Children of the Living Dead

This film is the most hideous thing you can imagine. To give you an example of how bad this is, one of the reasons given why the dead are coming back to life is that the zombie king (?) was forced to cross dress as a child.

Yes, forget radiation, disease or nanotech, this time it's transvestitism that brings the dead out of their graves.

There is a scene where a car goes over a cliff. The FX brings to mind that old TV show where marionettes pilot a spaceship. The actors (?) say their line "No ahhh" while they die. This scene pretty well sums up the film.

This is a horrible, horrible film. There are not enough bad adjectives to describe it. You should see it simply because it is so horrible.

I wouldn't necessarily call myself an expert, but I like zombie films. A lot. I watch any and all zombie films I can get my hands on. This is the first time I've ever thought "What the heck did I just waste an hour and a half watching?" I've even suffered through Shatter Dead and Bruno Mattei's Hell of the Living Dead and didn't think that.

The sound is atrocious...who in the world thought that looping almost the entire movie was a good idea? How did they afford to have Savini back to ADR ALL of his lines?! Was the make-up artist a student of his?! Geez...at least Savini looks better in this than he did in From Dusk Til Dawn. When I saw that, I started to fear for his life...

Handheld is fine and dandy...but why not spend the money for the "explosions" on SteadyCam rental? Or use a dolly more (wheelchair and a tripod, baby...read Stanley Kubrick's biography (the beige one) and Robert Rodriguez's Rebel Without a Crew!)?

The direction was...not so bad. Tor Ramsey has potential. Hopefully, his next movies will be better.

The script. Don't even get me started. I was intrigued to see that a woman wrote it...but it sucked. The dialogue was stilted and sounded like this was the first draft, the exposition was too bloody long and repeated too much, and that first scene needed to be cut a little. I began to wonder if Ms. Wolf had ever watched any horror films, much less any zombie movies.

Go watch Bio-Zombie...Lucio Fulci's The Beyond...Return of the Living Dead...geez, watch that Mattei crap, but just do yourself a favour and DON'T WATCH THIS.

From Children of the Living Dead, I have obtained more hours of enjoyment than watching any other movie. I can watch this film numerous times, laugh at how hilariously bad it is and still find something new each time. For instance, when we get a brief glimpse inside the construction site building, why is there gang graffiti on the walls? Or, if you watch the very beginning when Savini and the sheriff are walking towards the house, you can see something from the sheriff's belt make a big shine reflection on the house. Thank you, John Russo and all your cronies for pumping out good quality garbage like this. The bad dubbing, the horrible acting, the horrible script....Oh, and that brings up the end credits. I love how in the end credits, that there is a separate credit for "Abbott Hayes is an original character by" and then they give the screen writer's name. I guess the writer was afraid that people would think that someone else came up with the idea of the great zombie villain Abbott Hayes, or maybe they were afraid that someone would rip him off and that he would become as big as Jason or Freddy Kreugar. Oh, a fun drinking game to play is to take a drink for every time you see someone with the last name "Hinzman" in the end credits. You'll die of alcohol poisoning by the time they stop rolling.

I was even IN this movie (as an uncredited extra) and I knew at the time it was going to be bad. What I didn't realize was how bad bad could be.

I know one of the cameramen and he knew better how bad it was going to be but after seeing the stunning editing job they did, he too was amazed at the appalling disjointed quality of this film. I hesitate to use the word 'film' even. And don't use the word 'professionalism' either, as jelly was spilt on at least one roll of film and things had to be reshot. Why did they bother?

Children Of The Living Dead at time of writing currently has an outstandingly low 2.3 rating on IMDb. It's rare to see something that low but there is a story behind this weak zombie film.

Children Of The Living Dead was setup to be the next great zombie film, the stars were aligned as the cast and crew was packed full of legends within the industry and the film had a modest half a million dollar budget.

Sadly it wasn't meant to be. Nepotism ran rampant, friends and family were brought in instead of genuine talent and were given offensively high salaries. Morale was non-existent, arguments and creative issues were a daily occurrence and the end result was a terrible film that many have publicly slammed despite their part in it.

Tom Savini especially has been vocal, claiming it should have been something special but descended into something he regrets.

It has a real Romero feel to it and our antagonist is actually quite good. Sadly with weak looking zombies, terrible acting/writing and a conflicted tone the film is destined to be infamous for all the wrong reasons.

The Good:

Tom Savini

The Bad:

Gunplay is laughable

Shoddily made

Tone shifts

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

There is nothing to fear but fear itself.....and zombies