Beginning his career as a special effects makeup artist, Tom Savini certainly had no idea early on in his career that someday he’d step into the director’s chair.

Previously, Savini had provided special effects for movies like Eyes of a Stranger (1981) and The Prowler (1981). By the 1980s, Savini had dipped his toe into the waters of directing, as he was responsible for three episodes of the horror series Tales from the Darkside.

By 1990, Savini had taken on his biggest challenge yet: directing a feature-length film. The young creative was tasked with directing the 1990 remake Night of the Living Dead.

Of course, this wasn’t Savini’s first foray into working with the undead. He and director George Romero forged a strong friendship, as Savini had provided special effects for many of Romero’s films, including Martin (1978) and Dawn of the Dead (1978).

As such, Savini approached the 1990 project with a degree of respect for Romero and his work. He saw the story, a screenplay written by Romero, as a continuation of his mentor’s previous projects rather than a straight reboot.

“In a way, it is a sequel,” Savini said during an interview with the Asbury Park Press, “because midway into it, the first film’s part of the story is done. So you’re getting a remake and a sequel.”

As such, Savini was quite particular about certain things portrayed in the film, including his undead antagonists. “I don’t like to call them zombies,” said Savini. “Zombies, to me, are voodoo and Haiti and that stuff. These creatures are dead things that walk. If I could, I would take real corpses and mechanize them.”