Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 1990)
The Battalion Monday. Oi Monday. October 29, 1 990 Lifestyles Editor Lisa Ann Robertson 845-3313 & Horror Holiday flicks highlight Halloween 'Dead 7 remake deserves burial • y By CAROL GLENN Bring us your dead. A common saying on the Texas A&M campus (especially around Elephant Walk) is gruesomely brought to life in the cult classic remake “Night of the Living Dead” — social satire that was more ef fective the first time around and shouldn’t have been resurrected. According to George A. Romero, the original “Night of the Living Dead” attempted to depict “that because of man’s inability to communicate, mankind will never successfully deal with any type of holocaust, any kind of major threat, which could be revolution, nuclear fallout or a disease such as AIDS.” The remake carries on with this premise. The remake portrays the ’68 black and white, original screenplay by Romero without adding any unique twists, except, of course, that this time it’s in color. A change that instead of being an im provement ends up adding to the shortcomings of this movie by taking away the toysteriousne^t^at horror films try to create. The film opens with a whman named "Barbara and her brother arguing in a cemetery about his disrespect for the dead. Minutes later the two are attacked by a zombie. The zombie kills Barbara’s brother. She flees and runs to a nearby farm house. There she en counters six other survivors who arm themselves with rifles, fireplace poachers and an array of household weapons. After several zombie attacks, the group discov ers that zombies survive on human flesh and that the only way to kill the zombies is to shoot them in the head or break their heads open. “Night of the Living Dead” brings to light many interesting themes dealing with social satire, but they are so deeply buried in the pretentiousness of the movie that you lose sight of them. Probably the biggest problem of the movie is that the zombies are so fake looking that it is diffi cult to take them seriously. They bleed (I thought that when a body was embalmed that included re moving the blood). Their makeup is incredibly thick which grossly takes away from any attempts at authenticity. And their body movements, al though fairly stiff and rigid, still move with a fair amount of ease considering the biological fact that muscles begin decomposing immediately after death. And since dead people are the premise of the movie, it is vital to the believability of the film to make the dead appear as dead as possible. Directed by Tom Savini, “Night of the Living Dead” stars Tony Todd, Patricia Tallman, Tom Towles, William Butler along with a cast of debut ^ctors and actresses. The cast’s attempt at breathing new life into the jilbt sorely miss their target. Maybe it’s because the film producers had to work from a shoestring bud get; maybe it’s because they weren’t properly in structed; maybe it’s because they were confused with the plot and how their character fit in. Although I wouldn’t say that “Night of the Liv ing Dead” is a total horror flop (because it did squeeze a few screams out of me mainly because of surprise and not suspense), I would encourage the audience to rent the original instead of seeing the remake which is rated R and is now showing at Schulman 6. CBS releases 'Picture Show' video for limited time, rocky $90 price By DON A TKINSON JR. For the past 15 years, fans of “The Rocky Hor ror Picture Show” have been doing the time warp again and again. The cult-classic movie was originally a box-office flop, but found new life in countless midnight show ings. Years later, when the VCR became popular, “Rocky Horror” fans be gan to wonder when the movie would be released on videocassette. The waiting is over. On November 8, CBS/Fox Vi deo will release “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” to the home video rental market at a cost of $89.98 per copy. The “Rocky Horror” vi- deocassete will be available only for a short time be fore going on a two-year moratorium. During that time, the video will not ap pear on pay-per-view TV or network TV. Also, any one who missed buying a copy shortly after the re lease date will not be able to order the movie from CBS/Fox Video. Bob DeLellis, president of CBS/Fox, North Amer ica, says the limited avail ability of the movie is be cause of its popularity. “This is an event film and it will be an event vi deo release.” Chris Horn, manager of The Paramount Theater, says that the movie will be a popular rental, although he doubts many people will actually buy the video- cassete. “I can see that the die hard fans are going to buy a copy,” he says. “But most of those are college stu dents and probably won’t have $90 to spend on a copy of a movie.” Gary Elvis McCain, area manager of 2-Day Video, also doubts whether the vi deo will be a big seller be cause ot the prohibitive price. “It’s a big event,” he says. “But I don’t think they’re really to sell.” McCain adds that he doesn’t think the video re lease will hurt the popular ity of seeing the movie in a theater. “There’s still going to be those die-hard fans who like the effect of the the ater. Getting up and danc ing, and throwing rice and toast. You’re not going to get that effect at home.” Both Horn and McCain say that they are not plan ning any kind of local pro motion for the videocas sette because of the $90 selling price. McCain says that not only will the movie proba^ bly not be that big of a seller, but other, more comercial releases, such as “The Hunt For Red Octo ber” and “Total Recall,” will be available within the same time frame. “Those all fall within a month of each other and are going to be more bene ficial,” M< By DON A 'i Renting horrc iween night is b adition of the 1 id o’lantern. What follows i Inis available o ompiling this li lany of the so-ct tause they an ory. Happy scream • The Exorci linion, one of tl ever made. On the surfaa simple tale of ittle girl (Linda f lemon. But wh with is ho\ and how we lacing our fai the posse ledical science ti ible to help but \ ght of a small g the cold, antis hospital is hor ubliminal level. • “Psycho” (19 time has don impact of thi lasterpiece. Probably the r tout “Psycho” i: ttle blood and g The violenc aving the viewi in the rest. The film end famous pl< Just in ca film before, McCain says The Association of Former Students Fall Senior Induction Banquet Wednesday & Thursday, November 7 & 8, 1990 6:30 p.m. MSC - ROOMS 212-216 All December ’90 graduates are invited Complimentary tickets may be picked up in the MSC Hallway, (Across from Post Office) October 30, 31, & November 7 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. TICKETS GIVEN ON FIRST COME - FIRST SERVED BASIS Student I.D. Required to Pick Up Tickets. This is your invitation to the induction of the Class of ’90 Compliments of The Association of Former Students LUNCH BUFFET Youl ALL YOU CAN EAT Great P\v7Pi i l&tti & Salad Bar $399 11 AM - 2 PM DAILY 326 Geo. Bush Dr. •211 University Carter Creek *919 Harvey Rd, Celle EUROPE on a student's budget .or how to eat, drinl^dndjtj^fnerry fiTea foreign country fora lall jdyptHctfJtfT of rtTfiam you cdufitj^biarel ■■■ ■ (Travel on a Fixed Budget 0 Find Good Airfares October 30 7:00pm 158 Blocker Find Good Places to Sleep Find Good Food to EatJ Speaker: Alan Horst of Council Travel MSC Jordan Institute for International Awareness By JOHN HOUSTON — ms have been a adary, illumina onsidered the ul rt group, the bar Mode stage shot of feedback ated by the “an' ick (including sci cks, beer bottle its)” style of guit nd Thurston Mo Frenetic was a iSonic Youth tei was before the $ en Records tl rcuit word for “i Bd gotten soft, rr outh s name am ivain as the hori e”crept into earl Enough of thal 'em. I saw. And unquers a crowd. Playing to a jan i Houston, the S trough a short, tng set that foci test release, Go e reading its ow inservative doesi odies are flyin leakin’ (on instn leant to be tweal arrising the way oom did this wee Scrambling hi rushers such as “ Mary Christ,” an elia such as “T the Sonic; penine “Tom V opped. Other gems inc e, “Kool Thing, om ’87’s Sister aim,” a scorchin’ Moore acted as he band, directi: ism to the front Hind the Hallows resting). Meanv id singer Kim G irely recognizing erforming her s irts wonderfully A great attribu iat despite the n