PART IV: BOOKS - A8 P2

Everyone is screaming - SHOOT!!! But in her mind's eye is seeing her mom walking to her, asking - "Where's Johnny, Barbara?"

Reality.

When it walks in - the robe comes undone - dead woman is topless with panties. Barbara come to her senses and shoot the zed. Because of the distance, the ghoul is pushed back and falls onto the porch on its back (towards the camera) with a huge exit wound on the back of the head.

Don't know if the mom/zombie switch would be a digital morph or just a jump cut. Morph photography did exist at this time.

What happened?

The actor who played the topless zombie had a protective plate on her head when the squib dislodged. She really did fall backwards onto the porch - knocked out. Production came to a halt, panicked that they may have killed an actor.

The squib gave her a concussion. So concerned, the footage was axed and more than likely destroyed. The footage could be used in a lawsuit for negligence. It was an honest mistake. She turned out fine.



No second attempt with different person. Scene was rewritten - what we have now and Charles Crawley becomes legend. He was a cab driver Savini was in and thought Crawley looked unique, offered him a role as zombie.

Turns out his re-death scene, excessive gunshot wounds was too much for the MPAA and got trimmed down. The original was far more bloody. That was another good story.

A photo of the axed actress? On page twelve is a woman in zombie make-up with the caption...



The controversial "Mother-lookalike" zombie we couldn't use at the window.
- Savini

Turned out to be fine; Savini wanted to keep it in the film - was impressive. But producers said no, too much potential legal danger. Too bad, that footage would make a nice delete scene.

- - -

Glad this got shot down too.

*shakes head*

Harry Cooper finds the TV upstairs and TRIES to bring the television to the cellar, but looses his grip on the heavy tech and it hits each of the steps, coming to pieces on the floor. WTF dude?

The news reports were important to the story, the characters' contact with the outside world. Why would you take this away?

- - -

There was going to be a naked dead person seen when our gang head for the gas pump - not a nude woman, a naked guy. Judy-Rose shoot him with the shotgun in the face.

- - -

The deaths of Tom and Judy-Rose was very different. Glad this didn't go down.

Tom shoots off the lock since the pump key found on Uncle Rege wasn't. It spits out gasoline everywhere, covering Tom. He is blinded - in his eyes and walks onto the growing gas puddle which is inching towards the lit torch.

Tom gets ablaze. And tries to reach his girlfriend inside the truck. He passes by the open gas tank door and some of the flames enters. The truck explodes as both he and Judy-Rose screams. Ben is blown back by the shock wave.

It was Romero who killed this scene. Glad it never got past the storyboard phase. That was just cruel.

- - -

The next one of import is the alternate death of Helen Cooper. It was done quite stylized which would have been cool. This should've been in the movie.

Helen discovers Sarah is dead, thought her daughter was sleeping. She immediately tries mouth to mouth to revive her. Little Miss Sarah Cooper wake up taking a piece of her mom's lower lip.

At this point we get interesting. The camera cuts between a bloody and frightened Helen and her undead child. But each time we cut to Sarah she's one step closer. We don't see her move. Cut. Cut. Cut. Kinda like a music video.

Helen tries to reach the stairs by crawling and is attacked by Sarah who gets on top of her and bites a chunk from the back of her neck.

It is Helen who finds the trowel here, but refused to stab her child. She drops it and allows herself to be killed.

Helen's death would be blood on the walls - shown in shadows, piece of flesh taken out. That's sad; a mother's love killed her.

- - -

Next is a call back to "Dawn Of The Dead" (1978); Ben with an empty gun is trying to reload and only get one bullet in the chamber - clicks at a ghoul coming at him.

Final house attack.

Not enough time. It's on top of him. Ben puts the gun in the zombie's mouth. Clicking the trigger and trying to keep it from killing him. Click. Click. Click. Click. Bam! We see the bloody path of the bullet going from the gun - through the zombie head.

During this time - Barbara has been trying to keep the dead from pushing into the home; windows and kitchen door. She is nearly killed by undead Sarah, but is saved by another gunshot - the kid is shot in the brain by Ben, now reloaded.

I was going to do a "James Cameron white frame" and become the bullet. ...until the same bullet kills the zombie attacking Barbara. Shot down. 'There's no time for that." This time my effects team was in on it. They didn't bother building the flesh frames that I could use to shoot the bullet traveling to the zombie.
- Savini

Pardon? That's Quentin Tarantino, not Cameron.

- - -

The farmhouse can no longer hold.

Barbara takes off; as long as she can keep walking she can out move the dead. Like the final film she keep her bullets, using the gun sparingly. Walking away - sees the ghouls eating the remains of Tom and Judy-Rose. Then runs into the dead woman with the baby doll and for a moment sees her mom once more, but shakes it off. Then gets mad and shoots the ghoul. Later she runs into her undead brother and shots him too in the head.

As this happens...

- - -

Harry was shot by Ben. Ben is shot by Harry. Harry has gone upstairs into the attic. Ben has locked himself in the basement. The roaming dead have entered and are banging on the door. It's dark, no light from the snapped power cable. Ben fumbles and finds a flashlight.

Only visible spotlight - rest is black. Still hoping to find another way out, seeks out the key...

There's another pump at the farm. He finds it - labeled "Gas Pump 2". Where? Good question. He finds zombie Helen - shoots her, she dies once more in shadows. He finds a radio and switches it on, laughs. His flashlight is dying and dims to darkness. "Ben dies symbolically here as the flashlight does" - Savini

- - -

The alternate ending starts here.

Barbara continues to walk in the woods in the dark. Takes a break by a tree, tried. Closes her eyes for a moment - unknown time passes. She then hears and sees three forms coming to her. She hides behind another tree and tries to reload her gun and is shot at - misses. Why didn't she reload before taking her break?

She screams out, 'not dead!' Men are part of a posse; One of them hands her a jacket, it's cold. She takes and leans against a tree. Daylight. The area she was found - is now a mobile pit stop. Some shoot at ghouls hanging on trees.

Barbara follow the men back to the farmhouse. She didn't know; thinks Ben is hiding in the attic - sees a form in the top window. Rednecks like the movie find undead Ben in the basement and shoot him in the head. Who's in the attic?

As the rest are searching the house, she goes upstairs; finds the injured Harry hiding next to a full length mirror, glad that she came back. The camera stays on Harry, but pans a bit to the right showing an angry Barbara who has her gun pointed at him in the reflection. As if both are standing side to side. Harry is frightened and hides behind the mirror once more.

Barbara in reflection shoots, hitting Harry. The glass breaks into pieces. Harry's point of view as he falls backwards and dies. Barbara is looking at her image now - shattered. No hope of becoming how she once was. Barbara calls out, there another for the fire up here. This is where she says "They're us, we are them". They kill us. We kill them. We kill ourselves.

- - -



I wanted to established a photographer wandering around the group [posse] so the still photos at the end, like the original, made sense.
- Savini

Storyboard has an old timey camera with a push out flash bulb. The camera guy in the movie is Declan Baldwin, that producer?

- - -

Harry is on top of Ben (face on face) with the other bodies on the pyre when it is set on fire. Their flesh melt, expose to bone; White or Black, both are the same in the end. Focus on Barbara's eyes - zoomed in.

The woman has now snapped.

The End.

- - -

Book has a relevant take away - full names. Their mother's full tombstone is seen in one of the scrapbook pixs - NOT in the movie. Checked both the wide and full screen editions - only get a partial view.

Her is name is "Ann Todd" which makes the siblings Johnny and Barbara Todd!

But the picture comes with a discontinuity - what year is it? The answer from a TV news report is this is 1989, the anchorman says it. At the start Johnny is upset that he has to drive so far - taking his sister to the cemetery. She died three months ago - as told by him. It's 1989.

The full tombstone inscription in the image...

"Our Beloved Mother; Ann Todd 1891 - 1981" - making Mrs. Todd ninety when she died. And 1981. This may very well be the reason why the tomb isn't shown in its entirely.

- - -

After reading this so-called book, I'm agitated. Since I saw on opening night - truly thought Tom Savini made an outstanding genre movie. In spite of the hardships and restrictions put upon him, just as good as the original.

I no longer believe that.