a director. And that is when Tom Savini comes on board. Woo! So the wild thing about it, and I think we might have vaguely talked about this on an episode maybe a few years ago, but Tom Savini actually met George A. Romero when he was a teenager because Romero came to his high school to cast one of his films. Oh.

And when he was doing this, Savini had already gotten interested in doing makeup effects. And so he had a little portfolio that he put together. He heard about George Romero making a film called Night of the Living Dead, or at least Night of the Flesh Eaters at the time. Yeah. And so he, as soon as he saw Romero at his high school, he walked up to him and he showed him his portfolio. And he's like, I want to work on your film.

Damn, okay. And Romero was impressed by what he heard. He was impressed by what he saw. And so Romero did hire him in 1968 for Night of the Living Dead. That's really cool. When he was in high school? Yes. That's so cool. But the only problem was, I believe he was, he might have been 18 or so. I can't remember. I don't remember his birthday.

But before he could begin production on Night of the Living Dead doing the makeup effects, he was enlisted to be shipped out to Vietnam. Oh. And so he did not get to work on Night of the Living Dead at all. But it was his experience as a war photographer in Vietnam, and we've talked about this before, that he saw horrors beyond comprehension. Yeah. And it influenced a lot of his style and the realism of his future effects work.

He had always said, of course, and like you were saying about the kind of realism of what we see in this film. Yeah. He said that if he could inspire the same feeling in himself that he saw whenever he was in Vietnam with the makeup work that he was doing in the film industry. Yeah. Then he knew that he was doing his job correctly. OK. And so he comes back afterwards and he gets all this experience through so many projects that we have talked about many times on this show. But whenever the remake of Night of the Living Dead is announced.

He's like, cool, I'll finally get to do the makeup. Little does he know that Romero has the confidence in him to direct the film. Oh, my God. Because Tom Savini, I guess, had directed a couple of episodes of Tales from the Dark Side, which I forget all the time was created by George Romero. Right. But the difficult thing about directing the film.

And I did read in an interview with Tom Savini in Film Monthly, he called it, quote, the worst nightmare of my life. He said that for at least the first half of the film, George Romero was off in Florida writing a screenplay for The Dark Half. And so he wasn't on set. And while he wasn't on set, the producers were really kind of...

hands-on if you will okay more so than necessary and when you have a director that has his own vision and you're getting in the way of that vision of course you should realize that you're kind of fucking up yeah which we talk about all the time yeah and he had said that he had planned out the film in such detail he said something about 800 storyboards that he created for the film and he said he shot to the storyboards the best that he could but only about 40 percent of what he actually wanted ended up in the film

Damn. But he said that what kept him going was this incredible feeling of kind of making up for the past, missing this opportunity in 68 and then getting to direct the remake in 90. That's like a full circle moment. Yeah. So we kind of just put up with it and problems arose even more when it came to the MPAA, which is a frequent enemy of this podcast. But they, of course, did not see eye to eye at all.

And the reality is Savini's original film was initially much gorier than what we get. And it actually received an X rating. Wow. And so a lot of the stuff that they had had to be cut back in order to get the R that they agreed to. Right. And you see it. I've seen work prints of the film on YouTube and literally every headshot.

Way more blood. Yeah. There is this one headshot with a shotgun that looks like the headshot from Dawn of the Dead that everyone talks about. Yeah. Okay. Damn, man. But does not end up in this film whatsoever. Yeah. And it was actually this fact, the sanitization by the MPAA that Savini wondered if that's why this film didn't do as well as they hoped financially. Yeah. He said when you hear Savini and Romero. Yeah. You expect Savini and Romero. Yeah.

And even worse at the time, critics were fucking cruel to this film whenever it first came out. Why? They were confused at the fact of its existence at all. And this shouldn't surprise you. And I know we don't like to speak ill of the dead on this podcast. Roger Ebert. My baby. He gave it one star and he said that he was kind of struggling to understand why it was even made.

There was another critic who called it cinematic grave robbing, which I understand the pun, but come on. It's a good pun. It's not worth it, but I understand. I don't agree, but I kind of like it. I'm not going to lie. Like, let him cook. Let him cook. But the good news is that through time, even with this cut down R-rated form, it grew a cult following around it. And it finally does. And you hear it spoken about so often in horror circles.

Rightfully, as probably one of the best remakes ever. Yeah. Now, before we feast on the flesh of this film, we would like to issue a warning for spoilers. Pot Mortem is a very in-depth podcast, and in thoroughly discussing horror films, we have no choice but to spoil a thing or two. If you don't wish to be spoiled, please go watch the film, then come back and enjoy the show. If you've already seen the film or don't care about spoilers, let's board ourselves in.

So the film begins in the dead of night, the full moon rising brilliantly with its glowing white light cast through a dark silhouette of branches. The opening credits appear, accompanied by the low hum of sinister synth, followed by screeching notes like a howling wind and perfectly punctuated with a stab of percussion, we get the title Night of the Living Dead Before Fading to Black. So I really love the music in this film.

The composer was a guy called Paul McCullough and he has very few credits as a composer. Okay. But I did see that he co-wrote The Crazies with George Romero in 73. Oh. It was very interesting. Yeah. The only parts of the score that are a little like kind of funny to me, there's some electric guitar very randomly and it reminds me of when they did.

lethal weapon on sunny but otherwise i think it's great yeah but i of course anytime i see a shot of the full moon i'm in heaven very odd we get it on night of the living dead but not the wolfman yeah but we'll breeze past that i did hear that this was a real shot of the moon time-lapsed that they shot and so it was not like composited

It wasn't stock footage. Yeah, yeah. Nothing like that. All right. That's really cool. And we do start the film in black and white. Oh, yeah. This was something Tom Savini talked about on commentary because he had a really cool idea that the producers struck down. But he wanted to start the film in black and white and even continue into the next scene as well. And then suddenly, like maybe at the halfway point of the film, it's sepia toned. And then towards the end, it's in full color.

huh that would have been pretty cool right yeah that would have been cool like just visually and gradually right but they're like nah why let this director recognize their vision who needs that at least this is a cool homage though even if it is just for a second yeah i agree but in the darkness and in a mockingly menacing tone we hear the iconic line from johnny played by bill mosley

They're coming to get you, Barbara. Iconic. Indeed. Yeah. And Bill Mosley. We know him. Yeah. It's Otis. It's Otis. I laughed because there was this interview in Fangoria, I think. John Russo was saying, you know, they're coming to get you, Barbara. We have to use the line, of course. And he said, but you'll be really intrigued in the way that they use it in the film. And I'm like, oh, exactly the same. They use it? No. Okay.

If you were intrigued before, you still will be. But Barbara, Johnny's sister, played by Patricia Tallman, responds in annoyance and exasperation, telling him to stop it. So Patricia Tallman, looking into her stuff, she did a lot of stunt work. Yes. And I seen one that I was like, oh, hey, she did stunts on Jurassic Park. Really? Yes.

I know we all love that movie. Yes. But I was like, oh, shit. Because, again, another movie, they're running around, they're doing stuff, whatever. But she's got a lot of stunt credits. I remember hearing on commentary she did stunts for Creepshow as well. Oh, what a badass. Savini had said that they actually met, I believe, in college.

Okay. And so they had known each other for a long time, and I think that she was in one of the episodes that he directed of Tales from the Dark Side. Oh. Very nice. But her performance here throughout is just, it's standout performance. Oh, yeah. But Johnny does not stop it. He persists, repeating himself, they're coming. And he follows it up with a cartoonishly evil laugh.

I feel like we could have taken separate cars. Yeah, yeah. This is probably not the best idea. I'm going to take the bus next time. And on the cool man is as annoying as he's being. It's like, do y'all have to be siblings? Maybe be a cousin or something or annoying friend or something. Because, I mean, you're going to want to punch your sibling after a minute. It's like, look, dude, I'm going to hit you. She's annoyed, but she is being very patient. He's doing a lot. She's a trooper. Later, he says.

how long this car ride was. And you're like, fuck off. But we find the pair's white Mercedes speeding down a dirt road under a ceiling of clouds as they hit a curve around a verdant hill. Johnny's teasing continues as he warns his sister that they don't like to be awakened this way. But fed up, Barbara demands to know why he has to be so mean. And Johnny simply replies that he's her older brother.

and being mean and heartless is part of the job. Who's paying you? When you love what you do. But their bickering persists as they travel on, Johnny eventually asking Barbara what's the matter and if she's getting scared. He wonders if Barbara is still scared of her and posits that that's why they're here after all. But Barbara disagrees, insisting that that is not why they're here.

But we soon see exactly where here is, as the Mercedes drives under the arching iron sign for the Evan City Cemetery, the ornate gate missing letters covered in rust, dust, and splintered vines as the pair presses on over a small path. The camera follows overhead, the car passing under skeletal trees, as Johnny callously wonders why they have to go along with this whole charade anyway.

Barbara scolds because she's our mother, and she asks if he can just give her one day of his life. But Johnny takes umbrage at this, reminding his sister that this is the fourth time that they've been up here in the three months since she's died. He laments that he's spending more time with her now than when she was alive. Barbara tries to put a stop to his complaints, but Johnny launches into a diatribe.

Their mother couldn't possibly have been buried in the city. No, that would have been much too easy. She knew that he'd have to be the one to drive Barbara up here. That's why she had herself buried 200 miles from the nearest glass of beer. God.

So there's some family strife, I believe. Yeah. And I mean, once they're at a cemetery, it's like he is very unbothered. Like once you learn that they're here for their mother and it's like, oh, things were not great. No. But the pair circle on a path surrounding a section of burial plots as Barbara once again tells Johnny to stop. He retorts, stop what? The truth?

He recounts that their mother drove their father to an early grave, drove him away from home, and damn near drove Barbara into a convent. Barbara insists that this isn't true, prompting Johnny to ask her the last time she had a date then. But Barbara shouts that that's none of his business, and Johnny concludes that the one thing that their mother never drove was 200 miles to anything.

He is not fucking around. It feels like there's just a lot to unpack here and like they had this whole ride to talk about.

I'll give her two hours a piece. They get here and he's like, you can't handle the truth. What is happening? Yeah, you would have thought they would have talked about this. You know, I've been thinking about the whole time we've been drinking up here. Or the other three times we've been here. Well, we weren't there for that. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, fair point. But emotion rising in her voice, Barbara begs Johnny not to talk like that. Not here.

Johnny doesn't seem to understand, so Barbara bluntly beseeches, show some respect. Johnny can only chuckle that Barbara really is afraid of this place, and he drives onto the grass around a tombstone, finally pulling to a stop as he bellows one more sardonic laugh at his sister.

Barbara tears out of the car, cursing Johnny as a bastard, and with her face stern under the flame of her red hair, she implores Johnny to just get it over with. He climbs out of the driver's seat, remarking how weird she is, before leaning over the roof, clutching the car keys in his leather glove as he once again snarks. They're coming to get you, Barbara.

I know that he's still acting up. But I was like, this is the most regular looking I've seen Bill Moses in a while. They usually do a lot with him. Yeah. And he's posh, driving a Mercedes. Like, who is this? But Barbara just slams her door, storming off through the tombstones as Johnny stalks behind her with a smirk, wailing, Barbara.

They're horny, Barbara. They've been dead a long time. He's having a blast. And I don't remember this in 68. But he drags his leg behind him to mimic the walking dead, but stops when he notices a man in a suit walking through the trees off in the distance. This only emboldens Johnny, who urges Barbara to look, claiming, there's one of them now.

He proclaims that the man wants her, but clutching a funerary arrangement, Barbara has already reached the plot that they came to visit. She stands serenely before a pristine stone bearing the etching, Our Beloved Mother, beneath an aged photograph of their dearly departed mom. But Johnny reaches for Barbara, seizing her by the shoulders as he intones that the man is getting closer.

dangerously close. Yeah, he's right there. It's very inconsiderate. This is a cemetery. Barbara scolds her brother once again, embarrassed that the man might hear him. But Johnny, circling to the other side of their mother's headstone and clinging to it with his leather gloves, rebuts that it doesn't matter. He knows they're here. It's too late now and there's no escape.

Johnny then reaches his arm up from behind the tombstone, and with the view of him obstructed at his elbow, he mimes as if his collar is being clutched from someone beneath the ground. His face filled with facetious fear, Johnny screams, no, mother, as he's dragged to the ground and out of sight by his own hand. Johnny. That's crazy. That might be too much, Johnny. You're fun at parties, huh?

Barbara seethes, you bastard. But her admonishment is interrupted when the Mourner, played by Pat Reese, finally reaches Barbara, startling her as he stumbles and reaches for her shoulder to steady himself. Barbara gasps her brother's name as he cackles behind the tombstone, but the Mourner stands in front of Barbara, unevenly in his shabby suit as he shakily rasps, I'm sorry, very sorry.

But as he turns away from the siblings, he reveals a fresh and bloody blemish at the top of his forehead, the sight of which snaps Johnny out of his chicanery as the mourner staggers through the tombstones. Barbara looks on concerned, and Johnny calls out to the man, asking if there's anything they can do to help him. He then turns back to his sister, remarking, That's weird, huh? But before Barbara can respond,

Cemetery zombie played by Greg Funk lurches up out of nowhere, knocking Johnny over as he seizes Barbara by the shoulders, pushing her to the ground. So first of all, I loved this diversion because you think that the first one shuffling toward them is going to be the first zombie. So it is a really cool moment of, oh no, it's fine. Oh no, it's not. Yeah. It was hilarious to see Johnny push down.

And also Greg Funk is one of the effects guys. No shit. Yeah. But they had said that the diversion was totally intentional, that they wanted you to think that the man coming toward them was a zombie. So Tom Savini said that he called his friend Pat Reese because he looks like a zombie. Wow. Which I would have felt sometimes. How convenient. I thought that that was.

a very perfectly executed thing as well. Yeah. Because in the original, the first person they see is the first zombie. Yeah. And so to have this as a switch up is really smart. Yeah. And I think when you're watching a remake and especially a remake of something so iconic, you're like, okay, at least I am. What beats are we going to follow? And what are we not? You know what I mean? So I feel like if I were as a child, when I watched this as well versed in the 68 version,

I would have been like, oh, of course. Oh, you know, I mean, it's just such a, it seems like such a small decision to make, but I think it really sets the tone for you think you know what's going to happen, but that might not always be true. Yeah. But the zombie's teeth gnash, drool dripping from his jaw as a pained moan escapes him. He peers down at Barbara through a dry, blood-caked eye, tearing her glasses from her face as she struggles against him.

But as she crawls away from his grasp, Barber is able to kick him in the face, her shoeless but stocking-covered foot repeatedly making contact with his pale yellow cheek. Johnny finally joins the proceedings, wrapping his arms around the creature, but receives a stern and swift headbutt for his efforts, which sends him tumbling back to the grass.

The fiend fixes his gaze back to Barbara, who without hesitation reaches for her funerary bouquet and with the sharp prongs of its small easel repeatedly stabs the zombie through the chest. Undeterred, the zombie lurches for her, only to be held back by a returning Johnny. But in the frenzy, with Johnny clutching the dirt-covered jacket of the dead man, Barbara accidentally stabs right through her brother's hand.

Maybe. Accidentally. That's for the car ride. Whoops. As he collapses backwards, Barbara continues the fight, kicking the zombie in the face and tearing out of her pink cardigan when he attempts to grab hold of her. Johnny leaps on the back of the attacker as Barbara drags herself away, watching as her brother wrestles against him.

And with a zombie's arms wrapped around his shoulders, Johnny stumbles over Barbara's discarded shoe in the grass, losing his balance and causing the pair to fall defenseless. Johnny's head forcefully striking the sharp corner of a headstone on the way down. Ouch. Yeah. But this clearly being a dummy is utterly fantastic. I was going to say, I'm sorry, this was funny. I loved every bit of it.

on that featurette they said that they made a full dummy of bill mosley for this because they wanted it to be like oh fuck like when his head hits it and it is like if dummy or not that shit like that would hurt it it and that you are right it does look funny and painful it's like oh shit that's fucked up but it is very very quick i was like oh he's he's done yeah that was immediate

And I remember watching this as a kid and I did not catch the switch at all. Right. And I was like, Oh my God. And again, this is basically what happens in the original. Yeah. But it is a much more gruesome. You're there the whole time. And so these are like the small changes that are updated for 1990. Yeah.

But Barbara screams for her brother as he lies motionless in the grass, blood pouring from the fresh wound at the side of his head. She rises to her feet, shrieking as she plants the funerary easel into the shoulder of the zombie, who snarls and groans at her in response. She takes off running through the graveyard, eventually reaching a black Cadillac hearse that's parked next to an opened casket, which rests empty above an awaiting grave.

She screams wildly for help, but when she finds the hearse to be unoccupied, she glances back to find the cemetery zombie shambling slowly in her direction. Barbara rushes back to Johnny's Mercedes, wrenching the driver's side door open and climbing behind the wheel as she slams the door behind her. She surveys her surroundings, and through the passenger's side window, she notices a man in a dark suit, played by Tim Carrier, traipsing through the tombstones.

She calls out to him urgently, begging for help, but unbeknownst to Barbara, behind the man and accompanied by a musical sting, we discover the rear of his suit is wide open, his bare backside on display as he marches stiltedly towards the Mercedes. Barbara's relief vanishes as the man's steps catch the cuffs of his pants, slowly pulling his front covering down to reveal a poorly sewn up, Y-shaped incision in his chest.

This was such a fucking cool reveal. Yeah. I thought it was so awesome. Although when he was shuffling, even before we saw his booty cheeks, I knew that man was no longer with us. But I think that it's really cool. Tom Savini said that that idea came to him. It wasn't even in the script. Wow. A freshly autopsied zombie running around. Yeah. So he thought it was a cool idea. They came up with it during, you know, filming and ran with it.

guy playing him tim carrier they again like we talked about i believe on day of the dead put out an ad in the paper who wants to be a zombie and the response was overwhelming and tom savini was worried that everybody was just kind of going to be out there doing their own thing as a zombie because we do see more later yeah um so he there was like a two-day zombie school that they held to teach everybody how to move like a zombie and tim carrier

was the teacher oh wow the autopsy zombie and but he said that everybody was like because we see more clusters later on and Tom Savini was like this does not work at all the school worked too well and that they were all kind of doing too much so he was like just walk just move slow everybody just moves well if you look at like the original there was no coordination

But Barbara quickly rolls up the window, recoiling and putting her back to the driver's side door. She sits fearful as the autopsy zombie clatters clumsily against the opposite window, but fright finds her even more fiercely when the cemetery zombie returns just behind her, scratching at the glass and leaving remnants of blood behind in streaks. Barbara screams, frantically reaching for the ignition, only to find that the key is missing.

She pounds on the steering wheel in frustration before ripping the glove compartment open and rifling through everything she finds inside, toppling items onto the floor but coming up empty in her search for a spare key. The zombies continue their encroachment on either side of her, the autopsy zombie merely groaning against the barrier, but the cemetery zombie discovers an errant brick on the ground, and after a few strikes, he shatters the driver's side window with it.

causing Barbara to cower in the rain of glass. This was a choice. So much of a choice that they're like, we won't let them do this again. One time. That's what I was going to say. That's your one. We don't love a zombie using a tool in any way. Yeah, no. Bub was special. Yeah. No, yeah. No, that was its own thing. Yeah, but that had a whole thing to it. Why? Yeah.

This is just some random fresh off the street zombie. Yeah, like the first one we saw. They're like, that's enough. We're sorry. What the hell were we thinking? But the zombie forces himself through the hole that he's created, gripping Barbara by the shoulders and pulling her closer to him. But in the struggle, Barbara's able to pull the brake release, which causes the car to drift slowly backward, away from the clutches of her pursuers.

But the Mercedes continues in this direction, descending down a hill and picking up speed until its rear end collides with the trunk of a tall tree, crunching on impact as Barbara slams against her seat. After barely even a moment to collect herself, Barbara bounds out of the car, the two zombies shambling toward her over the hill.

So something interesting that we talked about on episode 17, the car that they used that eventually got wrecked belonged to one of the producer's mother. And in this film, the car that they used that eventually gets wrecked belonged to Tom Savini. On commentary, he said that he sold it to the production, which is honestly really smart instead of just using it. Oh, yeah. He knows how this shit works.

But Barbara breaks through branches and into the surrounding trees, losing her footing and taking a standard horror movie fall into a bed of dead leaves. So watching this at first, I was annoyed by this fall. But and I think we've already spoiled a little bit about how different the Barbaras are. I saw Patricia Tallman talking about how this was a new approach.

to who Barbara is. And the 68 version of Barbara is what Barbara was expected to be. And so looking at it through that lens, I'm like, you see this woman pretty, she seems very, maybe a little tight, tightly wound, buttoned down, unassuming. I kind of like that this is.

our introduction to her where she is screaming she's afraid she is with it she is escaping but she does the standard horror movie fall she is your standard horror movie woman but i think quote unquote i think it does like you said we already kind of said it's a different bar but i i think maybe it's kind of what we

got from the original so we're just kind of going to the still thinking that exactly yeah we're getting it's it's like the cemetery zombie again yeah where it's like yeah no you can think that but you know and i i looking at it through that i'm like no i actually kind of like that you know you don't expect an arc exactly that trajectory but also dude the

Autopsy zombie is about two shuffles away from hanging dead dong. So I would really knees to chest. We don't have time to fall. We don't have time for anything. We don't need to be around for that. Get the fuck out of there. But she picks herself up, frenzied strings accompanying her swift steps as she races out of the trees and onto a dirt road carved out of a field of grass. She takes another tumble.

picking herself up again and continuing onward until she reaches a small wooden fence leading into a farm. Barbara breezes past the tall wall of an open barn, seeking cover behind rough stacks of hay as she calls out for help, begging to know if anyone is here.

Something very interesting that I did here on commentary. We see her running out of the trees and as she reaches the barn, it's all one take all the way from the hill over to the hay. And we see her kind of sticking to the grass and never going into the dirt road, which is full of gravel and just not stuff you would want to walk in on your bare feet.

But as she's standing at the hay, the camera rises a little bit and you see her move and shift. It's because there's a trash can right there and someone is hiding behind that trash can and putting shoes onto her feet. I love that. And from that point forward, she does walk on that road. I love that.

But when she doesn't receive any answer, she wanders somewhat aimlessly past weathered farm equipment and shrubbery before stopping just in front of a rusted gas pump. The music does rise in this moment. And of course, we have a lot of stuff to do with this gas pump later. But it's kind of like a little cue for anyone who does know the original. Yeah.

But off in the distance, Barbara spies a drab, three-story farmhouse just across an adjacent field. She races for it, the camera following her through the wire and undergrowth that line the property, until she finds her way through an opening and climbs the steps of the front porch. She pounds desperately on the front door, crying out for an answer and trying the knob to no avail, before retreating from the porch and jogging around the side of the house to the back door.

Once she reaches it, she screams, Hello? But she's surprised to find that the door is unlocked. She creaks it open slowly, creeping cautiously into a small kitchen as she continues calling out for help. She inches past the refrigerator and the sink stacked with dirty dishes, discovering a pan burning on the stove, the contents inside sizzling as she reaches for the knob to turn off the fire.

literally never a good sign no when the food is left scorched on the stove uh-huh terrifying yeah something really cool whenever she was banging on the front door there's like a little sign like where you would put like the name of the family that lives there it says m celeste and tom savini said that it's a reference to the marie celeste that's what i was

Yes. Thinking. You did the research on the Marie Celeste on episode 219 Ghost Ship. Yeah. And that's exactly what it's meant to convey whenever she comes into this kitchen and she finds things still there from breakfast burning. Oh, wow. That is cool. Isn't that awesome? Yeah. But smoke rises from the skillet as Barbara enters an adjacent corridor, leaving the kitchen door open behind her for some reason.

but she stops dead in her tracks when she hears a door creak open somewhere deeper in the house. We spy Barbara from the landing of the staircase leading to the second floor, peering down at her as she reaches her hand for the banister, calling out to anyone who might be upstairs. When no one answers again,

Barbara breathes nervously as she makes her way into the floral wallpapered living room, standing still in the entryway as she lifts her gaze to a series of hunting trophies that decorate the area. The forever frozen and howling face of a wild boar, the serene stare of a departed deer, shrill strings accentuating the sight of each of them. But Barbara is shocked out of her slack-jawed stupor when something wet drips from the ceiling and onto her face.

She wipes it away with her long fingers, smearing it across her cheek, only to peer upward at a small pool of blood that has collected at the edge of the railing on the second floor. Barbara breathes shakily as a pale hand reaches through the balusters above. Barbara cowers beneath it as it falls limply, severed from the wrist of its owner and tumbling directly at her on the first floor. She knocks it away, but clatters to the carpeted floor in fright.

why were you just standing there like the blood hit you and you're still like what's this she's she's processing i'm like well he was just trying to give her a hand no but i that i think that would be it for me the hand i'm checked out like something would cry you remember on the simpsons when homer had the spaces in his face and then they all came together yeah i think that that might be my moment where

I can't handle any more of this. Yeah. Who does it belong to? It's that. Yeah, it's a great question. The ceiling or the fucking stairs are bleeding on me. It's like, I think that that might be it. Does it belong to one of them? That's a good question. As if the morning already wasn't enough. Yeah. Yeah. You just saw what happened to your brother. You were chased by somebody who clearly, he still had the autopsy incision. You saw that. That zombie was using a brick. Like, there's a lot going on.

But she gazes upward as Uncle Reach, a large, bald zombie played by Pat Logan, lurches toward the railing upstairs, overlooking her with a groan. He creeps forward with Barbara in his sights, the wood of the banister creaking as he presses his weight against it, until he bursts all the way through in a heavy heap to the first floor. Barbara narrowly rolls out of the way before he crash-lands face-first just beside her on the ground.

So in that featurette, Tom Savini said that Pat Logan had been in a motorcycle accident six weeks before they were filming this. Jeez. So six weeks before he did this stunt, he had broken his collarbone, broken several ribs, and had his spleen removed. And six weeks later, he's doing this shit. Holy shit. That's wild.

But Barbara shrieks, crumbling into tears as she sits upright, putting her back to the archway of the living room. But when she notices Uncle Reage rising to his feet, she reaches hers faster and rushes back into the kitchen. But Barbara stops dead in her tracks when a farmer zombie shambles onto the back porch, blocking her exit. She stumbles back in terror and disbelief, letting out a shuddering sob which gives way to a scream when Uncle Reage turns to approach her.

Caught in the middle of the undead, Barbara notices the front door again, her hurried hand grasping the knob as she wrenches it open and reaches the sanctuary of the front porch. She crosses the porch, only to discover a suited zombie played by Dirk Ashton lumbering toward her across a long dirt road. Barbara whimpers, but her fear subsides when she spies a rusty old truck speeding down the road leading up to the farmhouse, kicking up dust in its wake.

In a POV shot through the windshield of the truck, we gain on the suited zombie until we collide with him, sending him tumbling over the hood as the truck rounds the corner to park right in front of the farmhouse. So they made a full dummy of the zombie and propped him up to obviously be struck.

by this truck, but they made articulated joints so that the impact of the truck, the dummy would react the way a human body would react. Okay. Bending at the joints and, you know, whatever. Because it looks really good. Yeah. You see it buckle. Yes. And you're like, oh, shit. Once again, is he okay? Exactly. But the driver's side door of the truck creaks open.

and a pair of black dress shoes steps out and onto the dirt road. We rise up from them, not only finding a clean pair of black slacks, but the business end of a crowbar clutched firmly in the hand of the man wearing them. Ben, played by the late, great, inimitable Tony Todd, takes a drag from his cigarette before inquiring to Barbara if there's anyone else in the house.

It's Tony Todd. I don't think we... Yeah, the name speaks for itself. So we, I believe, if memory serves, talked a lot about the importance and the gravity of Ben being a black man in the 68 version. Yes. And Savini in that featurette said that that was always going to be the case for his remake.

He said that Tony Todd came in to audition. He hadn't read the script. Like he didn't have access to it. Nothing. So Savini gives him the script. He's like, give me five minutes. He goes out into the hall for five minutes, comes back and is doing scenes off script. He's not consulting it at all. He's crying. He's getting every word right. Tom Savini said that he closed the book and was like, we found Ben. Like we don't need to look anywhere else. Wow. Okay.

I remember, I think it might have been on Horror Noir, Tony Todd talked about seeing the original for the first time. I think he was like 14 years old when it came out. But he had said that after seeing Dwayne Jones's performance, it inspired him greatly. And so for him to not only get this part, but to play it in a way that only he could, it's just incredible work. I did hear Savinia talked about they auditioned a ridiculous amount of people.

for this part. And a couple of the names that he had mentioned, he said Eric LaSalle and Lawrence Fishburne. Oh, wow. And Lawrence Fishburne, I know, could absolutely kill this role. No, he's incredible. But Tony Todd brings something. Everything that he plays, there is a level of just, I don't, it's just craft. Yeah. And I can't even find the word because it's just so specifically Tony Todd. Yeah. No, it feels like it was always meant to be him. Yes.

And something else to consider, this is two years before Candyman. Okay. That's wild. Yeah. But Barbara stands speechless with only whimpers able to escape her quivering lips. Ben approaches her slowly, repeating his question and asking further if there are any shotguns inside, a hunting rifle, anything. Barbara blubbers lowly that she doesn't know before trembling in shock and collapsing into sobs.

Ben waves his hand in front of her face as she stares through him, her mind struggling to grasp the horrors that she's witnessed. He seizes her by her shoulders, shouting, come on, which only inspires her to wail. But when Ben peers out at the front lawn and discovers not only the twisted body of the zombie that he hit, dragging his way through the grass,

but another zombie on its heels and making his way toward them. He pulls Barbara toward the front door and against her protests, he carries her inside and slams the door behind them. I just wanted to talk about how incredible that twisted zombie looks. I saw in the featurette, John Vulich.

We talked about him on Day of the Dead. He worked with Tom Savini on Day of the Dead, as did Everett Burrell, who we talked about also on Pan's Labyrinth. Oh, wow. But he said that they had the actor, they dug a hole for his body, and so his entire bottom half is in the hole. And then the legs...

obviously are fake next to him but the effect is so it's so good and village said that they learned that from tom savini on day of the dead i was where we talked about the bodies being underneath the gurney and fake you know it's just it's really fucking cool to see this team learn from him and then go on to implement these things in his film yeah but it just it's such an effective gag and Tom Savini said that to him the effects that they do are magic tricks it's a it's

misdirection it's oh we want you looking at the right side of the screen so you don't see the scary thing coming on the left side of the screen he says that they're all magic tricks and i think this is very you know like the saw lady in half where her legs are pulled up and like it just reminds me of that it it is funny that that you mentioned that because when i seen that that was the very first thing i thought i was like oh his body's underground yeah but you you're right because looking at it i think

the magic that it is is the ground looks undisturbed yes so even though you do know that it's there and that those legs are not his but it looks cool yeah because it does look normal like it's like it did just happen yeah again i know it's a small detail but the grass being undisturbed and him being there and all that it's like oh shit that is what what what it would look like yeah and it really is the same gag that they used on day of the dead yeah

It's just, I just love it. It's so good. But Barbara glances around nervously when Uncle Reg is nowhere in sight and she shrieks in fright when she's taken into the kitchen and the farmer zombie is exactly where she last saw him. Ben snaps into action immediately, kicking the farmer zombie right in the gut and sending him flying onto his spine on the kitchen tiles.

That made me laugh. I wasn't expecting a kick. No, it's just funny to me because it's like, oh, Ben's been through this. He knows what to do. I was waiting for the RKO or the stutter. When the farmer zombie rises up like Michael Myers, Ben makes him wish that he never came home, snagging the frying pan from the stove and serving him a harsh breakfast.

What he does next is funny. The crack against his jaw sends the zombie sliding out onto the back porch, Ben struggling against his legs as he attempts to close the door. But Barbara creeps over to the fireplace in the living room and just beneath the watchful eye of a taxidermy bird on the mantle, she procures a fire poker from its stand.

The music rises tensely as Uncle Ridge reappears behind Barbara, who for some reason plays possum momentarily before turning around with a battle cry to bash the zombie in the cranium. But meanwhile...

Ben has his hands full as the farmer zombie rises up from the porch to face him through the crack in the door. He eventually makes his way back inside and closes the door behind him. It's a little too human for my days. It's better than a brick. Better than a brick, yes. Barbara keeps Uncle Reg at bay in the living room with a few stern strikes to the skull. While in the kitchen, Ben retreats, raising his crowbar, and with resolve, seethes.

Die! Before driving the sharp end of it through the farmer's forehead, crashing through the glass window of the back door. In the living room, Barbara is able to beat Uncle Rage back, bashing him repeatedly in the brain until one final strike collapses him to the carpet. But Ben tears the back door open.

Literally rolling the farmer zombie out onto the porch before closing and locking the door. That looked so funny to me. It was literally a roll. You've had enough, buddy. Get the hell out of here. In the fire poker, Barbara hitting Uncle Ridge.

savini said that they would do switches there was the actor and there was also a dummy and so when she's hitting the actor it's a rubber fire poker okay and when she's hitting the dummy it's a real fire poker and i think that the switches are seamless i couldn't tell like the angles that they used yeah when it's like oh that's not a real human anymore you know what i mean the

them going back and forth between her and ben i was like damn i didn't i didn't even clock that yeah it's honestly impressive they did the same thing with ben in the kitchen with the frying pan yeah okay savini said on commentary he said when he grabs it it's a real frying pan and then it switches to a rubber one it's seamless yeah he said they didn't want to pull any punches he said every strike you see is real okay whether it hurt or not yeah at least it was rubber yeah

But Barbara appears in the doorway to the kitchen, startling Ben momentarily as the pair catch their breath. But when he peers around her to see Uncle Reage lying dead against the couch in the living room, he asks Barbara if she knows who he is. Confusion washes over Barbara's face, which offers enough of an answer to Ben, who approaches her slowly with reassurances, telling her that it's all right and she did what she had to do.

Through her silent shutters, Ben learns that not only does Barbara not know the zombies outside, but this isn't even her house. He removes his suit jacket, urging her to speak to him as he inquires if she has a car. Barbara merely mutters, I have. And as Ben drapes his jacket around her shoulders, he grabs her, hope filling his voice in a whisper as he asks her again if she has a car.

Barbara mumbles, my brother, before Ben pulls her close to him, consoling her in an embrace. But they're promptly interrupted by a thudding noise emanating from outside the house. A solitary tear shimmering down his cheek, Ben rightly acknowledges that though the things outside aren't strong enough to break through the door, they could very easily smash through the windows. That tear alone.

I literally have it in my notes. He is so kind. Yeah. But also, like, he knows that they need to get down to business. And that hasn't hardened him to what she is going through. Yeah. Like, I feel like just this moment right here when the tear and then he's like, look, plus him knowing they can't get through the doors, but they can. He's got more experience than Barbara or us or anybody. Right. He is the one to listen to.

It just this whole thing right here, him, her giving him his, him giving her his jacket, all of it. I think it just really speaks so much to this character that we have literally known for like two minutes. Yeah. Yeah. It, it, it does. Well, for me, uh, it does a really good job. Like you're saying of setting up our duo of who I think for me anyway, who I'm going to pay attention to the rest of the movie. Oh, for sure.

And it does. It endears us to Ben because we've already seen everything that Barbara's gone through. Yeah. But Ben and seeing his sincere sensitivity to all of it. She's all she said was my brother. He knows. Yeah. You don't have to say anything else. But sweat coating his forehead. Ben approaches the front door with his crowbar in hand, watching as the brass knob slowly twists to each side to no consequence.

Relieved, he leans down to peer out of an adjacent window, only for a zombie, played by Jordan Berlant, to lurch toward the glass in a jump scare, the fresh wound at his cheek smearing blood against the surface as he slides to the ground. Listen, I knew it was coming. Me too. I hit the fucking ceiling. I was mad that I did. Because you know it's coming. I'm just trying to type my script.

But after collecting himself, Ben exits the house, stepping onto the porch to confront the zombie, who drags himself toward Ben over the wooden slats. As he reaches his feet, Ben gazes over the railing of the porch and onto the front lawn, where the zombie he hit with his truck lies twisted on the grass, his suit stained green as he still attempts to pull himself forward. But the porch zombie charges for Ben.

only to be kicked back into a pillar. The two face off, a solemn sympathy registering on Ben's face as the creature stumbles toward him, but it leaves Ben no choice but to batter him with the crowbar. After clocking him across the jaw, the zombie tumbles over the railing of the porch and onto the front lawn, but Ben sets his sights on the tangled mess of humanity reaching for him at the edge of the grass.

With stern mercy, Ben reaches him, and on his knees, he raises the crowbar high above its head, bringing the sharp end down into the skull of the twisted zombie. Barbara, framed in Ben's dark jacket, ascends the porch, watching as he shouts in admonishment to the sky, God damn you! God damn all of you! I know that these...

they used to be people. I know we're not using the Z word yet. I think in the movie, but these, I, we have to, like, I know how bad this sucks and we're all scared and whatever. These fucking things are still moving after I hit it with the car and whatever. I think I can feel a little less bad about it. Yeah. It's like, you're going to eat me if I let you. Yes. He will. Um, I get that. And.

This is just a lot. There's a lot to deal with. And rest in peace to zombie Ben Stiller that was on the court. But I like seeing this conflict in Ben. Because we've seen what Barbara's been through. Who knows what he's been through when he seems to have a lot more understanding of what is going on than we do. And he still is wrestling with this.

I mean, they still look like people. They look like scary, fucked up people, but they still look like people. And it's an incredibly refreshing reaction compared to how this film ends. Yeah. And so we do see that it's not everybody that is like this, that is like taking this kind of an attitude. Yeah. Some people are wrestling with what is happening. And I think I know that I've said it before. I think that we all agree that to me that that's the most fascinating part of this type of

content, film, book, TV show, graphic novel, whatever, is this loss of humanity because they're still walking around. They still have needs to fulfill, but their humanity is gone. There's nobody in there.

the humanity that remains within the people that are left. I think that's the most compelling story. And I'm not saying that we get loads of that. No, but moments like this, I do appreciate it because I think, and, and a lot of stuff, people just turn into these killing machines. Cause well, we got to kill them, but it's like, that would be fucking hard. And it is, I think that look in the eyes where there's just this pale nothingness. And that's, I think what Ben is responding to is just like,

This almost disbelief that it's even happening. Yeah, it's terrifying. But birds chirp lightly in the trees as Ben spits into the grass, weary at the weight of this new world, crossing himself when he can think of nothing else to do. Barbara responds in kind, but she leaves her cross incomplete and just hangs her head in sorrow.

Ben rises, with an ominous synth in the score accompanying his every step, and he approaches Barbara on the porch, guiding her back inside and closing the door behind them. Ben takes a seat, alerting Barbara to her dismay that his truck is on empty. He knows that they can't take the chance of running dry out in the middle of nowhere, so he suggests that they hole up here and hope that someone else comes to help.

Barbara understands, hanging her head and taking a step towards Ben, who finally introduces himself. He asks Barbara her name, and she tells him weakly. But with a stern stare, Ben cautions. Now look here, Barbara. I don't need you falling apart on me, you understand?

She nods, and Ben notes how she made short work of Uncle Reach, acknowledging that Barbara can fight when she has to, and he assures her that she has to fight now. Fight what she's thinking, fight what she's feeling, fight to keep herself strong and her thinking straight. Barbara nods with more certainty now, taking Ben's words to heart before her confusion prompts her to ask, what's happening? Ben isn't sure.

He says that nobody knows, and rising from his seat as foreboding notes in the score meet the moment, the pair glances over to Uncle Reg, who still rests in a heap against the couch. Just say they're zombies. You know what it is. I did enjoy this. To me, this was a good, I know you're afraid and so am I, but we've got to fight that right now. It's that.

just a sidebar forever one of the greatest fucking voices oh yeah period but it was that for me it wasn't he's not infantilizing her he's not oh I'll take care of you he's like look I saw I saw I know you can hold your own and we shit is coming that we both need to be ready for I really really loved that and the next thing I was thinking and this may be a reach looking at uncle reach

Did he remind anybody else of that clown, capital T, capital C from Hell House LLC? Oh. Can you see it? Okay. I can see that. I was like, who do you remind me of? And it was, yeah, it was that. That clown. That clown. Capital T, capital C. Very scary. But the golden glow of sunset gleams through the trees outside as a wicked wind rustles their brittle branches. Before long, night has fallen.

and the full moon rises brightly through the fog of the evening sky. We also get a shot of a spiderweb on some twigs. Yeah. Very cool. I was like, what an aesthetically pleasing transition this is. Yeah. I was a little surprised because you think it's over and it's like, oh, the moon. Oh. Oh, that's the spiderweb. But we return to the farmhouse, Ben entering the kitchen and eyeing the busted out window of the back door.

He switches on the light next to the refrigerator, setting his crowbar down on the sink to roll up the sleeves of his shirt. He then calls out to Barbara that all he heard on the radio in the truck was trash talk, same as always. People trying to sound like they know what's going on when they don't really know shit. The same as always. As Ben washes his hands, Barbara uses the fire poker to knock the severed hand across the floor and back over to Uncle Reg in the living room.

But Ben continues that one guy on the radio spoke about escaped prisoners on the loose up at Hennessy. Shut the fuck up. That's crazy. That's crazy. Have you seen one of these? Come on. And honestly, also, you know, the prison uniform is a suit, right? Yeah. With your ass breathing. Yeah, that's that. Everyone knows that.

But Ben says another theory on the radio is a guy saying that it was some kind of chemical spill making everyone go crazy, but he repeats, they don't know shit. He rummages through the cabinets until he finds a small metal toolbox and places it on the counter to open it. He wonders how anyone could explain a man walking around with his neck broken, a man shot full of holes but still coming at you. He admonishes the public reaction to the crisis.

The assholes down in Evans City out for a good time with their guns and their six-packs, trying to round the monsters up and put them in the back of their trucks like they have any idea what to do with them. In the living room, Barbara removes Ben's jacket, hooking the point of the poker into the strap of Uncle Regis' overalls to lift him up from the couch. She wraps the corpse in a rug, placing the fire poker over the fold to hold it down.

But Ben continues, searching through the house for supplies, opening a cupboard in the dining room as he recalls in horror that the men in Evans City had about 10 or 20 of the dead in the back of a panel truck. But when they opened the door to let another one inside, they all came spilling out like bugs. That seems like a really fucking...

You guys had no plan. No. It's like a horrible plan. They're like, room for one more. Oh, God. What did you think? Were there no even half-assed procedures in place? No lock. No. Oh, fuck. We lost him. And another thing, it's wild. Again, this has barely started, and that's already something that's going on. Yeah.

But Ben joins Barbara in the living room, the pair surveying the covered corpse at the center of the carpet. We then cut to the back porch outside, the light switching on overhead, as Ben peers through the broken window of the door. He spies an outhouse off in the distance through a mess of trees, but not much else, and under the cover of darkness, he sneaks outside.

Ben tosses the farmer zombie's corpse off of the porch, and he and Barbara drag out the rug that contains Uncle Reg, setting him on the grass just off the property. Barbara then retrieves her fire poker and an old pair of boots from the porch as she and Ben head back inside, Ben shutting off the porch light and locking the door behind them. Smart. Yeah.

It is funny to me that we are locking the door with this giant hole in it. It made me think of on signs when Joaquin Phoenix put the can of beans on top. Whatever we can do. But as Barbara washes her hands at the kitchen sink, wiping the blood from her cheek with a hand towel, Ben remembers another tale from his travels. He was in a diner.

The windows were shot out, the lady next to him was shot dead, and others too. He snags lighter fluid from the kitchen counter, as well as a long book of matches, and heads over to the fireplace in the living room. He sprays the flammable liquid, lighting a match, as he recounts that he saw six or seven go down, explaining that a car exploded outside. Barbara joins him in the living room with her new pair of boots, sitting down to put them on as Ben lights the fire.

As the flames dance warmly in front of him, he recalls that his car caught fire and that it was like a war. He says that some of those things made it inside of the diner and started coming after them. He adds wood to the fire, scoffing at the memory of some good old boy who started chasing the zombies, calling him a mean son of a bitch who had some kind of hot shit gun like an M16 or something. He mimes aiming down sight with a small bit of kindling.

describing how the guy just opened fire, his bullets tearing the place up. In disbelief, Ben says that he watched one of those things take at least 30 bullets and keep on coming. He swears it had to have been dead, but it just kept coming, until it took a hit in the head, and that brought it down. Sweat pouring down his forehead, Ben surmises that the only way to stop them is you have to get them in the head.

He snaps the stick in his hands to punctuate his point as Barbara gathers next to him on the floor. Ben admits that he has no idea what's going on, but he sure as hell knows that it's no prison break and no kind of chemical he's ever heard of could make a dead man walk. This is something that nobody has ever heard about or has ever seen before. This is hell on earth. Pure hell on earth.

the flames flicker in the fireplace which is a pretty cool representation of what he just said yeah yeah but tony todd killing it with this monologue yeah telling this story going through all these emotions his disgust at the man who opened fire his surprise at seeing the zombie take all the bullets and still keep coming yeah his understanding of what it means to shoot a zombie in the head yeah like we're establishing so much in this just short scene and monologue

Yeah, I will say, though, and I know that that is on in other movies, they say stuff like this, too. But I mean, if it was really hell on earth, wouldn't there be like.

like fire dragons or something or like monsters or like i mean wouldn't it be a little worse i know zombies are bad but i mean you're like quit being dramatic it's pretty bad but hold on it could be worse yeah it's a lot worse than this no i was i was super captivated yeah by the monologue it was just so good and it really illustrates that i don't know talent the way that he can just

Tony Todd brought to every role that he had. But the music in the score rises tensely as we're treated to shots of the farmhouse in the dark of the evening, as well as the old gas pump that Barbara passed earlier lit by the small glow of an overhead lamp. We see the outhouse off in the distance as well, a small light on its slanted roof carving its shape out of the night.

But inside the house, Ben lifts the receiver of a black telephone that he finds on a side table, pressing it to his ear. He curses in disappointment when a piercing ring emanates from it, lamenting that it doesn't take long for the world to fall apart. Barbara just sits silently in front of the fire as Ben opens a nearby drawer, rifling through miscellaneous papers and photographs and finding nothing useful.

But in another drawer, just above the small desk, Ben finds a box of ammunition, eagerly tearing it open and pouring some rounds into his hand to stash into his pocket. Hope returning to his voice, Ben notes that there has to be guns in this house. He paces through the living room, eventually finding himself at the bottom of the staircase, suggesting that they might be upstairs. He offers to check it out, making sure that Barbara is okay to be alone on the first floor while he does.

But Barbara joins him in the corridor, warning that something is up there. Ben puts a cigarette into his mouth, wondering what it could be, and Barbara directs his attention to the blood dripping from the banister upstairs. Ben creeps cautiously up the steps, and when he reaches the top, he discovers the corpse of Cousin Satchel, played by Albert Shellhammer, a rifle clutched in his lap as he sits sprawled across the top step, his left hand missing.

and what's left of his arm resting in a pool of blood. Upon hearing the name Satchel, I do want to shout out all the Vanderpump Rules fans who know the joke that I'm not making right now. But it is interesting to see where that hand came from. True. Yeah.

Now I just want to know the joke. It's too much lore. So on season one. I did want to say Tom Savini mentioned on commentary that Albert Shellhammer is actually an amputee. Okay. And so they did have it set up to where it looks like he's missing his hand, but he was in reality missing his hand. Oh, wow. That's cool though.

But Ben also surveys the angry wound at the side of Satchel's head and his brains decorating the wallpaper behind him. Barbara calls up from the bottom of the stairs, asking Ben what it is, but Ben, dropping his cigarette into his shirt pocket, just vaguely tells her that it's all right.

When she repeats her inquiry, Ben repeats his response, refusing to elaborate as he holds a handkerchief to his face, shielding himself from the smell as he seizes the rifle from Cousin Satchel. He racks it, ejecting the shell inside before stepping over the corpse to peer into an adjacent bedroom. He stands silhouetted in the doorway as he peeks around in the dark, but suddenly, downstairs, a door creaks open just behind Barbara.

The sound alone startles her, but when she turns to face who made it, she screams. Ben leaps down the stairs with the rifle in hand as Barbara shouts for him. He bursts through the door leading into the living room, pushing right past Harry Cooper, played by Tom Toles, who takes the brunt of Ben's entrance as Ben returns to Barbara's side, defending them both with his newfound rifle.

Cooper's such a piece of shit. Tom told us we did talk about him in Grindhouse. Yes. We did. Very recently. Yeah. And House of Thousand Corpses. That's right. Devil's Rejects. Yeah. With Bill Moseley. Yeah. Interesting. And we're back home. It always comes back to Rob Zombie at the end of the day.

I think Tom Savini had said that he was prompted to cast him because he had heard about him being in Henry portrait of a serial killer. Okay. But at the time of the recording of the commentary, he goes, and I've never seen that film, but Tom did give me a DVD. It's like, why would you mention that? What if he hears this? Or don't talk about it. But he clocks in. Yes. Even like when.

he's being talked to or other people are talking the way his eyes are all but like he really he understood the assignment there's there's nothing else i can say but next to the pained cooper stands tom bitner played by william butler who immediately throws his hands up at the side of ben's rifle setting down his double barrel shotgun and urging ben not to shoot

He hilariously explains, it's just us. Who are you? That's so ridiculous. I was glad Ben does ask, who the hell is us? Yeah. Which is great. Before we move on, William Butler. So this man, I, you know, of course, you know, looking into some of who these actors are and all that. This man is a director.

and some of the movies that he's directed and i was like i'm not gonna lie i was over the fucking moon for it um it looks like he directed demonic toys jack attack in 2023 really baby oopsie three baby oopsie the series baby oopsie two now he does a lot with the demonic toys a lot of toy movies it sounds like it yeah i'm i'm i'm gonna be honest i i want to go and check these out

I like the demonic toy series. So I didn't know they were still up until this, you know what I mean? Recently. So, I mean, that was pretty cool to see. That's so random. Yeah. Savini had said, and I think the commentary was recorded in like 2000 because he kept saying 10 years ago. Yeah. But he had said that the last time at the time he talked to Butler, he said, I think he's working with K and B now. Oh, okay. It's pretty cool. Yeah.

And I will say that Tom is wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers hat. Yeah. You gotta do Pittsburgh. You gotta do PA if you're working with Romero. Yeah. And they did film this in Pennsylvania. Okay. Yeah. But upon Ben asking that rightful question, who the hell is us? He prompts the casually dressed Tom to make introductions as the tuxedoed Cooper collects himself.

Helen Cooper, played by McKee Anderson, calls up from the cellar below, checking in on her husband, as Tom introduces them both, and includes the fact that they have a sick little girl downstairs too. Nervously clutching his necklace, Tom adds that his girlfriend, Judy Rose Larson, is down there too, and he assures Ben that that's all of them.

Cooper turns to face Ben and Barbara, a baseball bat gripped in his fist as he holds his aching elbow, asking if they can now ask who the hell they are. Ben introduces himself and Barbara, and Cooper scolds Mr. Ben for damn near breaking his arm. He's like, we're going to have to put this Mr. Ben shit to a stop. But Helen continues to call up to her husband as Cooper's stare never leaves Ben.

But Ben urges the man to answer his wife, which he finally does, assuring her that everything is all right and they've just found some people upstairs. Ben wonders how they didn't hear all the noise earlier, insisting that they could have used some help. Cooper smarmily snarks that maybe Mr. Ben can see through walls, but he can't. I was like, shut the fuck up. They were running around up here. Giant ass zombies were falling on the floor.

Like that's screaming. No, shut up. He admits that they did hear some banging around upstairs, but they assumed it must have been those things. Tom corrects him immediately, confessing to Ben that they did hear Barbara calling out for help, but they were simply too scared to answer. Thank you. That's better. Yeah. Tom then takes a seat on a piano bench with his shotgun resting behind him on the fall board, admitting that that's the truth. They were scared to hell.

And that's something else that I think speaks a lot to Tom's character. Yeah. The second that he saw Ben, he threw his shotgun down. Yeah. He didn't point it back at Ben. He didn't do anything. There was no threats, nothing. Cooper absolutely would have. Yeah. Don't even fucking get me started. But I'm like, even just this little interaction that shows who out of the two of these guys we can trust. Oh, yeah.

Ben asks if Tom lives here, and Tom shares that he doesn't. It's actually his Uncle Regis' house, him and his cousin Satchel. Tom swears that he saw his uncle, that he touched him, and he was stone cold dead. He says he must have died today, insisting that that's the truth. That was something else I couldn't remember if in the original...

the Tom character was related to the people that had the house, but I don't think that he was. Okay. And so I kind of like this added layer of Tom and Judy Rose having some history here. Yeah. As to why they came to this house. Well, it gives them a reason to be here. Yeah. Instead of just stumbling across it. And everybody stumbled. How many fucking people are going to find?

But the fact that also there is this human connection here and what we see here, it means more because of it. Yeah. But when Helen's cries continue from the cellar, Cooper suggests that they continue their conversation downstairs. But to his wide-eyed annoyance, Tom goes on that he and Judy walked over here to be with Satchel after the radio said that there was some kind of trouble, assuring Ben that they didn't see anything between home and here.

Cooper's like a cartoon sometimes. Yeah. Frustrated, Cooper shouts that they've heard all of this before and he paces alone into the kitchen. But Ben Cooley corrects Cooper that he hasn't heard any of this before and he urges Tom to continue his story.

It's funny because everything that Cooper says that I'm like, and then I write down in my notes, Ben's like, I got it. Because I was like, they haven't yet. And he's like, we okay. All right, cool. You got to handle. As Cooper grabs a beer from the old refrigerator, Tom explains that they weren't even here for 10 minutes before Cooper came banging on the front door. Ben wonders how Cooper got here, noting that he doesn't look like he's from around here.

But indignant, Cooper assumes that Ben is trying to figure out if someone has a car. He assures Ben that they've been through all of this before, sharing that his car broke down on the interstate and Tom doesn't have one at all, adding, if you can believe that, which is like, what the fuck is that? No, I can believe that. But I'm like, when y'all went through this before, do you remember seeing me? That's true. It's that. Because I wasn't here. No.

Ben is dismayed to hear this, but Cooper isn't done, and he asks, What about you, Mr. Ben? You don't exactly look like neighbors yourself. Don't like that. No. The two men meet in the center of the room, almost standing nose to nose as Ben succinctly explains. Truck. Outside. Out of gas. Cooper isn't buying it, however.

noting that Evans City is only five miles away and they can make it five miles on fumes. But Ben asks what happens if they don't make it, wondering if he's willing to take that chance. And either way, Ben knows that Evans City is a war zone and that it would take them a hell of a lot more than five miles before they find any real help. Tom then remembers the old gas pump by the shed. Only Uncle Reach keeps it locked and he doesn't know where the key could be offhand.

He says that they could hunt for it, and Ben proposes that they could do that later as it might take too long, and the most important thing now is to figure out what they're doing first. He urges Tom to finish his story, but Cooper interrupts, shouting that this is bullshit. He states that if they're going to do something, then they need to do it. But if they're going to just stand around and bullshit, they should do it in the cellar where they're safe.

Ben isn't sure that locking themselves down in the cellar is such a smart move and he makes it clear that he isn't going down there at all until he knows what their options are. Incensed, Cooper demands to know what options Ben is even referring to and who the fuck gave him the right to decide things for the rest of them.

You can go down there anytime you want. Yeah. Nobody's holding you. Are you afraid? I don't understand. Cause he's like, no, all of us. They can stay up here and you can go down there and you guys are separate people. Yeah. And I thought you hated me. Yeah. Come down there with me right now and hold my hand. It's like, what?

It just was hilarious to me because he was really digging his heels in. And it's like literally nobody is stopping you. Ben makes it clear that he isn't deciding for Cooper or anybody else. He's thinking about his own ass. And he tells Cooper that if he wants to go down in the cellar, he can. He assures him that nobody's stopping him at all. After an eternity without an answer, Helen calls out once again, asking what's going on up there.

Cooper just slams the baseball bat into the floor, shouting down at his wife. Damn it, Helen. Will you quit yelling at me? I can't think straight when you yell at me. So that's who he is. Yeah. You were already getting fucking ate up. You're just taking it. Ben rises from his chair, acknowledging that he's only been around Cooper for a couple of minutes, but that's enough time to know that he doesn't like him very much. And he speaks for all of us. Oh, yeah.

Cooper snags his beer from the top of the piano as Ben assumes that Cooper probably feels the same way about him, and he suggests that they just stay out of each other's way from here on out. Returning to his seat, Ben once again urges Tom to continue his story. Tom picks up from where he left off, with Cooper and his wife pounding on the door ten minutes after they arrived at Uncle Regis' house.

Tom says he noticed that their daughter was hurt, so he tried to call for help, but they couldn't get through to anyone on the phone. That's when Uncle Reage came walking out of the bedroom, and Tom swears that he was dead just a minute before. Cooper insists that Reage wasn't dead and that he couldn't have been. He nervously posits that Tom must have made a mistake. What? What have you seen? I know. You said those things. Yeah. Yeah.

But Tom is certain that his uncle was dead. Ben asks what happened next, and Tom continues that Uncle Reach went after Cousin Satchel. He says that he went after him like a... But he struggles against the memory of what he witnessed, unable to explain. Ben asks if there was anybody else in the house, and learns that it's only them and everyone downstairs. But after a beat, Ben shares that Cousin Satchel is dead.

But Tom already knows. Cousin Satchel shot himself. Tom says that he ran downstairs to get the shotgun, but there was nothing he could do. He couldn't shoot Uncle Reach. He couldn't imagine doing something like that. But he explains that that's when he told everyone to go down into the cellar. It was all his idea. Cooper blurts out that it was a good idea, clearly trying to forward his own agenda here. Go! Nobody's stopping you.

You know what, though, too, man? If you came up here and you weren't a dickhead, maybe if you were trying to cooperate with the rest of us, maybe if you weren't screaming at your wife crazy, maybe if you weren't just coming off like you don't like us for certain reasons, maybe we would go into the cellar. Yeah. Maybe we would listen. Maybe we would come. You know what I mean? We can. OK, let's go down there and form a plan. We'll come back up, whatever.

Maybe. It's amazing what you can get with basic human decency. Because honestly, if it was Tom, it's like, well, maybe we should talk in the cellar. Yeah. It's like, oh, you didn't tell me that I don't look like I'm from around here. Yeah. You didn't call me Mr. Ben. Yeah. But Barbara steps away from the group to peek out of the window in the living room. Suddenly, she draws everyone's attention to what she sees, and the men gather their weapons to join her at the glass. Through the night and off in the distance,

Three zombies shamble out of the bushes and toward the farmhouse. Cooper retreats to the door that he came from, ordering everyone into the cellar. New idea. It's like, really? Hey guys, I was just thinking we should probably just all go down to the cellar. Something just came to me. Ben refuses, calling the cellar a death trap.

He states that those things don't have much strength, but if you get enough of them together, they might be able to break through a door, and they'd be cornered down there with no way out. Cooper eyes him with frustration, as Ben explains that they'd do a lot better fighting them off up here with a way to escape. Cooper then counters that a way out is a way in, and he gestures toward all the windows on the first floor, but Ben suggests that they could board them up.

And if you like... I was going to say, what a lengthy and great idea. What a time-consuming idea. It's like, it's going to take us a while. But it's worth it. Cooper insists that there's no time, but Ben levels that there's only three of them outside, noting that he's handled more than that by himself, without the two guns that they have at their disposal now.

As the men continue their bickering, Barbara slinks away into the kitchen, gathering a hammer and nails. The argument reaching its boiling point, Ben steps forward, shouting that he already told Cooper that if he wants to go downstairs, he can. He can be boss downstairs, but Ben is boss up here. Damn right.

Tom stands nervously between the men, glancing back and forth as Ben asks what they're going to do. It's funny. Tom's never like, well, this is my uncle's house. He's like, yes, you can be boss. And Ben, obviously you're the boss of me. He's like, so I have the second floor, I guess. I don't know. You got a boss. After mulling it over for a moment, Tom retreats with Cooper back into the cellar.

Ben just waves his hand, letting them go, but turns around in surprise when he hears Tom call out to his girlfriend, telling her that they need help boarding up the windows upstairs. I loved that moment. And in all honesty, I mean, look, how much longer have I known Cooper than you?

Like an hour or two. Yeah, but I'm sure that hour or two is enough to be like whoever the fuck. Yeah. Whoever else walks in here. No shit. But I'm saying there's no loyalty. Yeah, for sure. But I mean, it kind of just goes back to what we were saying a little bit ago. Look how Cooper is. You're sitting here yelling at people. You're being an asshole and being rude to somebody. Two people who need help who clearly we just heard them get into a scuffle with some zombies up here and came out, you know, on top.

And then Ben's over here talking to me like, no, it's okay. Tell me what happened. Let's figure this out. We're going to board up the windows. We're like, we're already fucking talking. I don't want to hear that story again. Who the hell am I following? Who am I working with? Come on. It's a very easy decision. But upon hearing this, Cooper cries that Tom is crazy, that they're all out of their minds.

But Tom returns from the cellar with Judy Rose, played by Kate Finneran, introducing her to Ben and Barbara. Kate Finneran. She was in Movie 43 in 2013 and in Bewitched in 2005. Really? Yeah. I think I saw her in Freaky. Okay. The one with Vince Vaughn. Yeah, I still need to watch that. I was surprised to learn, especially with her performance, that this was the first film she was ever in.

Really? Yeah. That is surprising. And it's the same for McKee Anderson, who plays Helen. Yeah. First film. Really? Yeah. I think they both do really well. Yeah. But Tom takes Judy Rose into the kitchen to gather shelves, explaining their plan, which inspires uncertainty in her. Tom tells her that there are more of those things out there, things like Uncle Reach, and with a kiss, he asks her to do what he tells her.

That kiss was hilarious. Yeah. He's like, do what I tell you. I love you. Yeah. We need to establish those things. They do love each other. Well, he's like, we can't have two Coopers, dude. No, not at all. It just made me laugh. But Cooper and Ben glare at each other as Cooper threatens that if he shuts the door to the cellar, he's not opening it again until somebody comes who can get them out of here. Ben retorts that if somebody like that comes, he'll try to remember to come and call them.

Cooper curses them as idiots as lame brains before offering a parting shot in the way of a pessimistic prediction. You're all gonna die up here. You're gonna die. It's like, all right, Reagan. Yeah.

But as the group nails planks of wood over the windows, Cooper slinks back into the staircase to the cellar, smirking as he closes the door and bars it with a board of wood. Was it giving? And I'm reaping all the benefits. I mean, yeah. I was like, Cooper, get the fuck out of here. But Cooper creeps down the narrow stairs, past the chipped paint lining the walls and into the dimly lit cellar.

where he finds his wife seated next to a makeshift table where Sarah, his daughter, played by Heather Mazur, rests weekly. I will say that Sarah is wearing a yellow dress. Mm-hmm. Color theory. Okay. She does not look good. No. Helen, well-dressed for an evening that she and her husband didn't get to have, turns to face Cooper, asking what's happening upstairs.

Learning that everyone else decided to stay on the first floor, Helen asks what they're going to do. But with a sip of his beer, Cooper insists that they're much safer down here. Is he in the pocket of Big Cellar? I don't know what's going on.

And you were supposed to go upstairs to figure out what's going on. You came back with a beer, clothes, and locked the door. Yes, alone. Also, no water for your sick daughter? No, nothing. Priorities? I found this brewski downstairs. Tilt her head back. Helen expresses her worries about Sarah, but Cooper just repeats with a little more bass in his voice that it's safer down here.

Helen just sighs in response as her daughter rests despondently behind her. But upstairs, Barbara and Judy Rose gather more wooden boards as Ben, with the rifle slung over his shoulder, passes a meat tenderizer to Tom, noting that he can use it as a hammer for the nails. He suggests that they nail it up quick and dirty, promising that they'll reinforce it later, but he adds that if anyone finds any keys to hold onto them.

They'll reinforce it later. Yeah. Don't worry. And we'll get to that. We'll see him do it. I promise. But Ben sizes up a piece of shelving over the hole in the back door, and we return to the Coopers in the cellar, Helen asking how many people are upstairs and learning that there are two more. Helen notes, and they've got the gun, but Cooper corrects her. No, they've got...

two guns. They might have a hundred guns for all I know. Cool. I don't know. You think that's bad? No, we're fucked, honey. And I pissed them off. They probably hate you by proxy. Guilty by association. But Cooper says that it doesn't matter because it's safer down here.

He tosses his beer to the floor in frustration, and after she sweetly squeezes her daughter's hand, Helen rises from her seat, announcing that they're going up. She says that they need to get help for Sarah. But as she walks past her husband, he grabs her by the waist, informing her that he isn't going to open that door, and neither is she. He threatens that if she tries, so help him he'll... Helen challenges him. You'll what?

She reminds him that that is his daughter lying there on the table and they need to get her a doctor. Fuck him up. Yeah. And what was this like honeymooners bullshit? Why? Shut the fuck up. He's on some Goonies. It's our time down here. Bullshit. I cannot stand him.

But Helen jerks herself away from him as he leans closer to her face, shouting that there are no doctors up there and there's no way out of here. Helen storms back over to Sarah in frustration as Cooper cries that none of those yo-yos has a car. He bashes a support beam with his baseball bat before tossing it to the floor, lamenting, what a place to be stuck, the middle of nowhere.

with a bunch of yo-yos. Why did you say that? Yeah, you gotta stop. He's really married to the young guys. See, I can guess who you voted for. No! Oh, shit. But after touching Sarah's forehead, Helen reveals that her fever has gotten worse. But Cooper insists that she'll be fine, that somebody will come and they'll get out of here.

As the frantic sounds of hammering continue overhead, Cooper looks upward, telling his wife that they're all crazy. They're out of their minds before shouting at the top of his lungs to the group on the first floor. You bunch of yo-yos. That's enough. Quit trying to make yo-yos happen. He just learned that today. And he really liked it. But I'm like, why are they out of their minds for doing exactly what they said they were going to do? I don't know. Yeah. And again,

And I mean, we've got a question. We just met Judy Rose and Tom. Why did they immediately side with the new people who just got here? Yeah. I wonder why. I mean, we met them first, but as soon as they could, they took off. There's any other option? Bye. Bye, Cooper. But back upstairs, Barbara, Tom, and Judy Rose continue barricading the windows while Ben brings in the last of the large pieces of wood.

He realizes that what they have isn't enough to do the job, and he summons Tom for his help to break down the dining room table. They break the legs off of it together and bring the tabletop over to a large window in the living room, with Ben holding it in place as Tom rushes back into the dining room. Ben calls for Tom to bring his rifle on the way back in, but Barbara notices something in the distance when she looks out of the window. The three encroaching zombies have now multiplied to at least five.

Uh-oh. Not good. Yeah. And are we really making that much noise that everybody's coming over here? Maybe. There's a lot of hammering going on. And we'll continue to go on. For a while. And this is another one of those moments where it's like what I'm thinking is about to be said. Yeah. Because we'll get to it. As Tom nails the tabletop into place, Barbara remarks that the zombies are so slow, suggesting that they could walk right past them without even needing to run.

She takes a moment to really digest the idea, becoming even more certain of it when she considers that they have guns. And if they're really careful about it, they could get away. So what I was thinking, whenever she looks out the window, the music is menacing as fuck. And we see those three zombies and two more or whatever, but they have barely moved like a fuck. And so I was like, this is not that scary. That's what I'm saying. Is it hell on earth? It's inconvenient.

But Ben looks over at her, somewhat unsure of what she's proposing, but Barbara reminds Ben that he told her to fight, and that's exactly what she's doing. She's fighting, not panicking. She declares that this place isn't safe, upstairs or downstairs, and suggests that they leave before it's too late. Ben, still leaning against the table so Tom can nail it into place, says that he knows that Barbara wants to get out of here, and so does he.

He assures her that they're going to figure out a way to get to the gas and then they'll be gone. He notes that she's fine, he's fine, they're all doing fine, and they're going to be fine as long as they're careful. Like she said, they've got to be careful. After he finishes with the table and to Ben's excited encouragement, Tom suggests that they take some of the doors down and nail them up too. Tom is all in. Yeah.

The two rush off together, but Judy Rose stops her boyfriend before he exits the room, and within clear earshot of Barbara, Judy Rose asks, is she crazy or what? I don't know why she would be crazy. But Tom just runs off without an answer, and Judy Rose joins Barbara at the window, but is immediately filled with terror at what she witnesses through the glass.

She calls out to Tom in fright, who promptly returns carrying a door with Ben, but just before they can place it over the window, an undead hand bangs against the glass from the outside. The music rises tensely as Ben holds the door over the glass so Barbara, Tom, and Judy Rose can nail it into place. Once it's nailed down, Ben rushes off to loosen the hinges on another door, directing Tom to use a few nails to better secure the tabletop.

But just before he can, a zombie's arm crashes through the glass, knocking the tabletop from the wall, with Tom barely able to hold it up. He pushes it back to seal the breach, Judy Rose screaming as she and Barbara help nail it back into place. See, I'm with Judy Rose.

I'll get it done. I am going to scream and cry while I do it. The entire time. But I will get it done. Yeah. And I love this whole scene of them getting together and Judy Rose and Barbara are taking an active role in fortifying this place. Yeah. Barbara is plotting.

ideas and plans on how they're going to get out of here. Like I love that everybody will, aside from that motherfucker in the basement, but everybody's on the same page. We're all actively working toward this goal. Once it's back in its proper position, Tom returns to Ben to help him carry another door to bar one of the windows.

But a zombie on the porch, played by Walter Berry, pounds against the newly placed barriers and two more zombies stalk behind him, crashing through a window just as Ben and Tom place the door in front of it. Barbara and Judy Rose are there to nail it down on Ben's direction. This is a zombie that we see and we will see him much more later.

I heard on commentary that Tom Savini was just randomly having lunch at a restaurant, saw this dude, thought that he would make a good zombie, and just asked him if he wanted to play one. Just that simple. Okay. But a piano plays pensively in the score as the group works tirelessly to secure the first floor windows. But outside, in a field adjacent to the property,

A zombie in a purple cardigan takes notice of all the commotion, and she turns toward the farmhouse, shambling slowly in its direction. Something very interesting. I could not find a credit for this zombie, but she is actually the owner of the farmhouse that they're filming in. Oh, that's cool. Okay. That would be my condition. Yeah. It's like, yeah, you can use it, but. Come on. Make me a zombie. Make me something.

But back inside the farmhouse, Ben and Tom leave their weapons on the first floor to head upstairs together. But Ben stops Tom at the bottom of the steps before he can go up. He snags a tablecloth from the dining room, courteously covering cousin Satchel's body with it before allowing Tom to join him on the second floor. Very kind. Yeah. Yeah. See this again. It isn't hard to see dudes in the basement.

yelling at his wife, calling us yo-yos. You know what I mean? And then even with everything that's going on, Ben still has the know-how to be like, wait, I know that's your kin. That's your family. Let me cover him real quick. You don't need to see this. Yeah. Cooper would mock him or something. He would have something to say. Get over it, yo-yo or whatever. He'd work it in there. He's like, I'm trying to. I don't know if you've noticed. By the time we get out of this, everybody's going to be saying it.

But as Barbara and Judy Rose continue their work downstairs, Ben heads into the bedroom that he peeked into earlier, switching on the light. He walks past a black bust-form mannequin to reach the closet door, pulling it open with ease. Ben asks if it's all new stuff up here, and Tom shares that Uncle Ridge was just starting to remodel the place. Noting the weakness of the newly placed wood, Ben simply remarks, No good.

Tom, however, supposes that it's better than nothing. But with one swift punch, Ben breaks through the cheap wood of the door, repeating, no good. We definitely can't use it now. No. But some of those, they are. They're like particle board or like real thick cardboard. And those doors, they are. They break easy. Yeah, that was too easy. Yeah. That's honestly really dangerous. It's like, I hope nobody realizes. Yeah.

But Ben exits the room to head into an adjacent one as Tom peers through the hole that Ben created. The next room is cluttered with mirrors and miscellaneous objects, but through it all, Ben discovers a television, calling Tom over to check it out to see if there's anything on it.

Tom rushes over to plug it in, a high-frequency tone emitting from it, and he says that he thinks that it's telling everyone what to do, and when Ben steps over with a stack of wooden planks for the barricades, he stares at the screen, which flashes a message from the emergency broadcast system, alerting all viewers that normal broadcasting has been discontinued during this emergency.

The message goes on to say that the station will continue to broadcast, furnishing news, official information, and instructions as soon as possible for the extended operational area. Ben remarks that this thing must be really big, and Tom comments that the station is in Zileanopal, only about 20 miles from the farmhouse, and Ben laments that it might as well be 100. Just like Andy, he might as well have been on the moon. Yeah.

And I will say it's another thing where it's like, oh, it's clearly one writer writing for everybody because Cooper just said 100 guns. Yeah. Tom suggests that they wait as the station states that it'll come on live soon. But Ben insists that they can't waste time directing Tom to help him bring some lumber down for the windows.

And just as soon as he does, Tom realizes that the stronger doors that Uncle Ridge removed during the remodel are all down in the cellar. Of course they are. I'm sure it'll be easy to get them. Ben carries his wooden boards to the staircase, shouting, heads up to the women down below before dropping them to the first floor through the stair hole. Huh? Yeah.

But as they hit the floorboards, dust scatters into the cellar right into Cooper's eyes as he peers up at the ceiling. He overreacts. Yeah, yeah. He absolutely does. I laughed out loud because he was saying heads up and Cooper looked up. Yeah, he's like, I'll look directly up then, I guess. And they got the dust in his eyes. It was not. Oh, that was so funny. But he does. He overreacts, which is kind of his thing.

and Helen wonders what they're doing upstairs. Cooper immediately snaps at Helen, which is also kind of his thing, asking her how he's supposed to know. He mocks their proposed plan to board up the windows, but Helen only catches on to the fact that Cooper refused to help them. Cooper doesn't shy away from this fact, insisting that it's a stupid idea anyway and that the only safe place in this house is in the cellar. But...

why are you appalled like why is it stupid that they're boarding up the house when essentially that's what that's why you're down here yeah like it's the same idea just in a lazier way like you just didn't have to board anything up and it's only benefiting you yeah yeah i'm i just you're encased like you're it's just it's the same thing yeah it's because he didn't think of it

But he asserts that she should just watch, because it's only a matter of time before they all come begging to be let into the cellar. Helen rises from her seat next to her daughter, demanding to know what her husband will do then. Will he open the door for them? Cooper just waves her away, but almost on cue, Tom's voice calls down from the first floor. Mr. Cooper? He knocks on the door, as Cooper smugly gestures toward it.

Tom explains that they need to come down there to get some doors to board up the windows, but Cooper just stands there without an answer, earning a reprimand from his wife. Upstairs, Ben seethes at Cooper's lack of urgency, shouting, fuck it, before retrieving his rifle. Gripping it firmly in his hand, he returns to the door, snarling to Cooper that they need those doors.

He alerts Cooper that he has a shotgun and threatens. You open this door, you motherfucker, or I swear I'll blow it to shit. This is when I'm like, this has escalated so quickly. Like nothing needs to be here. And it's all Cooper's fault, but it never needed to get here. You remember on the Walking Dead game, the first season?

When you have all these options as Lee, and there's one that's like, no, and then it's like, hey, you old fuck! And I'm like, I didn't choose that. Yeah, that's how I felt here. I was like, oh, somebody chose the... The no response. The annoyed response. As Judy Rose continues with the hammer and nails, and Barbara, with Ben's rifle slung over her shoulder, notices a handful of the undead approaching the farmhouse from the nearby barn.

Helen scolds Cooper down in the cellar for his inaction. She demands to know what he intends to accomplish. And all Cooper can muster is a shout for his wife to shut up. But up above, Ben warns that he's only going to count to three. Then he's coming through. Helen immediately shouts to Ben that they're going to open the door. And in response to this, Cooper slaps Helen across the face. So just shoot Cooper. Yeah. And everything's fine.

I won't even say that I get he's afraid and whatever. That's your wife, your spouse, whoever. That's just your partner. Why is it that I'm upset or I'm afraid or whatever, I'm going to take it out on you? Because he's a pussy and he's afraid of everyone else. He's a piece of shit. Yeah. He's a scumbag piece of shit. Literally. The two tussle against each other until Cooper pushes her away.

But Ben has already begun his count with one. Helen returns to her seat next to Sarah, who we now see is sporting a blood-stained bandage on her right forearm. I was like, how did I miss that? Yeah. But I think Helen was sitting in front of her and we didn't see it before. But it's like, fuck. Ben calls through the door. What you gonna do, Cooper? That's two.

He demands for Cooper to open the door before he reaches three. Downstairs, Cooper exchanges glances with his wife before finally climbing up the steps into the cellar door. Very boldly and also very foolishly, he doesn't say a word at all to Ben as he very slowly removes the plank of wood that bars the door. Yeah. Like at any point, Ben could be like, that's three. Yeah. Bang. And that's just it.

Yeah, I wouldn't have done that. No. No. Like, all right, I'm open. But as soon as it's opened, Ben grabs Cooper by his jacket as Tom rushes down the stairs to retrieve the doors. As Cooper struggles against him, Ben orders that from now on, that door remains open. He says they might want to get down there. They may need to get down there if those things break in.

Cooper snides that Ben wants the best of both worlds. They get caged up here. They want to be able to run downstairs. But he scowls that that is not the way it's going to work. Best of both worlds. Bitch, this is not Hannah Montana. What the hell are you talking about? I'm really confused at how territorial this has become. What do you have in that song? It's just, it's unbelievable. Yeah.

The only thing that would make sense is if Cooper is accidentally making zombies down there. He's like, you can't come down. But he wants everybody down. He wants them. I'm just so confused. He wants them down there. But when he's like, OK, we actually might need to go down there. Now he doesn't want them down there. But Cooper tells Ben that if he wants in the cellar, he better get in there now or he can forget it. Seething.

Ben aims the shotgun at Cooper, fuming that he's not going to box himself in down there until there's absolutely no other choice. But Cooper swipes the barrel away, retorting that he's not going to gamble with his daughter's life. He insists that if Ben wants to stay upstairs, that's his decision. But he tells Ben not to count on him for help. I don't think anyone is. No. We've already nailed up these boards three times. With nothing from you.

But Judy Rose has heard enough, getting between both men, chastising that if they're going to keep on fighting, then they can just get out. She reminds them both that this is their house, Tom's house. She asks where they would be if she and Tom didn't let them in. Where would they be if they kicked them the hell out? That part. Yeah. Like, who the fuck do you think you are? You don't even have claim to this place. No.

Tom, returning upstairs with one of the doors, insists that they're not going to kick anyone out. I know, dude. Tom, shut up. That was an empty threat. Everybody's safe here. Keep arguing. It's fine. Keep escalating. But Tom demands that they need to start working together to get things done. Following Tom's suggestion,

The men join him as he descends the steps into the cellar. Tom grabs another door and ascends the staircase with it, but before Ben can join him, he notices Helen and Sarah on the other side of the room. He looks Sarah over wordlessly for a moment, her eyes tightly closed and the sweat pouring from her forehead as her fever worsens. As Cooper rejoins his family, Ben suggests that they keep the girl covered, offering him some blankets from upstairs.

But without breaking eye contact with Ben, Cooper just removes his jacket, placing it over his daughter rather than accepting anything from Ben. Okay. It's like, you win. You still did what I said. Yeah. It's for your daughter, though. It is. And why didn't you already do that? Dad, what the fuck? He's like, what's wrong with her? It's chilly down here. Gonna keep this. Yeah, he kept his jacket.

But upstairs, Barbara glances down into the cellar. But instead of getting involved, she discovers a pair of pants hanging on the wall, snagging them and heading back into the living room to change out of her skirt. I do enjoy the I kind of like where we're going with her because first she grabbed the shoes. Now it's I can't wear the skirt. I need to change. I need to get ready for these things. What we're going to do.

It feels like a transformation of her character as well from like the kind of soft person that we saw at the beginning. She's like, no, now we're in boots. We're in jeans. Like we're ready for whatever is going to happen. Yeah. Patricia Tallman said that her nickname on set was Sigourney. Okay. I saw on that featurette that Tom Savini for this version of Barbara was influenced by Ripley. Okay.

But downstairs, Ben asks how Sarah got hurt, and Helen reveals that one of those people, bitter on the arm. I was just thinking of Shaun of the Dead. She was mugged by a couple of crackheads. I think one of them bit her. What? Hold on. Why are you saying that so casually? Ben sighs, well aware of what this means.

but instead of explaining it to the Coopers, he just counts the remaining doors resting against the cellar wall. It looked funny to me because he turned away like you hate to see it and offered nothing else. He looks back over at the family, Cooper gesturing to the makeshift table that his daughter is resting on, sarcastically asking, what, you want this one too? Ben doesn't respond.

But before he can leave with another one of the doors, Helen stands up from her chair, telling Ben that they have to get help. They need a doctor for Sarah. Ben assures Helen that they'll try, before directing his attention to Cooper, suggesting that since he isn't doing anything, maybe he could start looking for those keys to the gas pump. I will say what we learn later. Oh my god. I'm fucking pissed.

Helen is surprised to learn that the group has a car, but Cooper coldly corrects her. It's a truck. That's so stupid. He's like, so calm down. You just went off. That made me laugh. I was like, Cooper, please. But Cooper rolls up his sleeves, adding that the gas pump is locked. It's like, yeah, that's why he told you to look for the key.

And also there's monsters out there. Don't know if you heard, honey. Don't know if you heard, Yo-Yo. Helen rushes upstairs just behind Ben, leaving her husband behind in the cellar as he shouts that the keys could be anywhere. He says this in order to keep her from going upstairs. Yeah. But then he doesn't check the cellar at all. Yeah, no, I know. Just fucking infuriating.

But Barbara, who may or may not be putting on her first pair of pants because she's still figuring them out. Yeah. They've had a whole ass argument downstairs. She's like, wait, so left leg? It's like, dude. So the button goes in the front? Fucking wild. But she looks over at Helen as she reaches the top of the staircase.

Helen nervously mutters that she's looking for the keys, but she's quickly overwhelmed by the moans, groans, and pounding of the dead at the partially barricaded windows. When she's finally able to collect herself, she begins her frantic search through nearby drawers. But Ben, passing her with one of the doors, heads into an adjacent room to board up one of the windows. He calls out for a hammer as he holds the door upright, and Barbara, barely navigating the belt of her new pants,

It's like, this is too much. This is why I wear skirts. I've never seen shit like this in my life. Seems to work. Barbara snags it for him, but before she can bring it over, the zombie who had been stalking the porch crashes through the window. He'd been working for a long time. I was like, good for him.

Ben tries to keep him at bay as Barbara and Judy Rose rush to help him. And before Tom can join them, another barricade comes crashing down in one of the corridors, forcing Tom to rush back and hold it in place against the encroaching horde. Cooper, however, stands fearful in the doorway to the cellar, calling out to his wife that they need to get back downstairs and quickly.

i i will be honest and and fuck cooper i don't like i don't care what he thinks but how helen you come out of the basement there's all this fucking random shit nailed to the windows trying to keep it out everybody's running around like you said babe earlier doing teamwork we're trying to survive your husband has you locked in here you come out here and see this shit what is what is going through everybody's head you know what i mean i don't even it's like what the fuck's happening yeah well and i'd be like what do they think of us

Yeah. That they're up here working together, trying to get shit done. And my husband is making it as difficult as possible. Yes. And I haven't even come up here. Yeah. I'd be like, where do you need? Like, you know what I mean? Like, what can I do? But Helen just continues searching the drawers for the keys. When Tom notices Cooper is right next to a wrench in a can of nails, he cries out for his help. But Cooper just stands frozen, eyeing the tools that Tom is begging for.

He's a fucking punk. Yeah. After way too fucking long, Cooper finally snags the wrench and the nails, inching his way over to Tom, who defends himself from the clutching claws of a creature reaching for him from the outside. Cooper backs away, remarking that this is definitely not going to work.

But Barbara attempts to line up a shot with the rifle to blast the zombie on the porch, but when Ben keeps getting in the line of fire, she moves closer, using the barrel of the firearm to help Ben push the monster away. As Tom feverishly pounds nails into the door in front of him, Cooper rushes over to Helen, dragging her by the shoulder and back toward the cellar. But Helen pushes away from him violently, screaming for her husband to take his hands off of her.

When he reaches for her again, Helen grabs a small drawer, hurling it at him and missing the contents spilling onto the floorboards. She should have thrown it at his head. Yeah. I honestly thought the way that we get a shot of it, I thought the keys were going to be in there. Me too. But this doesn't matter at all. Not at all. Ben, rather than continue to struggle with the zombie at the window, releases his grip on the door, allowing the creature to fall in.

He snarls as Ben holds him down, urging Barbara to shoot him. Judy Rose pleads with Barbara not to shoot him as she cries that it's Mr. Magruder from Legion Hall. But Barbara pays this no mind, putting the barrel of the rifle to the back of Magruder's gray hair and pulling the trigger. Sorry to this man. Yeah, that's not Magruder anymore.

Magruder lies double dead on the door, and Judy Rose sobs in disbelief at what Barbara has done. But Barbara directs Judy Rose's attention to the wounds at Mr. Magruder's back, the ones that actually killed him, noting that she didn't do that. But Judy Rose is too overcome with emotion to comprehend it. But Tom understands. It's just like Uncle Reach. They're dead, but they're coming right for them.

And this was one of the headshots that I saw in the work print that was way more bloody and way gorier. And from what I understand, they filmed like an extra few frames because they knew that they would have to cut them later. Okay. And so there's a lot more blood that just ends up on the cutting room floor. That sucks. Yeah. And I think it's so weird because it's like, what do you expect in a zombie film? Yeah, I know. You know, and I understand, you know.

Maybe, if I'm not mistaken, I think Dawn of the Dead and maybe Day of the Dead weren't rated. Yeah. But come on. Yeah. And can't we just make the blood black then? I mean, they're zombies. They're dead. You know what I mean? Yeah. I know that a lot of stuff has been circumvented like that. Yeah. But Cooper doesn't believe what he's hearing, calling it impossible, despite everything that we just saw. Yeah.

But Ben and Tom lift Magruder's corpse, tossing him out of the window that he came in. But before they can seal it up again, a bald zombie with his ribs poking through his skin climbs through the opening. Without hesitation, Barbara raises the rifle and fires, nailing the creature in the stomach. When he keeps coming, she shouts, Is he dead? The creature catches another bullet from Barbara in the chest, and Barbara repeats her question before firing another shot in the zombie's heart.

Judy Rose screams incessantly, and Ben demands that Barbara stop it, telling her that she's losing it. Barbara asks if he thinks so before collecting herself and firing a shot right into the zombie's brain, sending him falling backwards onto the porch.

I love the way that the zombie busted in. It was with the flourish. I appreciate the showmanship. And it was like, what's going on? It was very extra. And I appreciated it. But I feel for Judy Rose. This is some traumatizing shit on the other side of the coin. I do kind of feel like this is a lesson that.

needed to be learned that Barbara just gave them yeah but I wanted to talk about the zombie for a second because on the featurette they said that this guy was Tom Savini's randomly Tom Savini's cab driver really and he was like you should be a zombie but they talked about

how when they do you know gunshots with squibs it's always in a shirt or it's in clothing so for the film they really wanted it to be on bare skin so they said that they built up this thick foam latex chest and put squibs in it and so they were able to do the effect that they usually is hidden under clothing on a quote-unquote bare chest yeah it's pretty impressive it looks really good it did

something that i heard on commentary which was tom savini's first idea for this section okay we saw in the graveyard the grave of barbara and johnny's mother right and on that grave we saw her picture yeah and she's wearing that distinctive floral hat like it would be very easy to recognize her and so what they were going to do and they even had the actress who played barbara's mother on set they were gonna have it to wear

this zombie comes in through the window but at some point in Barbara's mind it switches to her mother oh okay and she's asking questions about Johnny and kind of making her maybe feel guilty for leaving him and like a whole thing like it was going to be a real psychological moment yeah but for whatever reason they just didn't do it and she was on set huh I wonder why I feel like there is an emotional moment that happens later on yes that I was thinking of

Her mother. It could have. Why not just switch it there? Yeah. Would it have worked if we kept this zombie but just put him in their mom's hat? Sure. And she's like, oh my God. But Barbara catches her breath, running her fingers through her hair and admitting to Ben that whatever she lost, she lost a long time ago and she doesn't plan on losing anything else.

She suggests Ben can talk to her about losing it when they all stop screaming at each other like a bunch of two-year-olds. There's no response to that. Because they can't have a response. It's like, we've been acting up. Yeah. That one's on us. And this is, again, the Barbara that works. Yes. Like, the other Barbara in the first film never would have said something like this. No, not at all.

But the song of a music box playing faintly in the background, Tom just lifts the door to cover the shattered window as Ben checks in on a shaken Judy Rose.

He assures her that everything is going to be all right, but suggests that she get to work helping them repair the barricades. All right. This is where I have in my notes. I feel like we've been hammering nails for about 45 minutes. This is where I started to feel it. That I'm like, we're still doing this. And this is the issue we were talking in the beginning. Pacing. Yeah. I was surprised to learn because I completely forgot, but the original Night of the Living Dead.

is i believe 13 minutes longer than this film it sounds wrong it does it sounds very wrong because there's something about the way that that film is paced that it just does not feel like that it doesn't and and it is just this because we are coming back to them nailing again and again yeah and it's like i don't like i i get it and we are trying to fortify the house but

We don't need to see it every time. And honestly, after that just happened, I think that I would do what it was either. I can't remember if we mentioned it on or off mic, but why not just go up to the second floor? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it isn't the cellar or the first floor that works. It's just so funny. It's like you do a quick montage like Red Dead 2 and then you move on. And we're boarded up and done. Everything's above board. Let's get out of here.

As Barbara reloads her rifle with bullets from the desk in the other room, Judy Rose reaches for Tom, who holds her in his comforting embrace. But outside, a small group of zombies creep their way across the field and toward the farmhouse, while back inside, the entire group, save for Cooper, are hard at work securing the wooden boards against the windows.

I know that these are extenuating circumstances and this is not the situation that one finds themselves in. But I think any situation when everyone around you is working and putting effort in on something and you're just like, I couldn't, I couldn't do it. Like, how do you not feel like a piece of shit? I, my thing as well, there was a moment in the original.

where they kind of switch out people. So I think it's Karen Cooper in the original. Okay. But so she can come up and have a look and then they send Judy down to watch the daughter. Nobody's watching the daughter. No, no. Yeah. I feel like at least, and Cooper is just standing in the doorway and it's like, couldn't you be down? You're not going to do anything. Yeah. That could have at least been Cooper's excuse to not help. Yeah. I'm watching Sarah. If somebody needs to watch Sarah. Yeah, that's true.

He's like, no, I just don't give a fuck. I'm just not going to help. But Cooper just watches, leaning against the railing of the staircase. But from where he's standing, he hears a voice coming from upstairs, the voice of a newsman on the television, played by William Cameron, who reports that hospitals are deluged and random acts of violence are being committed by people in a trance-like or apparently hypnotic state.

Cooper climbs the stairs slowly as the newsman continues that these people have lost their ability to reason and communicate, and they don't respond to command or authority. He states that civil forces in the military have been mobilized, but the violence is so widespread that it's impossible for rescue services to respond with any efficiency, and instead, people left to defend themselves have been caught in a grip of panic.

And he states that citizens who have been faced with the collapse of police and fire departments have taken the law into their own hands. So William Cameron, he was in the dark half in 93, house guests in 95, and sudden death in 95. And he was also a featured zombie in Day of the Dead. That's awesome. That might be why he looks so familiar. Okay. Because he really does when we see him on the TV. Yeah.

That's another thing that I really appreciate with George Romero is he reuses people all the time. Like even down to the crew as well. Yeah. When we talk about the composer co-writing the crazies with him. Yeah. The production designer on this film was Cletus Anderson and he worked on Creepshow, Day of the Dead, like literally almost every George Romero film. Okay. So it's just incredible. Yeah.

But Barbara takes off her overshirt, revealing a tank top underneath, as she continues pounding nails into a wooden board to block the windows. But Cooper makes his way down an upstairs corridor, discovering the television in the room, as the newsman reports that many people in the area are without telephones, gas, and water.

But he states that the scientific community are focusing on the phenomenon, specifically the trance-like state that seems to characterize the assailants, noting that it's clearly a behavioral condition. Cooper watches as the newsman sits at his desk and is handed a sheet of paper from an off-screen producer, the anchor pondering what could be responsible for such a widespread and dramatic condition as the one they've faced tonight. He reads directly from the paper in front of him.

noting various speculative theories, everything from the ozone layer and chemical weapons to, and he lets out a sardonic laugh as he reads, voodoo, mysticism, and organisms from space. Cooper responds with a sarcastic scoff of his own at the last part.

But the newsman continues putting on a pair of glasses to be sure that he's reading correctly that biologists in Stockton, California have released a report stating that the bodies of the recently dead are returning to life driven by an unknown force that enables the brain to continue to function. Horrifying. Yeah.

Cooper's reactions to these statements were just so funny to me. Because it's like, he can't see you. He was like, you know, that's stupid, right? It's like, you're right, Mr. Cooper. Yeah. Holy shit. Tonight's been weird enough. Yeah, it really has. It was just cracking me up every time they cut back to him. I was like, that's ridiculous.

And it's wild again how widespread when they say scientists in California. Yeah. We're in fucking Pittsburgh. Yeah. But upon hearing this, Cooper's smile disappears and the newsman struggles to comprehend what he's even reporting. But he presses on, stating that doctors at the CDC in Atlanta reject that theory, calling it preposterous beyond belief.

Whenever I think of the CDC in Atlanta, I think of one of the worst episodes of The Walking Dead. Yeah. And I wonder if maybe that's where they got the idea. Well, they talked about it. So we got to do it. Yeah. And then promptly forget about it. Yeah, that never happened. That was too much. They had like fucking videos and stuff. No, it was bad. It was bad. It was real bad. It was bad. We see how it turned out for them. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly.

But upon hearing this, Cooper's pompous smirk returns, and the newsman says that the CDC in Atlanta consider the only reasonable explanation to be a germ, bacteria, or a virus that has a mind-altering effect on its victims. But how such a germ could have such a far-reaching effect so quickly remains a mystery.

Cooper unplugs the television as the newsman reports that the events of the evening are being called Judgment Day by religious leaders. And this is what I was speaking about earlier where they were like, let's just make it incredibly ambiguous. Everything from germs to outer space. Yeah. To God. Yeah. To voodoo. Yeah. Like anything.

Which I honestly think works better. Well, because you wouldn't know. It just happened today. You wouldn't know what it is. And it's kind of scarier because it's like whatever would scare me the most, I can make it that. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's true. What's interesting as well is that when you think of how removed Barbara and Johnny were from it simply because they were on a road trip. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's like you've been on the road for three hours. That's the only reason that you don't know. Yeah.

What's really funny though, in the original, before they're getting out of the car, it's their father's grave. But before they're getting out of the car to place the wreath on the grave, Johnny hears something on the radio and they're like, are we back on the air? And they're like, well, we've had some outings. And they're like, just turns it off. It's like, yeah, I'm glad you didn't do that here. But Cooper cautiously carries the television downstairs as the music rises eerily around him. He makes it to the first floor, glancing around suspiciously,

making sure that the coast is clear as he rushes for the cellar door. But out of nowhere, Ben cuts him off, seizing the television and wrestling with Cooper as he demands to know where he was taking it. Ben is adamant that the television stays upstairs, but in his struggle with Cooper, the men back into the stairwell of the cellar, the television breaking free from their collective grasp and tumbling down the steps to a crash.

The music rises tensely in the score as the men argue, Cooper denying that he was taking the television into the cellar. We saw you! You were taking it and you threw that fucking TV. Yes, you did. So I'm like, was he trying to keep anybody else from accessing this information? I don't know. I don't understand what his motive was. I think, I do believe it was that. If I know more, you're gonna need me. True.

If I have the information down here, you don't. And if you weren't, then why are you sneaky as fuck? Yeah. No, he was. It's his time down there. Yes. But let's just throw Cooper down the stairs, too. Yeah, I don't. I didn't. There's no cameras in the house. Oh, yeah. He can be thrown out as bait. Yeah. Or that. Either way, just get this dude the fuck out of here. He's a diversion. Yeah.

But Ben grabs Cooper by the shirt, the two tussling clumsily over the piano, striking discordant keys before clattering to the floor. Quite symbolic of their relationship, I will say. Yes. But Tom and Judy Rose arrive in the doorway of the living room when they hear the commotion as Ben pins Cooper to the floor. Cooper cries out that the television was their only connection to the outside world, and Ben smashed it.

Not what happened. No. So I'm like, is that why he wanted it for himself then? Yeah. He promises that he wasn't taking it downstairs, crying out defensively that you can't even get reception in a basement, dickhead. Which is like, all right. Why the fuck were you moving in? Why were you shifty? I saw you, dude. We all saw you.

Tom looms over the men, but they're soon interrupted when Barbara takes it upon herself to unlock and open the door in the kitchen. Percussion reverberates in the score as she spies zombies slowly encroaching from all directions toward the farmhouse. But when Tom and Judy Rose join her outside, Barbara gestures to the zombie she killed earlier, the one wrapped in a rug, and she asks Tom if that's Uncle Reg.

Tom confirms this and Barbara supposes that he just might have a set of keys in his pocket. And this is honestly a brilliant idea. And I hadn't even thought of it at all. I love when characters are smarter than the viewer. Yeah. But Judy Rose immediately snaps into action, unwrapping the rug to search Uncle Reach's clothes with Helen joining in against Cooper's protests.

Ben breezes past Cooper and onto the porch, standing behind Barbara, but Barbara is startled to discover a very familiar zombie approaching from the side of the farmhouse. She gasps when she realizes it's the cemetery zombie, her funerary arrangement still sticking sharply out of his chest.

She raises her rifle, nailing him right between the eyes. He crumbles to the grass, and though they're completely surrounded by the slow creeping creatures, Barbara insists that they could get out of here. I feel like this moment right now...

would prove to me that we probably could. Yeah. Cause you know how far it's not that far. Yeah. No, she just ran down a hill a little bit. It took him all damn night. Two nights. Holy shit. Yeah. So we're fine, dude. We'll be okay. But Ben disagrees, certain that it's still too dangerous. And he reminds her that they've got Cooper's kid to worry about too.

Barbara suggests that they just leave the Coopers here and bring back help, with Tom chiming in that they better do something, because all they're accomplishing right now is drawing a crowd. Barbara fires another shot, a bullseye right into the brains of one of the dead, telling Ben that he knows she's right. But after checking every pocket of Uncle Regis' overalls, Judy Rose finally finds the keys, excitedly holding them up to the rest of the group as they jingle in her grasp.

Ben is certain that their best chance is to get to the gas pumps and he orders everyone back inside. They all retreat into the kitchen as the dead in larger numbers creep their way toward the back porch. It is funny. Tom's like, you know, all we're doing is drawing a crowd and Barbara's like, bang. God damn it. Chill out. We found keys though.

But closing the door behind them, the group reconvenes in the living room, Helen breaking away from them to check on Sarah and the cellar. Peering over the railing of the stairs, she sees that her daughter is exactly as she left her, curled up underneath her father's jacket on the makeshift table. But the dead crowd around outside, ascending the steps of both the front and back porches, their limp limbs pounding against the barriers. Inside, Ben approaches Barbara,

telling her that he wants her to stay in here and to keep the rifle with her. This confuses Barbara, and she notes that they shouldn't go out there without the guns. But Ben insists that they'll have Tom's shotgun, and regardless, he wants that rifle inside. And with Cooper within earshot, he puts it plainly that if something happens and they have to get back, he doesn't want any locked doors between him and Cooper. He is a thousand percent right. Yeah.

And I appreciated it in that context of it's not, no, you stay here. It's like, no, your role is just as important as mine. You need to be able to let us in. You have the gun. Cooper takes umbrage at this, asking if Ben really thinks that he's gonna...

But Ben cuts him off, shouting that he doesn't want to hear another word out of him. And returning his attention to Barbara, he declares that the only way he's going out there is with Barbara keeping things straight with that rifle inside. Barbara accepts this order to Cooper's chagrin as Ben tears up a towel and rallies Tom to his truck outside. And I'm sorry, Cooper has no right to be like, you think that I would.

We were just screaming at each other over a TV. Things are not good. As Tom attempts to join him, Judy Rose holds him back, insisting that she come with them. Tom balks at this at first, but Judy Rose spells it out for him.

Somebody's gotta drive, somebody's gotta do the gas, and somebody's gotta ride shotgun. It only makes sense that three people go out. And she demands that Tom tell everyone that she knows how to drive. As Ben fashions a torch, Tom backs Judy Rose up, explaining that her father has trucks and she's been driving since she was little. Ben allows her to join the party.

and after making sure that Tom is stocked with shells, he stands in front of the barricaded window, dousing the torch with lighter fluid. He notes that the dead gathered on the porch will be the hardest to get past, but once they get to the yard, they should be alright. But before he can continue his instruction, an undead hand crashes through the glass behind him, seizing his shirt.

This reminded me of like when you switch parties in Final Fantasy. It's like Judy Rose has joined the party. What sucks is when you're forced to choose and you're like, dude, you're level 10. Everybody else is. Yeah. I haven't played you all game, dude. Fuck, fuck, fuck. You got to rotate them out. We know now. I have my favorites, okay? Ben pulls away and Tom raises his shotgun defensively.

but it's Barbara who pokes her rifle through the broken barricade to make short work of the intruder, blasting him back with one shot of her rifle. Cooper, still drowning in haterade, is adamant that this is crazy, and he says they'll never make it. Shut the fuck up! It's like you don't have to do anything. No.

That and also this can save whatever is going on with your daughter. Yeah. Don't you want to get her to a hospital? Don't you want to try to find help? Like, wouldn't you be hopeful for that? You fucking loser. You yo-yos. Nobody's going to make it out of here. Just go back downstairs, Cooper. Yeah. And shut the fuck up on your way.

But outside, a zombie with a knife sticking out of his gut, played by Anthony DeLeo Jr., leads a group of the undead onto the porch. He might have looked familiar because he was fucking Miguel in Day of the Dead. Oh, my God. That's why I was seething with rage. Like, why do I hate this zombie?

But the music pulses tensely as zombies gather outside, pounding rhythmically against the exterior of the farmhouse. But inside, Ben, Tom, and Judy Rose are ready for their mission, with Ben addressing Barbara at the front door before they head out. He reminds her to keep an eye on them, and once they get the gas and start riding back, he orders her to grab Sarah from the cellar and meet them outside, fast.

He then directs Judy Rose to go straight for the truck to get inside and get it started, assuring her that he and Tom will keep the dead at bay for her. As he lights his torch, more zombies ascend the front porch, including a nude woman in a nod to the original film. Ben leads the charge, waving fire at the monsters on the porch to create a hole for Tom and Judy Rose to make their way to the truck. The couple seizes the gap.

Judy Rose doing exactly as directed and rushing right for the driver's side door, while Tom lifts open the bed of the truck, climbing inside and kicking a zombie away when it attempts to snag him. Ben follows them to the truck, but his attention is diverted back to the porch when he hears Barbara scream, as one of the dead reaches inside and blocks her from closing the door. Cooper attempts to drag Helen back into the cellar.

but she breaks away from her husband to help Barbara, though she swiftly ends up in a headlock when the zombie's arms. Yeah, what the fuck? I was like, damn it, dude. She's like, take me. I was like, what? Ben doubles back, the flame of his torch frightening the fiends as he returns to the porch and clutches the door zombie's collar, hurling him over the side railing and into the grass.

You saying that the flames frighten them, dude? Oh. They're like Frankenstein's monster. I was going to say, what the fuck? I busted out laughing. There was one in particular that was like, oh. Fire. Bad. It was very funny. I'm like, I didn't know they could feel fear. Oh, shit. I didn't know we had that. They did back up.

They looked horrified. But Barbara joins Ben on the porch, firing a shot to give him a clearer path to the truck. As Judy Rose tries her damnedest to get it to turn over, Ben comes face to face with another zombie played by Burl Ellis, lighting his ass on fire and tossing him off of the porch.

I was like, did Tony Todd really set that man on fire? I think he did. Because we watched it all happen. Yeah. The other thing that's really cool is that he accidentally lights the house on fire and he puts it out. Yeah. And he's bare him. That was very funny. I'm like, that all really happened. Did I watch that happen? Like, leave it in. Yeah.

But Ben orders Barbara to close the door, which she does, but he's completely surrounded by the encroaching dead, waving the flame of his torch before them to keep the crowd at a distance. Judy Rose, however, is finally able to get the truck to start, and she reverses sharply with Tom keeping his balance in the truck bed, blasting a zombie with his shotgun when it gets too close. This was the one in the work print version that exploded. And it looked really cool.

Yeah. And we do not get that here. But as Judy Rose speeds away, Ben is finally able to break through the crowd in front of him, racing to join Tom in the bed of the truck. Barbara, Helen, and Cooper watch from the window at the front door as the truck heads for the pumps. But when Judy Rose hits a bump in the road, Ben tumbles out of the back of the truck, leaving his torch behind as he lands in shrubbery in front of a silo.

In Fangoria Magazine, they talked about having to shoot this like five or six times, but they were talking about Tony Todd wearing pads on his arms and legs. I don't know if he did this stunt himself. Oh, wow. I was like, God damn. Yeah. This whole scene is chaotic. It is. What's happening? Very. I was like, God damn. What is going to happen next? Yeah, we will. But him falling out was funny. It was funny.

Tom screams for Judy Rose to turn back for Ben, but his cries go unanswered as she instead continues for the gas pump. And to be fair, they told her, don't stop no matter what happens. True. She pulls up next to it just as they previously planned. The score grows frenzied as Ben peers through a wave of the walking dead that surround him.

But at the pump, Judy Rose rolls down her window, Tom finally alerting her to the fact that they've left Ben behind. She's incensed that Tom didn't tell her sooner, despite the fact that he did, but nevertheless, he urges her to go get him. Ben, however, makes a break for it towards the pump. This confuses Judy Rose, leaving her unsure whether she should stay with Tom or pick up Ben.

As Tom cycles through the keys on his uncle's keychain at the pump, he assures Judy Rose that he's fine and to worry about Ben. Judy Rose twists the key in the ignition, unable to get it to turn over again, and it's at this moment that Tom realizes he's holding the wrong keys. No! Yeah. With no time to waste, Tom raises his shotgun, aiming it at the lock on the gas pump.

Ben shouts from a distance, Tom, what the hell are you doing? I was shouting the same thing. But it's too late. Tom pulls the trigger, destroying not only the lock, but the hose attached to the pump. Gasoline sprays in all directions, catching the flame of Ben's torch in the truck bed and igniting a blaze all around them. Ben watches in horror as the pump. bursts, erupting into a ball of fire and setting off a series of explosions, killing Tom, Judy Rose, and sending the truck to pick up heaven.

This was a great explosion. It was. It kept happening. It did not stop. And I felt like we got a specific shot of the truck bed where it was like, no, Judy Rose is dead. Just so we know. Nobody made it out of this. They're no longer with us. That was wild of him to do that. I know. Like really, really wild. Like I'm going to shoot this lock next to a gas pump.

Fantastic. Tom, no! And one thing I will say, because I had to watch this a few times to write my script, and as I'm watching it, he shoots the lock, and it sways where it is. I don't think that he even... I think he just shot the hose. Wow. That's even worse.

But Barbara turns away from the window, as pale as the dead, and Cooper once again attempts to drag Helen back to the cellar. She struggles against him, but Barbara returns to herself, urging Helen to do as Cooper says. She states that she and Ben are going to try to get into town, or at least she is, and if she can find any help, she'll be back.

Cooper takes his tearful wife back to the cellar, and as they exit, to Helen's credit, she cries, we mustn't leave Ben. But Barbara is already on it, shattering the glass of a window with her rifle to clear a path for Ben's return to the farmhouse. Ben, however, has his hands full, kicking the asses of all the zombies that dare to get close to him. This was hilarious. It's a lot.

I get it. And there's a lot of zombies. He's like jujitsu fighting with them. He literally jumped on his back and gave up guard to fight. What are you doing, dude? And it continues. It does. But his shots ring out around him.

Inside the farmhouse, Cooper surprisingly shows a shred of humanity, promising his wife that he'll wait upstairs as long as he can for Ben's return, but he wants her down in the cellar where it's safe. When Helen still protests, Cooper reminds her that Sarah needs her. Helen takes this to heart, descending the steps to the cellar, but when she reaches the bottom...

She discovers that her daughter is nowhere in sight and only Cooper's jacket rests there on the makeshift table where she last saw her. That was dirty. That was fucking manipulative. It was. The thing was, I thought that he was being a good person for a second. Yeah. Being like, I'll take care of it up here. You take care of our daughter. He's not. No, not at all. Helen stands puzzled as the music rises ominously.

calling out for her daughter. As Ben continues his trek toward the house and Barbara fires her rifle incessantly out of the window, Helen continues her search of the cellar. But suddenly, Sarah rounds the corner in front of her, her skin pale, her steps beleaguered, and her eyes a ghastly gray. She bares her teeth at Helen, who cowers against a support beam, sorrowful at the sight of her daughter.

Sarah then tears at Helen's pearl necklace, sinking her teeth into her mother's throat as she screams, blood spattering against a garden trowel that hangs on the wall of the cellar. Very cool homage.

I've forgotten, again, just a matter of things like not really understanding what zombies can and cannot do. Yeah. In the original, it is like the little girl murders her mom with a trowel. Yeah. Which is kind of wild. Okay. I guess zombies get weapons and shit. They can use trowels. They can use bread. Yeah. Something wild that I read in Fangoria, McKee Anderson told the whole ending of this scene.

But she included a lot of details that are not in the film at all. Huh. She said that this scene begins and Tom Savini confirmed this on commentary. The way it was supposed to go, this whole thing was supposed to last several minutes. Oh. And the way that it starts is that she looks down in the cellar and she goes over to Sarah and Sarah is dead. Yeah. And so Helen starts CPR and does it for a while. But then whenever she continues to do it, Sarah's eyes open.

And this is when everything kind of begins. Oh, okay. And then she bites her mother, everything. But it was a lot more bleak to begin. Yeah. And they just completely didn't leave that in the film at all. Huh. But outside, Ben kicks a zombie in the gut, grabbing hold of another as they tumble down a small hill leading to the front porch of the farmhouse. This is what you're talking about. It's too much.

But inside, Cooper's real intentions become known as he approaches Barbara from behind, telling her, I want that gun. Why are you doing this now? I don't know. Especially with what's happening. I just don't understand the point of it. Yeah.

And I know, yeah, Tom's gun has exploded, so we only have one. Yeah. I'll be honest. I would have had to fight the urge to just turn around and shoot him. Yeah. Honestly, who would blame her, number one? And number two, I mean, we saw Zami use a brick. He could maybe. Yeah. I don't know.

He was turning into a monster. And with as many that are coming, I would just be like, we can't stay in that cellar. We're, you know what I mean? We're trapped. Yeah. Barbara just tells him to go to hell, but Cooper charges for the rifle, distracting Barbara long enough for her to be seized by the long arms of the dead who reach at her through the window.

Ben hears Barbara screams from outside and he pounds on the front door as Cooper attempts to wrench the rifle from Barbara's grasp. Ben rushes around to the other side of the house, trying his luck at another door, but the entire structure is surrounded by zombies, one of which trips a breaker as he attempts to climb the panels of the house's exterior, dipping the living room to darkness as their struggle leads Cooper and Barbara away from the window.

Barbara, however, forces Cooper back toward the window, letting go of the rifle and allowing him to take it, but leaving him with much more than he bargained for as the zombies reach through the window to seize him by the face. He does not take it well.

But Barbara rushes toward the sound of Ben's voice, with Cooper breaking away from the clutches of the dead, firing the rifle wildly and missing every shot until the firearm clicks empty, causing him to retreat. Yes, please, by all means, waste the ammo that we have. But Barbara finally reaches the door, tearing it open to let Ben inside, the pair struggling against the policeman zombie played by David Grace as they try to close it.

Cooper joins them in the room as they club the zombie to the floor, their feverish hands frantically reaching for his service weapon and ammunition. Cooper quietly loads the rifle with ammo he finds on a nearby desk, but he does nothing to help Ben and Barbara. He merely cocks the rifle at them, somewhat threateningly, before attempting to make his exit through an adjacent corridor. But in doing so, he comes face to face with Sarah.

who meets him in the doorway. He somberly stutters, Sarah? Which gets the attention of Ben and Barbara, who look up from the policeman's belt in stunned silence. Sarah creeps Cooper up a step on the staircase, but when Ben whispers, shoot it, she changes course, shambling towards Ben and Barbara instead.

Cooper refuses Ben's order, but Ben is able to retrieve the policeman's weapon, and he aims it directly at Sarah, who slowly marches toward him. But before he can pull the trigger, Cooper screams, no, aiming the rifle and firing a shot at Ben, nailing him right in the shoulder. Stop pointing that gun at my dad. No, but I was furious. I was so pissed.

you've seen all of this and you're the one that watched the news report where they were like oh yeah no this is dead people come back yeah that's true but you're still like i understand the grief and i even understand not being able to do it yourself but oh my god yeah gunfight right now is not gonna help no no and by the way the door is wide open yeah why not why not we only spent

I think 90% of the film. 90% of the film boarding up. But yeah, that's fine. Ben takes cover behind a sofa as Cooper continues firing at him. But Barbara is able to find a second pistol on the corpse of the policeman. And when Sarah snarls in her direction, Barbara aims at the little girl's head and pulls the trigger. Sarah clatters to the floor.

and Cooper then aims the rifle at Barbara, but before he can shoot her, Ben returns fire, hitting Cooper right in the gut. Blood pooling through his white shirt, Cooper retreats upstairs, but Ben follows behind in pursuit against Barbara's protests. He aims the gun up at Cooper, but Cooper has the drop on him from up above, firing another shot that Ben catches right in the stomach.

dodging, too fasting, killing all these zombies outside to come in to this. Barbara screams for the men to stop, but Ben fires up at Cooper, catching him as he dives for cover behind a wall. It looks fucking hilarious. Cooper's a blur. But Barbara rises to her feet, muttering, madness, madness.

Distracted by what she's just witnessed, Barbara doesn't realize a zombie approaching her from behind through the still-open front door, but Ben is able to keep her safe with an accurate shot to the creature's cranium. Meanwhile, Cooper clatters against a wall on the second floor, but upon noticing a cord that leads to the attic, he reaches for it, pulling down a stepladder and climbing weakly to the floor above.

Downstairs, Barbara clutches the policeman's belt in her hands, motioning to the door with her newfound pistol, and asks Ben if he's coming with her. Ben, slouching on the steps with his arm draped over the banister, can barely utter, No. Barbara insists that they could still make it, but Ben, succumbing to his wounds, urges Barbara to go alone. As the dead creep closer from outside,

Barbara promises that she'll bring back help for Ben, but Ben simply summons his strength to repeat the order. Go! Barbara struggles against her emotions, reluctantly leaving Ben behind as she escapes through the approaching horde. This is a tragedy. Yes! Ben rises to his feet, clutching his pistol as all the barricades around him are breached by the dead.

They come tumbling inside through shattered windows as he staggers through the living room and they surround him on all sides in the dark. He stumbles toward the cellar door, heading inside and closing it behind him. Sweet irony, I will say. Yeah. That was my note. And isn't it ironic? Don't you think? So sad. Yeah.

But Barbara marches on, away from the farmhouse, aiming her pistol at zombies to keep them at arm's length. I will say, it's proving that she was right, that you could just do this. Yeah. But it also looks really funny because it's as if the zombies know what the gun is because they're like, all right. Yeah. Yeah. You don't want any trouble. Take anything you want, man. Take it all.

But once she reaches what's left of the truck and the gas pump, she watches in terror as a group of the undead retrieve Tom and Judy Rose's charred bodies from the wreckage, seemingly cooked to perfection. I was like, ain't no fair. Those guys get barbed again. They're going to be spoiled from here on out. They're like, nobody else tastes like this. This is fucking great.

But the zombies descend to the ground to greedily dine. They tear flesh free from bone, gnashing their teeth, savoring the succulent skin and mouth-watering muscle. Barbara can't bear to watch and gags repeatedly. Understandably. I just thought of The Omen. Oh my God. The best gag. Gaggery peck.

Right in front of him. It's like, God damn. Is he me? So fucking funny. But just then she's approached by a zombie played by Stacy Foster, who holds a baby doll in her arms. Sobbing at the surreal sight before her, Barbara attempts to just push her away. But when the zombie growls at her,

She's left with no choice but to blow her away. As the zombie and her doll crumble to the grass, Barbara shrieks before collecting herself and continuing on. This was really sad. Yeah. And this was the part that I thought could be like her mom or her thinking of her mom or something. Okay. The way that she's so reluctant. Yeah. It would have worked. Yeah. And also the way that her hair popped in the back when she got shot looked really cool. That was good.

Savini said on commentary that Stacey Foster, the actress who plays this zombie, actually auditioned for Barbara. Oh, okay. But the score pulsing like a funeral march and a sea of the undead pouring into the farmhouse through every opening, Ben retreats into the darkness of the cellar. Monstrous moans echo overhead as he stands puzzled at the sight of the blood-covered trowel on the wall.

But he steps forward, standing solemnly in the low light of a lantern, but through the neighboring shadows creeps a ghoulishly gray, Helen, her eyes soulless and her throat covered in blood from Sarah's bite. Ben reluctantly raises the gun, putting Helen out of her misery with one shot to the head. He coughs, staggering further into the cellar.

But outside, the dead walk, descending upon the land, overtaking the entire property and savoring whatever small meals they discover. Two creatures fight over Cousin Satchel's discarded hand. Another zombie, played by Bill McHugh, plucks a live mouse from the grass and devours it headfirst to the delight of his undead companion.

I think that zombie was mad because he's like, you're breaking the rules. Hey, that's crazy, dude. Did you watch the other ones? Yeah, what the hell? There's barbecue right there. A group has gathered around the smoking wreckage of Ben's truck to pick Tom and Judy Rose's corpses clean. And inside the house, the dead fill every room and corridor.

congregating outside of the cellar door and pounding on it incessantly. Ben hears this down below as he stumbles over to an old workbench in the corner, taking a seat and switching on a radio that he finds there. A voice provided by George A. Romero warns the listener not to try to reach friends or family or any of the rescue stations mentioned in previous advisories as they may no longer be operational.

I love that cameo. Ben creates a makeshift sling out of his black necktie as the voice on the radio repeats a previous bulletin from the Office of Emergency Preparedness dated August 23rd, 1989. I was surprised we weren't like, that was two months and three days after I was born. I was really trying to show restraint. I saw you sweating. Yeah, I was like, don't do it. But it was, you know. Math.

June 20th, 1987. But the voice continues that it's been confirmed that the bodies of the dead have been reactivated by forces as of yet unknown. Ben reaches into his shirt pocket for a cigarette, finding one that's been snapped in half, and he's only able to mutter in a laugh, You got that right. He locates his final cigarette resting in the pocket of his shirt, as well as his lighter.

the warm flame lighting the end of it, and the voice on the radio noting that though the reanimated bodies are weak and uncoordinated, they are to be considered extremely dangerous, especially when encountered in large numbers. He adds that the only method of disposal is incapacitating the brain. Ben tosses his lighter over to the workbench, chuckling. You got that right, too.

But something catches his eye on Uncle Regis' workbench, an item hanging from a nail on the wall. It's a key with a marker, clearly labeled in capital letters. Gas Pump. Ben seizes it from the wall, reading it over in his hand a couple of times, spitting his cigarette onto the floor. Unable to contain his laughter, he cackles madly.

throwing his head back as his laughter echoes through the darkness of the cellar and we fade to black. At times like this, all you can do is laugh. Yeah. But I am fucking furious. Dude, it was right there. Yeah. All Cooper had to do was slightly turn his head. Yeah. It is. He could have seen it. Tom could have seen it. Yeah. Why they were down there.

and and again i know none of us like cooper but if we would have just went down there too and been like okay whatever and explored down there we might have seen it been like look dude there's the gas key yeah i feel like that's a um like main place to look too if you have work benches and stuff like that like uh it's just so none of it needed to happen no literally none of it needed to happen there's a moral to this story yeah it's cooperation yeah

But when we return, we find Barbara hiking through the underbrush, the cop's belt thrown over her shoulder like a bandolier. She creeps around a seemingly deserted truck that she finds parked in the middle of a dirt road, but stands alert when she hears a twig snap nearby. A shot rings out from the distance, nearly hitting Barbara, and causing her to dive into the bed of the truck to safety as she shouts, Don't shoot!

But she lands next to a pile of the collected dead inside the bed, their colorless eyes staring lifelessly in her direction. Across the field, a group of vigilantes led by Hondo and Bulldog, played by David W. Butler and Zachary Mott respectively, shine their flashlights toward the truck, where Barbara gathers herself, pulling herself up from the pile of corpses. But in her adjustment, she discovers that at the top of the pile,

rests the body of Johnny. No. Barbara recoils sorrowfully, whispering her brother's name, but she's promptly seized from behind by one of the vigilantes. The rest of the men gather around her, Hondo cackling, Jesus goddamn holy mother shit, and asking, what in the name of Jupiter's balls are you doing out here alone, little lady?

I'd rather take my chances with the zombies. Yeah. Immediately. I'm good. You guys go ahead. Yeah. I'll take the next one. You never saw me. Barbara pulls herself away from the man holding her. And as the men laugh into the night, the golden glow of the moon and the evening sky fades away to the dawn of day. A helicopter's blades chopping through the morning sky over the trees. Barbara wakes up in the passenger seat of a Jeep.

the camera panning across a crowded camp of survivors, vehicles, bonfires, tents, the remnants of civilization. She looks off in the distance to discover bikers gathered around an animal pen, and when she gets a closer look, she realizes that inside, a man torments one of the dead, taking advantage of his slowness and poor coordination as the gathered crowd cheers and erupts in boisterous laughter.

We are doing this already? Yeah, no shit. It's been a day. Barbara climbs out of her seat, passing a television interview in progress, where a reporter, played by Bill Chili Billy Cardiel, holds a microphone in front of Sheriff McClelland, played by Russell Striner. So that's a double cameo. Yeah. You got Bill Cardiel, who was in the original Night of the Living Dead? Yeah. And his daughter was the star of Day of the Dead? Yeah.

And then we have Sheriff McClellan played by Russell Streiner, who was Johnny in the original. Yeah. That's really cool. Hell yeah. But the sheriff recounts their efforts the night previous and sums it up with the iconic line. Yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up. He's not wrong.

The camera follows Barbara, unsettling notes filling the score as she passes police officers, militiamen, and vigilantes. But disgust finds her swiftly when, just over a hill, she spies a crowd gathered beneath a tree, zombies hung from its tall branches with rope, the men around it eager to use the bodies as target practice. Barbara stares unblinking as she remarks, They're us.

We're them, and they're us. We are the walking dead. I think they're going to sue somebody. I was like, that sounds really familiar. Hondo and Bulldog stand at a nearby food cart, and with a beer clutched in his hand, Hondo shouts, say what? Barbara shrugs it off as nothing.

And as she looks around, she flashes a judgmental smile as she asks, having fun? Hondo scoffs, give me a break, as he retreats with Bulldog. But Barbara watches as the men gathered around the hanging tree open fire, the dead swaying with every bullet they catch. These people are, like, gross. Like, they suck. But later, Barbara arrives at the farmhouse in a yellow Jeep.

the front lawn littered with vigilantes, including the sheriff, who directs his men to carry the dead over to a massive pyre where vigilantes are emptying cans of gasoline. Barbara crosses through the jovial crowd, they're hooting and hollering, to stand on the front porch, stealing herself before she heads inside. She follows the sound of a whirring chainsaw into the living room, where Hondo stands with Bulldog,

who saws through the wooden plank barring the cellar door from the other side. These motherfuckers are like ghosts. They're everywhere. It's kind of crazy. It had to be these dudes. But as soon as the men get the door open, a figure looms large out of the darkness, towering over them. Barbara gasps when the figure turns to face her in the doorway.

And she sees the dead, ashen eyes of Ben staring back at her, his mouth agape, his moans sorrowful, having succumbed to his wounds overnight in the cellar. I am devastated. Yeah. But he looks amazing. He does. And this is such a change from the original. The just terrible ending. Terrible in content, not worth. Right, right, right.

of ben and the way that he died in the original right to see ben as a zombie here is just like god damn yeah but i thought he would have uh died from his gunshot wounds how did he turn into a zombie because they come back regardless

I don't think that's how it works. I don't know. I don't know. I know a couple of zombies. Really? They said that this is inaccurate. It's the only thing we don't like. We do eat barbecue. Yeah. We love it. They want to get that. But I will say the ending, it is shocking and surprising and very sad to see. Yeah. But it does kind of not rob it, but.

The social commentary of the original kind of isn't here anymore in this film. Yeah. Right. So it's kind of like, ah, you know. But it is an incredible visual. Oh, yeah. But Hondo and Bulldog back away, aiming their assault rifles and firing at Ben, one bullet catching him in the forehead. He collapses to the floor as the men continue their search of the house. But Barbara leans tearful against a doorframe, collecting herself. But...

From the staircase just behind her lurches Cooper. He's like a cockroach. And I'm like, you got shot in the gut too. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's unfair. Relief washes over him as he trembles. You came back.

You came back. Do you? Yeah. We are not friends. Yeah. Not for you. We literally never were. And he was going to shoot her too. I was going to say the last time I saw you, you're like, give me that right. And wrestling with me. And he's like, oh my God, Barb. Yeah. Now I've killed Ben. Barbara stands stunned moment. Barb. That's really funny.

Barbara stands stunned momentarily before raising her revolver to Cooper's head and blowing his brains out. He clatters to the floor as Hondo and Bulldog return to her. Coldly, Barbara instructs the men. Another one for the fire. Hell. Yeah. Yeah, dude. I'm so proud of you, Barbara.

She exits the house, reloading her weapon, as she watches the vigilantes set the pyre ablaze. Percussion abounds in the score, echoing as the collected bodies burn in the hungry flames and the men circle around it, cheering. Barbara watches from the porch as the camera presses in on her and retreated to the sepia-toned photographs of the events of the morning.

Vigilantes gathered around the bonfire, men with their hooks sunk into dead flesh, the sheriff gathered with his men as if for a hunting photo, and a look of resolve settled into Barbara's eyes. The credits roll. So, what did you guys think of Night of the Living Dead?

I had a lot of fun sitting down us talking about the movie. I had a lot of fun watching it as well and enjoyed it. But I think a lot of it was here in the room talking about it. But I did really, I honestly did like this. It did give a bit of a different take on the original. And we do get a much better version of Barbara here. Oh, yeah. And again.

Tony Todd, great. And again, even fucking Cooper, he did his job, the actor. He did what he was supposed to do. We hated his character. Infuriating. Yeah. So thank you. But no, yeah, this is pretty cool. I would watch this again. I wouldn't, again, I wouldn't even say that I wouldn't recommend this. If you've never seen it, I would recommend it. This is a pretty cool movie.

you know i still love it um it is funny looking at it watching it a little bit older and seeing how the pacing is it does suffer at times um but i don't know there's something that i find very charming about it and maybe it is watching it or having it on or whatever when i was younger and a big component of it is just how

disappointed i was in the original barbara and then being like i see that barbara and i raise you this barbara and she's a fucking badass i just love her uh tony todd's performance is incredible like you were saying tom tolls we got beef cooper and i got beef but again understanding the assignment doing giving that character exactly what it needed to give poor

poor tom and judy rose yeah god damn i think i just wasn't expecting it to go down the way that it did not like that um i just i part of me again is just like i wish ben would have made it and that does suck but i love a zombie tony todd he looked really great yeah and speaking of looking really great the effects work yeah it's just

And I know that it is a little bit restrained and subdued when you associate the work with Tom Savini, the king of splatter. Yeah. But it is grotesquely realistic. They talked about studying medical texts and I think most of them went to an autopsy and watched an autopsy be performed. Oh, wow. Like they really wanted to keep it as realistic as possible. And I think a lot of them, I mean, they look horrific. Yeah.

But not in an insanely over the top way. I don't know. I just I really I really enjoy watching this movie. I love it a lot. No, I agree. And I feel like you're exactly right as well with the amount of nostalgia built into it, because I do remember this and rewatching it for the show. I was like, oh, I know every beat of this. Right. And it had been a while. Yeah. But I was like very just a kid again. OK.

But I do think that the makeup effects on the creatures is fantastic. I still do want the gore to go a little further. Yeah. Especially for what's going on here, who's involved, remaking it and everything. It's just a shame that the MPAA just tied their hands. It's that. And I would have loved to have known.

What other ideas Tom Savini had that the producers did not allow him to do? Oh, yeah. All the ones that I heard about sounded really fucking cool. And he is one of the people that championed this change for Barbara. So it's like he's obviously got some great ideas. Just let him cook. Yeah. Why are we holding him back? I don't know. So it's just like it's maddening, especially when you choose him to direct the film. Yeah. You know, if you wanted to direct it so bad, goddamn.

get off your ass you know like i don't know it's fucking crazy dude no it is and then you put my name on it yeah i'm tom samedi i guess they're like no come down to the cellar god damn it dude but speaking of that i think that some things did become a little tedious and cooper in the cellar and the fucking hammering and nails i don't know why in the original it just did not feel that overdone

yeah really didn't yeah i totally agree with that i'm trying to remember exactly how everything was formatted and how the story played out but i just don't remember feeling that way like god they found more doors it's like no don't give them the doors i'm almost on cooper's side stop it it's enough already they didn't even last no

But I think, and that's another thing as well, is maybe there could have been a few more changes from the original. But I feel like all the changes that were made were changes that I did appreciate quite a bit. I think the biggest thing that this film is missing for me is the poignant social commentary of the first one. And maybe that is another thing that was changed, and it's just a matter of it being this new version of the film, and these are the stories that we're going to tell.

We're going to make it more about Barbara than Ben. We're going to do all these things. And maybe that is what, that's at least what Barbara needed. Yes. But I just, I don't know. And again, that's the thing about remakes. You always still have the original. Yeah. It still exists. If there's things that you love about it much more than this one, let's watch it. Yeah. And that's kind of what Tom Savini set out to do and what he said when he's talking about remakes and remaking a film, especially a classic.

He said that he was much more of the mindset of the fly and the thing. Okay. Cronenberg and Carpenter taking what was and doing kind of your own thing with it in some ways. Right. So I think that that shows in some ways. And in some ways, I keep saying some ways. But in other ways. But in other ways. I think that it maybe adheres too much to the original. So it's kind of, you know, you run the risk. Yeah.

But at the same time, I'm a fucking hypocrite because I'm like, God damn, I love how faithful you are. It's a hard line to toe. Yeah. But I think we can just slide into ratings. I cannot say enough about the work of the actors in this film. Oh, yeah. Tony Todd, Patricia Tallman, Tom Toles, McKee Anderson.

Like literally everybody is giving fucking fantastic performances. Yeah. And I just can't get over that monologue from Tony Todd. Yeah. It was so good. And he went through so many things. You have Patricia Tallman going through such a gamut of emotion. It's incredible work. Yeah. That scene with her and the doll baby zombie. Yeah. That's wild. Yeah. And of course, it's good to see Cooper get his comeuppance like that. Oh, yes.

But I just I think that this is a really, really good remake. I would wager even to say that it's probably one of my favorite remakes that exists, even with the problems I have with pacing and kind of losing the social commentary angle. I think that what they did here is really good work and it's really worthy of the name Night of the Living Dead. OK. Yeah. But I think honestly, to say anything more, I would just repeat myself. I would like to see more films from Tom Savini without his hands tied. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. And I'm like, by 1990, he had proven himself. Yeah. And he had worked in the genre for so long. But for me, out of 10 ravenous reanimated roamers, I am going to give Night of the Living Dead 1990 8.5 out of 10 ravenous reanimated roamers. I have to say, if there wasn't nostalgia...

attached to this i'd probably give it an eight or a 7.5 but i just i distinctly remember so much seeing this on our tv at our apartment in germany yeah and mom showing it to us and that just makes it all the more important okay but i will now open the floor to you no i i i agree man everybody really does what they are supposed to do here and that was something that watching it uh

it immediately again at the beginning you know johnny's bothering his sister we're going over here we're doing you are like all right leave her leave your sister then again he tells us about

his relationship with his mom or their relationship or whatever but it does everybody does what they're what they are supposed to do and and yeah it does kind of stick like y'all were saying it's a fine line to tell between the original and what i'm going to change with not i really like the changes that they did here and kind of what we did um i

i don't think the gunfight was necessary in the middle of trying to whatever that was crazy him shooting the fucking trying to shoot the lock off the gas oh that was funny i was like that's i mean it's sad but but it's like there's no way you really thought to do that dude what the fuck um i get we're in a panic and whatever but i do like and i'll be honest i do like

how this, and I know you mentioned about the social commentary, but for me, I like that it is more of a, we're all trying, we're still gonna die. This is a fucking, this is a zombie apocalypse now. We're ordinary people who met up.

You thought your idea was better than mine. I thought my idea was better than yours. And again, yeah, all a dude had to do was look in the cellar. But two, you can say the same thing about Ben and Barbara. All you had to do was go down there. Yeah. All you had to do is go down there and you could have found the thing. Is that the fucking key to the gas?

We have a truck outside. Yeah, but it's called a double standard. Something else I just realized is that we said the irony of Ben ending up in the cellar. Yeah. Cooper is in the exact opposite of the cellar. Right. Surviving in the attic. That's right. That's pretty cool too. And it is that. They all tried their best and it still wasn't enough. Yeah. Barbara survived because she said and did what her idea. From the beginning. Yeah. They can't. We can walk by them, dude.

No, let's do this plan. We can do it. Let's wait till there's more. Yeah. Let's wait till there's more and most of us are dead. She showed them a couple of times. Yeah. We can walk by them. Nobody still listens to her. Nah, we're okay. She survived because she listened to her own instincts and did what she wanted to do. Yeah. They stayed behind to fight and to fight each other and whatever. And hammer nails. Yeah, and hammer some more nails. God damn. And they didn't survive. No.

So for me, that is pretty cool what I do like about this version of the film. You know what I mean? But I'm not going to go any lower than the original, and I think it is the pacing that hurts it for me too. But for me, on a scale from 1 to 10, ravenous reanimated roamers, I'm going to give Night of the Living Dead $19.90.

an eight out of 10. I did like this. This was cool, but it was, it did feel again. It did feel weird. And maybe dealing with Barbara in the original, you don't notice as much hammering, but in here, because we're not dealing with Barbara, we notice all the hammer. We were mad about something. No, I think, um, I think that we're all kind of in agreement. I don't really, I would be repeating myself as well.

um I just again want to shout out what they did with Barbara because that was really I love I love love the original version that is that makes parts of that film very frustrating for me and I like I like what Patricia Tallman said about what a woman in horror is expected to be versus what a woman in horror can be and she said that

Barbara pulling it together and figuring out what she needed to do to survive is a more realistic woman than this dissociating damsel that we got in 1968 and coupled with Tony Todd with the effects.

That is those are the shining aspects for me. And I think Tom Savini did a really good job. And I hate that this was such a bad experience for him. Yeah. And I like you said, he would really love to have seen what he because I already like this. Yeah. I would love to have seen what else he had up his sleeve. And I love those little Easter eggs like the Mary Celeste.

yeah that's cool as hell yeah it's like a brain you know what i mean that mind what else were you thinking of doing or adding or whatever and that bums me out but we talk about that a lot um but yeah i i also john paul went with the score for the original for me what looking back i was like oh that's that's a 10 but re-watching it i'm like no we have some serious facing and it does

i'm not going down there well you're going it that does get a little repetitive i do mostly forgive it because it is funny mostly and um entertaining if not funny but it there it does it is a bit repetitive even i can admit that so in the original you have my issue with barbara and in the remake you have my issues there so i'm gonna put them up on the same shelf together all right so on a scale from one to ten ravenous reanimated roamers

I gave Night of the Living Dead 1990 as well. Nine out of ten ravenous reanimated roamers. You got it. I was struggling. I'll see you guys in the cellar. No!

Well, that's all from us at Podmortem. What would you rate Night of the Living Dead 1990 and what should we watch next? Let us know on Instagram at thepodmortem. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter and like our Starehole Productions page on Facebook. Be sure to follow each of us on Instagram and bluesky at travismwh, at bloodandsmoke, and at juggalodaddy84. Thanks again to Original Cinematic for sponsoring this week's episode.

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