Night Of The Animated Dead (2021) Review
Directed by: Jason Axinn
Starring: Josh Duhamel, Dulé Hill, Katharine Isabelle, James Roday Rodriguez, Katee Sackhoff, Will Sasso, Jimmi Simpson and Nancy Travis
Synopsis: In Night of the Animated Dead, siblings Barbara and Johnny visit their father’s grave in a remote cemetery in Pennsylvania when they are suddenly set upon by zombies. Barbara flees and takes refuge in an abandoned farmhouse along with stranded motorist Ben and four local survivors found hiding in the cellar. Together, the group must fight to stay alive against the oncoming horde of zombies while also confronting their fears and prejudices.
Review: Night Of The Animated Dead is a reimagined version of the classic Romero movie, with plenty of gore and some twists throughout, to keep the avid “I’ve seen it before” viewers on their toes.
The cast is stellar and is a huge draw, for any horror fan seeing Katharine Isabelle is an instant draw, she is a stellar scream queen, names like Dulé Hill and Katee Sackhoff and Josh Duhamel are instant draws. Sadly with such a tight cast, the movie doesn’t live up to what you would expect. The character of Barbara doesn’t develop and is rather unlikeable and is a mere shadow of what the character should be like.
The animation feels quite dated, it’s like watching an old Scooby-Doo episode at times, I must add that there are plenty of gory moments that look well on screen and these moments are never far between. At various points in the movie, the zombies do things that make them less zombie, like breaking lights with stones or even stabbing people to death, which isn’t zombie-like at all, that’s more zombie Jason (Friday the 13th fans, will get that reference).
Overall, Night Of The Animated Dead will not please hardcore fans of ‘The Dead’ series but may help the series gain some new fans. From that, I would say old fans check it out and make your own call. New fans, just enjoy the ride, then go back and watch the classics from director George Romero.
