George A. Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead has famously fallen into public domain purgatory after (supposedly) his distributors failed to place a copyright on the film upon release (copyright laws in 1968, apparently, weren’t quite what they are today).
This has lead to, seemingly, hundreds of home video versions of the film on the market, including colorized versions, a cheapie 3D conversion, and even a notorious 30th anniversary edition which spiced in some terrible newly-shot footage.
But, surprisingly, few direct remakes, though there have been so many rip-offs I wonder if the original makers would sue if they held the copyright. Previously, the only remake was Tom Savini’s bloody and effective 1990 version. Now there’s Jeff Broadstreet’s Night of the Living Dead 3D, a cheap cash-in trying to capitalize on the name of the original and the recent resurgence in 3D films.
You’d go in with low expectations given the treatment of Romero’s original; this one easily surpasses them. It starts off adequately, mimicking the original, with Barb and Johnny arguing in the car on their way to the cemetery. There’s some decent 3D work in these early scenes; the cemetery background actual has some dimension to it. Then the zombies show up.
And, well, director Broadstreet has precisely zero feel for the genre. There’s no terror, no suspense, no atmosphere; I think they were going for camp value here, but there’s none of that either. Just a bunch of extras lurching around in poor prosthetic masks. The 3D is mostly dropped after the initial scenes, barring the occasional bloody hand or shovel or spliff sticking out at the audience.
The screenplay deserves some blame too: it’s as if they made a checklist of everything Romero did right in the original, and then make sure to do it wrong. Social commentary is removed, zombies are mentioned by name, the reason for the zombie outbreak is painfully explained.
Ben, the strong African-American hero of the original film, is now a white, boyish pot dealer. The Cooper’s are now marijuana farmers.
Acting is amateurish, though most of the cast has the excuse of playing characters that are presumably high. Apart from the 3D, the technical credits are as poor as could be. This was filmed around semi-rural SoCal locations and looks like it; that last shot of Barb, shot outside someone’s apartment building, is an embarrassment. We’re watching a student film here…in 3D!
This isn’t just your average bad film, nor is it just another remake that insults a classic original a la van Sant’s Psycho or Zombie’s Halloween, which were at least technically proficient. It’s not even on the level of a student or amateur film that might lovingly mimic an original.
This is a cheap cash-grab that shows a saddening level of contempt for both the original film and its audience, and it deserves to be held in contempt in return.
