Mimesis - Night of the Living Dead

After getting drugged at a horror convention's after-party, a group of friends awake to find themselves forced to play a live-action role-playing-game based on a famous horror movie and must utilize their knowledge to get away alive.

This turned out to be far better than it really should've been. Perhaps the film's greatest virtue amongst itself is the clever and highly original storyline present as the film does boast a pretty unique gimmick of trapping horror fans in a retelling of a classic horror film and forcing them to recreate the events of the film for their own amusement, and it does a fairly close job of recreating it throughout. The clothes, the setting, the general look and feel of the whole effort as well as the use of piping in the actual movie on a closed-circuit TV to rattle them even more makes for a rather unique and clever style here that really helps this one develop into more than just a loving homage and a chance to re-work some of the original bits and gags from the movie. This turns it into a rather fun and original way to do the homage in a different way and is certainly a very new concept that's employed here. That this allows the film to really up the gore and action content that was missing from the originally-aped film makes this even more fun with tons of splatter and gore that was missing from the original as well as bringing about some rather tense confrontations that arise here from the different encounters here. While the film does dip somewhat once we learn the truth about what's going on within as the twist about the intent behind the drugging does seem quite far-fetched there's still a couple fine chases in the later half to make for a rather fine mix of chills, blood-splatter and cheese. There's one rather glaring problem here, beyond the fact that this just seems like an excuse to remake the original for their own purpose, in that for such a landmark and legendary film they run through only one person has seen it among the group, which makes no sense at all and really stretches believability here with something that influential and massive. It would've been more fun had everyone been aware and fans so that they all have the ability to outwit the killers that way, yet here it's just the one and it really seems like a stretch. Otherwise, this one is a lot of fun.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

A group of horror fans find themselves unwilling participants in a nightmarish role playing game that pays homage to a classic horror film.

I like the idea they were going for here -- a group of people recreating "Night of the Living Dead". With all the sequels, remakes, and ripoffs, I am a bit wary of anything related to NoTLD these days. But I really think this idea had merit.

However, I am not sure if it succeeded. At times, it seemed to drag, and I really disliked the role played by Sid Haig. Haig, being a well-known horror icon, should probably have played himself at the convention. In fact, for the film to make complete sense, the role would have had to be George Romero playing George Romero. I assume they know this and simply could not get him.

The only reason I can think of that someone would rate this movie above a 1 is because they personally know someone who worked on the project. The writing is cliche, the make up is terrible, the acting is horrendous. Can't find one thing to like about this movie. Just dumb.

Two positive reviews so far, and here's a third. Why it has a 2.4 rating? You got me. From start to finish this movie either had me laughing or jumping out of my seat. It blends the two nicely, but doesn't try and force anything. A big part of the laughs comes from the actors, who seem to get the scripts subtle hints at comedy, and the scares come from Douglas Schulze's direction; this being his fourth feature,(all horror) he seems to have grown into a master of the genre. There is little proof from watching this movie that it was made on a shoestring budget, much like "Night of the Living Dead" the movie that inspired the script for "Mimesis" a love letter to Romero. The script is very self aware, however much like today's horror fan, the characters in the movie are not familiar with the classic zombie film, except for one character who keeps everyone informed, audience included, on what might happen next. After watching this movie I immediately went out and rented "NOTLD" which I'm sure will be the reaction of a lot of other people, thus making "Mimesis" even more cinematically relevant than I'm sure it intended to be by re-introducing a classic in modern story telling. Did I mention that Sid Haig (House of a Thousand Corpses, Kill Bill 2), and Courtney Gaines (Children of The Corn, The Burbs) also appear in the film. Fun for all. I recommend.

It was pretty bad.

Very low budget, terrible lighting.

Actors (besides Sid) weren't very good.

But we got to meet Sid Haig, autographs, photos together, and a hand shake, so that was cool.