George A. Romero fails to capitalize on a smart setup in this installment of his zombie series, which takes place on an island where two feuding families disagree on how to handle the undead problem. (One group favors bullets to the zombies’ heads, while the other wants to keep them “alive” until a cure can be found.) This allows for some trademark macabre pathos – a couple puts their undead children to bed in chains – and at least one great image: a woman on horseback, now a zombie, endlessly galloping around the island like some Gothic, Bronte-inspired ghost. Unfortunately, Romero spends too much time with an AWOL military team (first seen in 2008’s Diary of the Dead ) who infiltrates the island. And while the Hatfield versus McCoys story line offers promise, it too easily leads Romero to a clumsy, message-laden climax. Night of the Living Dead remains Romero’s masterpiece because it’s the only film of his in which the sociopolitical statements take a back seat to the terror.
