Rating: C-
Dir: Jeff Broadstreet
Star: Brianna Brown, Joshua Desroches, Greg Travis, Sid Haig
With Romero’s classic being perhaps the best known movie in the public-domain [an unfortunate side-effect of the change of name from the original Night of the Flesh Eaters, because the distributors forgot to put a copyright notice on the new title frames], it surprising it took forty years for someone to realize that this meant they could remake it without the slightest permission from George. Nice. However, just because you can remake a horror classic, doesn’t mean you should remake a horror classic. The tag is usually there for a reason, and most film-makers would be better off going for something on they you can improve. Bearing in mind that warning, does Broadstreet bring anything new or interesting to his version?
Short version: no.
Somewhat longer version: no. Obviously, being a remake, it has to follow the same basic concept: bunch of misfits thrown together in a house, besieged by zombies. However, the dynamic of the original is what made it interesting – the varied background, races and relationships of the characters, even if it’s more by accident, than the “powerful take on race relations” the likes of Chris Gore reckon. Here, we have Barb (Brown), on her way to an aunt’s funeral, who ends up in a house occupied by a bunch of pot-heads. That’s about it.
The rest – the undead invasion, the destroying of the brain, etc. – is the same, though it’s surprisingly and disappointingly restrained, both on the gore and the 3D aspects, with only a couple of shots which are an obvious use of the gimmick. Haig turns up as a mortician, who also provides the explanation, and it’s a shame he was there a lot earlier, as some aspects of it would merit more exploration. As is, they shouldn’t have bothered. I am left to eagerly await Michael Bay’s Attack of the Giant Leeches remake.