Film Review: NIGHT OF THE ANIMATED DEAD (2021)

If you had asked about six months ago I would never have thought I'd be reviewing something like this but it totally fits the BRAIN BITES criteria so let's do this...

NIGHT OF THE ANIMATED DEAD (2021) USA 1 hr 11mins 

Director: Jason Axinn

"Alright Vince, hit him in the head... right between the eyes." - Sheriff McClelland

NIGHT OF THE ANIMATED DEAD is almost a word for word, scene by scene carbon copy of George A. Romeros NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)  except that it is animated. So setting the scene... Barbara (Katherine Isabella) and Johnny (Jimmi Simpson) arrive at the cemetery to lay flowers on their fathers grave. A ghoul attacks, killing Johnny and causing Barbara to flee to a nearby farmhouse. Ben (Dule Hill) soon arrives in a truck that is running out of fuel to get the key to the pump down the road. He finds a catatonic Barbara and decides to stay and fortify the house so they have a safe place. More people emerge from the basement, young couple Tom (James Roday Rodriguez) and Judy (Katee Sackhoff) and the Cooper family Harry (Josh Duhamel), Helen (Nancy Travis) and daughter Karen (Ashley Lambert) who is mysteriously ill. Listening to numerous reports on the radio about the dead coming back to life attacking the living, the many theories of radiation from a space probe causing this epidemic and how to protect yourself against them causes numerous arguments between Ben and Harry but they all decide that they need to formulate a plan to escape. Unfortunately as we all know this plan ends badly causing Tom & Judy to meet a firey end. Tensions reach breaking point between Ben and Harry resulting in Harry getting shot by Ben and promptly getting devoured by Karen who finally succumbed to her 'illness". Barbara gets to see dear old Johnny again before being dragged away and poor sweet Ben gets to put down the entire Cooper family before being unceremoniously sacrificed by the posse and lumped in with the ghouls on the pyre. 

So in short this really is true to the original story with only a few deviations in the form of a flashback from Ben and a more adventurous visitation into Tom & Judy's demise. The animation has been slated in other reviews but I found it acceptable. The reflections in windows and some of the characters hair looked a bit off but other then that they added some great gore to the animation and the ghouls looked pretty good. The dialogue was fine and the voice actors did a great job. My only criticism being that Katherine Isabella's Barbara is even more pathetic and annoying than Judith O'Dea often was in the original, which is a feat in itself! The soundtrack is very fitting and adds some atmosphere but despite this it doesn't really have the emotional impact the original did . Even with the occasional gore and grisly scenes it does have a bit of a cutesie Scooby Doo vibe about it. As much as I enjoyed the "making of..." doc in the special features, which does show that the creators really wanted to make an authentic tribute to the original, I'm sure we all can't help wondering why? Some may say that it is just a "cash in" on the franchise whereas I am more inclined to think of it as another misguided and unnecessary homage to try to appeal to a younger audience that find the old stuff too dated. Again this begs the question of "what is the point?" as we already have numerous remakes that have never quite hit the mark (Tom Savinis 1990 version being the only one that just about manages it). This is destined to be slagged off by many and forgotten by the remaining few which is a bit unfair as it does nothing wrong but it really doesn't need to be here. For that reason I am scoring it 2 brains out of 5.

You can find NIGHT OF THE ANIMATED DEAD on Blu Ray and DVD as well as currently being stocked in various HMV stores.