La nuit des morts vivants: Re-Animation

A man (Andrew Divoff) who inherited a funeral home from his father and who has some kind of phobia about fire or incinerators fails to dispose of bodies scheduled for cremation including a body bag of toxic refuse left over from his deceased father's side business of toxic waste disposal. You got it. Dead bodies + toxic materials = reanimated dead bodies. Zombies.

Well who doesn't like zombie movies? It's such a creepy idea. One appealing to a primitive fear: the return of the dead. Unfortunately this one is a late bloomer; and too little, too late, to make it worth your time. It's a "horror comedy" and runs about 1hr 20mins --or so-- and doesn't really get going until close to an hour in. Nothing much happens before then. The man, suspecting something is going on with his pile of stinking dead bodies (Maybe he saw one move?), sets up a camera in the crematorium to confirm his suspicions. There is 1 minor zombie incidents involving a SINGLE zombie within the space of the first 53 mins, or so, of this movie.

Filling the afore mentioned void are the antics of weed smoking employees and a visit from the man's brother (Jeffery Combs) who needs mucho dinero and who thinks his brother is bats when he tells him about what's going on in the funeral home. He wastes no time getting on his mobile pronto with his lawyer to get the wheels rolling for his brother's certification so he can sell the place and collect said dinero. Sara Palin is parodied in the movie and appears on TV in it. Later, in the better part of the movie (the last 25mins or so), she makes an appearance at the funeral home. I think 4 stars is very generous. Do you want to see a 4 star (or less) out of 10 movie? Your choice. Love, Boloxxxi.

This movie is truly an insult to George Romero. The acting and the zombie effect were barely above normal but the story is so weak. It's essentially a zombie movie taking place in a pot farm. The pot humors aren't funny at all and they never ever gotten around to barricading the windows.

Yes, they added nudity but was that remotely necessary? The ending was also very weak!!They had a perfectly good movie from which to base this movie on and they still managed to botch it up. I really do wonder about all these direct-to-DVD horror movies that have no reasons for being made and can only trick people into buying because there are no reviews.

I must say that I was rather excited when I first saw the information about this movie being in the making and I was anxiously awaiting it. Why? Well first of all, I am a huge fan of zombies and "Night of the Living Dead" is the groundbreaking milestone within the genre. Plus it also have Jeffrey Combs on the list of cast, and I admire his work in the horror genre.

Having seen the movie, I sit here somewhat baffled. I have a terrible sensation of having been disappointed and cheated out of something grand. Perhaps I just had way too high expectations for this movie, because it fell short of delivering anything that I was expecting.

I wonder why the movie got the title that it did, because it really didn't have much to do with the original "Night of the Living Dead" movie, except for tossing the occasional reference that true zombie fans will pick up on. Sure, it was taking place at the same location, but in overall, this movie might as well just had been titled "Re-Animation", because it didn't really bring enough with it to be worthy of a place in the Romero series.

Storywise, "Night of the Living Dead: Re-Animation" didn't really offer much of a solid story to hold on to. There was given a very vague explanation to the cause of the zombie outbreak, but it wasn't a very plausible one, and I didn't buy into it. Plus, I would have liked to seen a more thorough tie-in to the original "Night of the Living Dead" movie. But hey, I had perhaps just too high hopes and expectations for this particular movie.

As for the cast. Well I was thrilled to see Jeffrey Combs in a zombie movie, although I have to say that his performance in this movie is far from his best. A second iconic horror actor, Andrew Divoff, has the lead role in the movie, and he actually does keep the movie afloat. Without him, the movie would have been less than the mediocre result it was.

There wasn't really a lot of zombies in the movie, and the ones that was there had far from enough screen-time, and you hardly got to see any cool zombie make-up and special effects. Which was a major disappointment, especially in 2012 where effects and CGI should be almost a household item. And as for gore, well there was very little of that too in "Night of the Living Dead: Re-Animation".

One of the better parts of this movie was the various hints and references to other zombie movies. Some were blunt and in your face, while others were more subtle, leaving it up to real zombie aficionados to locate and point them out.

Oh, and you just got to love the scene where Gerald Tovar, Jr. is shooting zombies in the crematorium with the shotgun. Classic Hollywood moment there, as he doesn't reload, and the shotgun fires off way over 20 shots. Actually I counted 29 in total, so that was pretty awesome. Hooray for Hollywood firearms.

For a 2012 zombie movie, "Night of the Living Dead: Re-Animation" was a rather dull and mediocre experience. My hopes and expectations for this movie was shut down pretty fast. Having seen it, I am fairly certain that this particular zombie movie is not one that I will be making a second watching of.

In Hinzmaville, the mortician Gerald Tovar Jr. (Andrew Divoff) has inherited the mortuary Tovar & Son after the death of his father. Gerald is not happy with the work of his assistant DyeAnne (Robin Sydney) and his Aunt Lou (Melissa Bailey) hires Cristie Forrest (Sarah Lieving) to be the substitute for DyeAnne.

When Gerald's brother, Harold (Jeffrey Combs), visits him, Gerald discloses to Harold that the corpses delivered by the U.S. Army are reanimating and he shows the crematory to him full of bodies and body parts. The skeptical Gerald believes that his brother is insane and leaves the place. However, Aunt Lou opens the door and is bitten by a zombie, beginning an outbreak in the mortuary.

"Night of the Living Dead 3D: Re-Animation" has just been released on straight on DVD in Brazil and I was excited with the expectations of a great zombie movie with Jeffrey Combs to entertain during the interruption of "The Walking Dead". Unfortunately, despite the reasonable special effects and make-up, the story is lame and stupid, with a shotgun that does not need to reload and a ridiculous conclusion. Therefore this Z-movie does not work. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "A Noite dos Mortos Vivos: Re-Animação" ("Night of the Living Dead 3D: Re-Animation")

Corpses reanimate after Pyrophobic mortician accidentally exposes hundreds of uncremated bodies to toxic medical waste.

To director Jeff Broadstreet's credit he does manage to bag some great actors including Andrew Divoff and Jeffrey Combs in his prequel to his 2006 film. Here Divoff replaces Sid Haig, the 3D is as gimmicky Broadstreet's first offering. It shockingly tries to cash-in on the Re-Animator series as well as the Night of the Living Dead. The acting is slightly better thanks to Divoff and Combs.

If you liked Night of the Living Dead 3D (2006) expect more of the same as Re-Animation is just as bad (or good depending on your opinion), for everyone else you may want to watch Re-Animator (1985) and Night of the Living Dead (1968) again.