Review: Night of the Animated Dead

Overview:

A visit to the country and their father’s grave does not turn out the way Johnny and Barbara expected. When the dead start to come back to life, Johnny is one of the first victims, leaving Barbara on the run for her survival.

Finding refuge in a local farmhouse, Barbara soon gets some company with other survivors who shared the same plan. Unfortunately, the zombies are relentless in their taste for flesh, and soon the farmhouse is surrounded by the undead. As the group slowly succumbs to the enemy one by one, they must get over their prejudices if they hope to fight for survival.

Our Take:

Night of the Animated Dead is the latest feature from director Jason Axinn, who delivered us the 2019 horror animation To Your Last Death. For his next project, Axinn wanted to pay homage to one of his own heroes, George A. Romero, the man known for making zombies mainstream. And what better way to pay respects to a legend can there be than adapting one of the director’s greatest films.

Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is an iconic zombie picture. Released in 1968, the low-budget horror film spawned a six-movie franchise and a new genre of film. Although controversial and receiving mixed reviews upon release, Night of the Living Dead has grown an incredible cult following and arguably belongs on many lists of greatest films in history.

Unsurprisingly, Night of the Animated Dead is not the first remake of the 60’s gore film. In fact, this is not even the first adaptation of Night of the Living Dead to be released this year. Thanks to the original movie’s public domain status, there is an ever-growing collection of remakes and reimagining’s, including 3D versions and a bakery themed short titled Night of the Living Bread. 

Night of the Animated Dead separates itself for being a near shot-for-shot remake of the original film. Much of the cinematography and character designs are plucked directly out of the source material. However, the slow-moving pace of the 60s feature has been pumped up for modern audiences, and the gore level has absolutely been kicked up a notch.

Additionally, this animated remake does take the time to incorporate some new scenes. Specifically, elements that were made difficult to film with the original low budget. In this latest retelling, we get to see moments unavailable before, such as how Ben came to arrive at the farmhouse with Barbara.  

Unfortunately, more could have been done to help separate this film from the original. For one, the zombies could have taken nearly any imagery imaginable; instead, they remain on the tamer side. More importantly, much of the racism and sexism explored through the original could have been retooled to have modern relevance.

Honestly, the question that comes up while viewing this new feature is, did we really need a shot-for-shot remake of Night of the Living Dead? As mentioned, the story has been reimagined several times and still remains the basic formula for how zombie films are written today.  Night of the Animated Dead does not add enough to make it worth watching over the 1968 classic. That is unless you want to see some extra gory scenes.