Remember Jen and Sylvia Soska? Well, they just made a sequel -- kinda, sorta -- to Night of the Living Dead and its on Tubi. Yes, the very same Soska sisters who made the remake of Rabid and American Mary.
Now, is that a good thing? Was the remake of Rabid a good idea? Have we gotten so many sequels to Romero's work both from him -- good (Dawn, Day) and bad (everything not Dawn and Day) -- and from the other creators of the original, good (Return of the Living Dead) and, well, weird (Flesheater) and just plain abysmal (Children of the Living Dead). Then again, isn't everything after Romero influenced or outright stolen (Zombi) from his work?
Ash (Ashley Moore) and her brother Luke (Shiloh O'Reilly) are the grandchildren of Ben from Night of the Living Dead and even have the gun he used to kill zombies. Their parents have gone away on Ash's birthday and her friend Iris (Camren Bicondova) offers to watch her brother so that she can go to the Festival of the Living Dead, a concert that is on the same ground where the walking dead first appeared in 1968, with her boyfriend Kevin (Gage Marsh), his brother Ty (Andre Anthony) and sisters Destini (Keana Lyn Bastidas) and Lindsey (Maia Jae Bastidas).
Yes, kind of like Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave. The less said of that, the better.
Written by Miriam Lyapin and Helen Marsh (who also wrote the Tubi Original Deadly Midwife), this kicks up a notch when the concert goers all get in a car accident hitting a zombie and go to the concert to get help. Iris hears that her friend is in danger, so she gets her friend Blaze (Christian Rose) to drive her and Luke to save everyone. Yes, she takes a diabetic child into the heart of the undead.
For some reason, the festival has a giant man to be burned, like Burning Man. Or The Wicker Man. Or Midsommar. None of this has anything to do with the movie you are going to watch and maybe twenty people came to this concert, which feels more like the Gathering of the Juggalos than a concert that is a tribute to people who died. The bands all feel like Warped Tour instead of anything, as if this movie was made in the 2000s for SyFy and was filmed in Eastern Europe just like, yes there it is again, Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave.
I grew up minutes from Evans City and this weird field is not the weird fields in Evans City. Instead, it's all cash in cheap quick artifice and yeah, I should know better, but I never do. Moore and Bicondova are good actors and do what they can, but they there isn't much to save.
Also: How did they get Ben's gun and know he was a hero when he died in a basement and got burned as a zombie? Did we forget, you know, the shocking ending of the movie that started modern horror?
If this movie was just a zombies at a concert film, I'd be fine with it. But by associating itself -- literally inserting itself -- into the trinity of zombie movies, it commits an unforgivable sin. It's boring. There's a great idea in here of a world where the undead have become commonplace and celebrated as tragedies like how 9/11 is a few years away from being another sale day like President's Day. Instead, it's content to be a movie with some decent fight scenes, alright gore and nothing else to add to a genre that's overflowing with movies that added less than nothing.
Now, is that a good thing? Was the remake of Rabid a good idea? Have we gotten so many sequels to Romero's work both from him -- good (Dawn, Day) and bad (everything not Dawn and Day) -- and from the other creators of the original, good (Return of the Living Dead) and, well, weird (Flesheater) and just plain abysmal (Children of the Living Dead). Then again, isn't everything after Romero influenced or outright stolen (Zombi) from his work?
Ash (Ashley Moore) and her brother Luke (Shiloh O'Reilly) are the grandchildren of Ben from Night of the Living Dead and even have the gun he used to kill zombies. Their parents have gone away on Ash's birthday and her friend Iris (Camren Bicondova) offers to watch her brother so that she can go to the Festival of the Living Dead, a concert that is on the same ground where the walking dead first appeared in 1968, with her boyfriend Kevin (Gage Marsh), his brother Ty (Andre Anthony) and sisters Destini (Keana Lyn Bastidas) and Lindsey (Maia Jae Bastidas).
Yes, kind of like Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave. The less said of that, the better.
Written by Miriam Lyapin and Helen Marsh (who also wrote the Tubi Original Deadly Midwife), this kicks up a notch when the concert goers all get in a car accident hitting a zombie and go to the concert to get help. Iris hears that her friend is in danger, so she gets her friend Blaze (Christian Rose) to drive her and Luke to save everyone. Yes, she takes a diabetic child into the heart of the undead.
For some reason, the festival has a giant man to be burned, like Burning Man. Or The Wicker Man. Or Midsommar. None of this has anything to do with the movie you are going to watch and maybe twenty people came to this concert, which feels more like the Gathering of the Juggalos than a concert that is a tribute to people who died. The bands all feel like Warped Tour instead of anything, as if this movie was made in the 2000s for SyFy and was filmed in Eastern Europe just like, yes there it is again, Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave.
I grew up minutes from Evans City and this weird field is not the weird fields in Evans City. Instead, it's all cash in cheap quick artifice and yeah, I should know better, but I never do. Moore and Bicondova are good actors and do what they can, but they there isn't much to save.
Also: How did they get Ben's gun and know he was a hero when he died in a basement and got burned as a zombie? Did we forget, you know, the shocking ending of the movie that started modern horror?
If this movie was just a zombies at a concert film, I'd be fine with it. But by associating itself -- literally inserting itself -- into the trinity of zombie movies, it commits an unforgivable sin. It's boring. There's a great idea in here of a world where the undead have become commonplace and celebrated as tragedies like how 9/11 is a few years away from being another sale day like President's Day. Instead, it's content to be a movie with some decent fight scenes, alright gore and nothing else to add to a genre that's overflowing with movies that added less than nothing.