Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated (2009)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
One could argue that George Romero's 1968 film NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was one of the greatest horror movies ever made. One could also argue that it has caused some of the most outrageous and stupid moments in terms of rip-offs, remakes and flat out idiotic fan movies. You had a remake in 1990, a 3-D remake, countless impersonators, fan documentaries, a couple sequels that would eventually be remade as well and all of this because of there being no copyright on the film. Oh, and let's not even go into the countless Italian, German and Japanese films. I think the biggest crap-fest of them all was the "30th Anniversary" gig that had John Russo filming new scenes and adding them back into Romero's film. This film, subtitled REANIMATED, features the original audio track from the Romero film but with a new look.
The entire concept of this film is that they'd take the soundtrack and dialogue from the Romero film and let artists from around the world add their visuals. With this we get animation, claymation, stop-motion, comic book visuals, acrylics, sock puppets and we even get a strange cartoon-like version of when the zombie reaches through the window and grabs Ben. There are all sorts of styles going on here and they change quite often, sometimes a single shot changes direction. I must admit that this is a rather strange way to watch a movie but there are a few styles here that I'd love to see the entire movie made of. This type of thing certainly isn't going to be for everyone and I think it's safe to say that it wears out its welcome before the end credits but at the same time there's no question that a lot of imagination went into this thing and I can't help but respect it. I'm not sure who exactly to recommend it to but if watched in pieces I think most people will at least respect the thing. What impressed me the most is how it was all put together with countless people giving their impressions of a scene and for the most part it all goes together very well. Needless to say, I think some moments work better than others but you have to expect that. The scene with Ben first showing up was extremely good as was the first meeting between Ben and Cooper, the truck catching fire and of course the final attack sequence when the zombies are entering the house. Since the movie uses the original audio I was surprised to see how suspenseful it actually is even without the original footage to back it up. REANIMATED certainly isn't a masterpiece but it's a rather unique item that's certainly a lot more imaginative then countless big-budget films out there.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
One could argue that George Romero's 1968 film NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was one of the greatest horror movies ever made. One could also argue that it has caused some of the most outrageous and stupid moments in terms of rip-offs, remakes and flat out idiotic fan movies. You had a remake in 1990, a 3-D remake, countless impersonators, fan documentaries, a couple sequels that would eventually be remade as well and all of this because of there being no copyright on the film. Oh, and let's not even go into the countless Italian, German and Japanese films. I think the biggest crap-fest of them all was the "30th Anniversary" gig that had John Russo filming new scenes and adding them back into Romero's film. This film, subtitled REANIMATED, features the original audio track from the Romero film but with a new look.
The entire concept of this film is that they'd take the soundtrack and dialogue from the Romero film and let artists from around the world add their visuals. With this we get animation, claymation, stop-motion, comic book visuals, acrylics, sock puppets and we even get a strange cartoon-like version of when the zombie reaches through the window and grabs Ben. There are all sorts of styles going on here and they change quite often, sometimes a single shot changes direction. I must admit that this is a rather strange way to watch a movie but there are a few styles here that I'd love to see the entire movie made of. This type of thing certainly isn't going to be for everyone and I think it's safe to say that it wears out its welcome before the end credits but at the same time there's no question that a lot of imagination went into this thing and I can't help but respect it. I'm not sure who exactly to recommend it to but if watched in pieces I think most people will at least respect the thing. What impressed me the most is how it was all put together with countless people giving their impressions of a scene and for the most part it all goes together very well. Needless to say, I think some moments work better than others but you have to expect that. The scene with Ben first showing up was extremely good as was the first meeting between Ben and Cooper, the truck catching fire and of course the final attack sequence when the zombies are entering the house. Since the movie uses the original audio I was surprised to see how suspenseful it actually is even without the original footage to back it up. REANIMATED certainly isn't a masterpiece but it's a rather unique item that's certainly a lot more imaginative then countless big-budget films out there.