There’s never been a more abused
horror title than George A. Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead (1968), as its strange and immediate
classification as a public domain title allowed decades of ensuing filmmakers
to pick its bones in all kinds of ways without legal ramifications, from creating
unauthorized remakes to remixing the movie with new edits and presentations to straight
up showing scenes from the movie in their own low budget endeavors. At this
point, I’ve seen more characters in horror films settle down in front of their
TVs on Halloween night and begin watching Night
of the Living Dead then I’ve seen them wandering around dark houses or
backyards while asking, “Is anyone there?” (I can speak with authority on this
because even I’ve been personally
involved with two crappy projects
that desperately clung to the OG movie’s coattails. Any moron can do it.)
To date, only one project,
officially sanctioned by Romero, has brought any class to the Night of the Living Dead name and
that’s been the 1990 remake by longtime Romero collaborator and special effects
maestro Tom Savini, which starred Candyman himself, Tony Todd, as the ill-fated
Ben. Since then, we’ve had 1998’s 30th anniversary edition of Night of the Living Dead, which went back to the original movie and
added newly filmed scenes to fill in some of the “gaps,” and which included
returning actors who were very clearly thirty years older, as well as 2001’s Children Of The Living Dead, starring a
now-regretful Savini, which was designed to be a direct sequel to that specific version of the movie and
has since been disowned by nearly everyone involved in its making. Then came Night of the Living Dead 3D (2006) with
Sid Haig, in which zombie Johnny TEXTS his beleaguered sister with “COMING 4 U
BARB,” and its prequel Night of the
Living Dead 3D: Re-Animation (2012) with Jeffrey Combs. Mimesis: Night of the Living Dead (2011)
vied for a meta-approach by taking its own universe and meshing it with that of
the classic undead zombie shocker. 2015’s Night
of the Living Dead: Darkest Dawn was the first attempt to present an
all-animated take on the zombie classic and was produced by, of all people, Con Air’s Simon West, and featured
voicework by Danielle Harris and a returning Tony Todd. Honestly, this list
could keep going but it’s already becoming tedious, so the last one I’ll
mention is the recently filmed, odd-but-curious sounding project Night of the Living Dead II, which
seems to be more of a straight-up sequel to Day of the Dead (1985), as it brings back the main trio of Lori
Cardille, Terry Alexander, and Jarlath Conroy. As you can see, nothing about
Romero’s original is safe – not the concept, not the title, and not the actual
film, which is a trend that refuses to stay buried, as we now have Night of the Animated Dead, courtesy of
Warner Bros., who hasn’t touched hands with anything remotely tied to this
universe since 1988’s lousy but harmless Return of the Living Dead II.
With voicework by people you’ve
actually heard of, like The West Wing’s
Dulé Hill, the Transformers series’
Josh Duhamel, and It’s Always Sunny’s
Jimmi Simpson, as well as the animation’s mostly loyal depictions of the
characters/actors from the original film, it’s tempting to think this return
trip to the well has finally figured out how to rebirth Romero’s film in a way
that’s honorable, entertaining, and even substantive. Known actors, familiar
characters, a major studio – clearly, they’ve nailed it this time, right? But if you think Night of the Animated Dead is going to be the title that finally gets it right, then buddy, you’re
chewing a mouthful of Greek salad.
Die-hard fans of Night of the Living Dead will notice as
soon as it starts that Night of the Animated
Dead is using the original screenplay nearly word for word, which
immediately robs the movie of any suspense. Instead of pondering what will
happen and the new directions the movie will explore, your anticipation will be
reduced to a basic curiosity for how the animators will present some of the
original’s more notable sequences. This kind of approach to a movie, especially
one you know so well, frankly isn’t enough to keep interest sustained, so once
the novelty of the animation wears off, and once the first few words of each
voice performer are spoken and you get the sense of how that performer meshes
with his or her character, Night of the
Animated Dead has trouble keeping viewers invested. One would also assume,
being what it is, that the animation on display would be impressive, what with
it being the selling point of the movie, but it’s not. It’s haphazardly done and very cheap looking, with herky-jerky movements that, at
times, can actually be nausea-inducing. It’s that kind of Hanna-Barbera
animation where if none of the characters are speaking to each other, everyone’s
at a dead still like a photograph, and this happens so many times that you
begin to wonder if your Blu-ray player is on the fritz.
The voicework ranges from
perfectly fine to downright confounding, and it’s difficult to ascertain if
certain choices were purposely made or accidental byproducts of the actors’
voice performances. Hill’s take on Ben is much gruffer than Duane Jones’, while
Duhamel’s take on Harry is more subdued than Karl Hardman’s, whose Harry Cooper
is still one of the all-time great dicks in cinema—and this while recognizing
that Hardman wasn’t a professional actor.
This might not feel like a big deal, but the dynamic shared between Jones and
Hardman in the original movie put them on equal footing: they were both
comparably bossy, domineering, and alpha male. Meanwhile, Hill comes off as the
aggressor while Duhamel makes Harry Cooper seem more desperate and afraid, and
whose dickishness seems to spur from fear instead of dominance and egotism. For
reasons that should be obvious, and considering the decades of film theory that
have examined the racial themes in the original movie, that’s…not a good thing
to present for 2021. Really, the only voice actor who seems entirely
comfortable with her work is Nancy Travis, who voices Helen Cooper. Confident
with the medium and with a firm grasp on her character, hers is the only
performance that blends well into the presentation; meanwhile, the other
actors’ voice performances consistently blast you back out again. (Katee
Sackhoff as Judy is bewilderingly bad.)
The only new thing Night of the Animated Dead brings to
the table is its graphic depiction of violence, which was left unexplored in
the original movie (at least by comparison). Instead of Johnny bumping his head
on a tombstone, now his skull cracks open, brains leak out, and blood pours
from every hole in his face. Instead of Tom and Judy blowing up unseen in a
pickup truck, the engine block explodes through their windshield and takes out
whole chunks of his face and her neck. It’s gratuitous, for sure, but it also
comes across as disrespectful, though I can’t say why, considering how
hyperviolent Romero himself would make his later sequels. And maybe that’s
because the filmmakers felt constrained by sticking with the original
screenplay and even the physical
appearances of the original actors, so this was their way of putting their
stamp on the movie…but then again, who asked them to stay so loyal in the first
place?
Really, Night of the Animated Dead never feels respectful to its parentage,
even if it does reuse the same words
Romero wrote and the physical embodiments of the actors Romero cast. Even
certain scenes’ choreography and staging are re-used, as if the filmmakers were
looking at the original movie’s storyboards when creating their animations. But
one thing stuck out more than anything else: in spite of Night of the Animated Dead borrowing the script, the actors, and
the shot setups from the original movie, one scene in particular was pared down
from its original incarnation, which Romero and co. had filmed guerilla style
in Washington, DC, and depicted several governmental figures being grilled by
the media while walking down the busy city street on the way to their car.
Instead of re-using this walk-and-talk sequence, those same three government
figures are placed in front of a static shot of the Capitol Dome while fielding
questions from off-screen reporters—which, in essence, completely removes
Romero’s in-film cameo as a reporter from this new iteration. I have to wonder if
the filmmakers of this new version even knew
he was in that scene to begin with. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t,
because if they did, why cut the director out of his own movie? Why not take
that moment to tip their hat to the man whose seminal film they’re making a
buck off? That, right there, seems to sum up Night of the Animated Dead: it’s the same screenplay, the same
“actors,” and mostly the same shot compositions, and yet, somehow, there’s a
complete lack of George A. Romero. And that’s the worst thing this newest take
on the title could’ve done.
I wish I could delude myself and believe
that, at the very least, Night of the
Animated Dead might help to introduce the original film to newer audiences,
but I doubt that’ll be the case. If you’re born with horror in your blood, that
path was always going to lead you to the godfather of the zombie sub-genre
anyway; for the newest generation, however, there are an army of imitators to
wade through before arriving at the main event. One thing’s for sure: it’s more
than worth the journey.
