Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I see Harry posted one of the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 3-D reviews from the opening night of the 3-D Expo at the Egyptian Theater. I spent my afternoon watching all three Indiana Jones flicks back to back at the lovely Paramount theater here in Austin, but I can honestly say that as cool as that was, I do regret not being able to sit in the Egyptian this week bombarding my senses with the best of the best 3-D the world has ever seen. Anyway, here's the review that was waiting for me when I got back from hangin' with Dr. Jones, courtesy of "Bizzaro Bepo." Enjoy!
Hey Quint,
Thought you might be interested in some info on Night Of The Living Dead 3-D. They screened it as a midnight showing on the opening night of the Egyptian Theater's 3-D Film Expo. You posted a previous story saying that the film would be debuting in theaters in the fall. From what the creators of the film were saying at the screening, I'm not sure that is going to happen. If it is it apparently will be being screened with the red/green lens glasses as aopposed to the polarized lens process because we were told our screening would be one of the few times the film would be shown using the polarized lens glasses.
As to the movie itself? It's a mixed bag of some good and some bad but I found myself wanting to like it. The folks behind it clearly love the film and worked hard to make it as good as they possibly could with the money they had to work with. Now I say that based on the film and not on anything the filmmakers said. You can tell they worked hard to make the film all it could be. The script is clever and funny. Even with zombie films being such an old genre, they managed to find some new twists on it. For instance in most zombie movies, somebody dies, they sort of fade off and then after a couple of seconds - da da dummmm!!! - the dead rise! Living Dead 3-D sets the rules a little differently. You don't have to lay down and die and then come back. By this films logic, if you had a heart attack and your heart stopped while you were standing and conscious, you would just slide right into being the undead. You wouldn't even know it until your brain started to die off and you slowly slid into full, "I want to eat you" mode. It's a fun idea. The film is also smart enough to say, hey, if the dead came back while buried in their graves... how could they possibly get out and to the surface? The film then figures away around this. And unlike the other dead films, in this film an explanation of sorts is given as to what has caused the dead to rise. Not that a reason has to be given. The dead coming back for no reason is scary and works well in other films. But in this case being told the reason is fun. You basically get to have a scene where one character with some embarrassment has to say, "Yeahh... this whole 'dead rising', 'end of the world thing'? Uhhh... that is probably my bad. Sorry about that." I thought the shit was funny.
Then there is Sid Haig who plays moritician Gerald Tovar. He was a lot of fun. Most of the characters in the film are running scared from the undead or in true to the real world disbelief that the dead could be rising. Sid Haig's character doesn't fit either group. He seems at first oddly in denial. At the start Barbara stumbles into his place of business to find some Tovar's recent "customers" being less than cooperative, eating some of the staff... Tovar is amusingly trying to be professional, saying with a smile, "M'am, you can't be here. We're having some problems today," as he smacks zombies with a shovel. As the film goes on you learn that this guy is in all sorts of weird denials and dillusions all of them pretty... well I don't know that fun is the right word but...
They also are aware of the original film that is funky. The original Night Of The Living Dead clearly exists as a film in the world of this film. Characters are shown watching it. At the same time, character names and the basic starting point from the orginal film are reused in the film. I kind of liked the balls of that. Ben, Barbara and the Cooper family are running from zombies as other characters are watching a movie about Ben, Barbara and the Cooper family running from zombies. They also manage new spins on things like Barbara's brother's being a jerk and one of the most famous lines from the orginal film.
There's also just plain out odd funny lines and moments. For instance, the house everyone gathers in is the house of... counter establishment types. When Barbara wants to phone the police they object because, one, they don't beleive there are zombies, two, the police won't believe a call about zombies and, three, the whole place is a giant marijuana farm. Everntually it becomes clear the zombies are real and they do need the cops. Pot grower Henry Cooper is distraught because he doesn't want to call the cops but knows he has to and ends up deciding, "Yeah, I guess you're right. When the dead rise and start attacking I guess ya gotta call the cops." Hehehe. Yeah, I hate it when that happens.
That's all the good. The bad, the thing that trips the film up a bit, is the film could have used a bigger a budget. I don't think they had the money to do as much as they could have. As much as you would like them to. I and the rest of the audience were clearly primed for some heavy duty splattery blood and guts gore. And there is some gore but... seemed like there should be more. I mean it's 3-D. I would expect to be ducking as blood, livers... maybe a pancreas or two came flying at me. Not so much. I don't think they 3-D anything gross coming at the audience. There are also some lengthy talking scenes. That's fine if the idea is to hold off on the gore as you ratchet up the tension but some of these scenes didn't seem to be about building suspense or tension. They seemed more about filling screen time with something that wouldn't cost money to the effects budget. And I don't fully get why you would skimp on the gore. I mean, go low tech. Get tons of extras (you don't get that scope of there being zillions of zombies), buy some cheap animal parts from the butchers... gore it up. Even if it doesn't look big budget, I'm willing to forgive if something disgusting is actually on screen and flying at my face. I think maybe they decided to go classy. Like, "We have a smart script and we'd rather go for subtle and creepy than just throwing around gore." Or maybe they used a thought like that to justify showing less. I dunno. All I do know is it's a 3-D horror film. That's exploitation genre on top of exploitation genre! It's a license to be gory. People coming in are going to expect it. Yet two major characters die trapped in a room while we watch from a distance outside the house seeing nothing that is going on and only hearing some gunshots. What the?!?!? In another film that would be okay but in a 3-D zombie movie???
Finally there were actually a few issues with the 3-D. Shortly into the film it suddenly hit me... is a movie set almost entirely at night a good idea for a 3-D movie? Lots of black night doesn't necessarily lend itself to lots of deep 3-D. Not that it can't work but you'd hope they really plan it for 3-D; make sure there is some sort of lighting, some things visible at various depths in the picture. They didn't plan this film that deeply. Not that the movie was shot badly, it just doesn't seem to have been shot with a mind towards really making the 3-D as effective as possible. Worst though was that there were points where the 3-D just seemed wonky. Some folks walking out seemed to think they had messed up on the depth of field somehow. But for me there were a number of points where it just seemed they out and out flipped the 3-D images around. There's a shot with a guy sitting in a chair. Behind the arm of the chair is a floorlamp. Looking at the floorlamp, it seemed to be floating out in front of the chair, oddly copped off at the bottom where the lamp went behind the chair. Even weirder, and worse for the filmmakers to fix, these errors were on individual cuts. It's not like they got the film somehow flipped so that an entire reel played wrong. They were running the film off of video servers. It would be good 3-D shot, good 3-D shot, shot where the 3-D is inverted, good 3-D shot... if it was just a reel that would be an easy fix. This is a case where I really think they need to go in shot by shot and make sure somebody didn't goof.
All that said, I hate to talk bad about the flick. It's a solid effort with some fun stuff. But it does just need MORE. Again, listening to people as they left, it seemed like most everyone there was out for some blood and they didn't get their fill. Liked what was there but needed more.
Call me Bizzaro Bepo
Hey folks, Harry here... This sounds like a fun 3D time, though not as great as one would hope... but then that's what happens when you try to remake perfection like the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Here ya go. Hope this plays around places in 3D - especially here in Austin and of course wherever you are. Here it is...
Hey, Run-And-Gun here, the guy who dropped the review for Death Proof on you guys awhile back. The cast of that, by the way, is looking great. Really glad to see Kurt Russell in there, despite how cool Mickey Rourke usually is. Anyway, on to the new. Here in LA at Grauman's Egyptian the World 3D Expo II is going on and to kick off their first midnight show they picked none other than Night of the Living Dead 3D and I was in attendance.
The World 3D Expo looks cool, if you're interested in 3D and in LA. There's a ton of stuff playing. This, by the way, was the first and possibly only time NOTLD3D will be played in Polariod Projection 3D and it's American premiere. In attendance was the man, Sid Haig, as well as the director, Jeff Broadstreet, the two leads Joshua DesRoches (Ben), and the hottie Brianna Brown (Barb. Yes Barb, she doesn't like being called Barbara), as well as a few other cast and crew. But seeing Sid Haig was, of course, awesome. He's everything you'd expect in person (funny and friendly, but a little intimidating still) and taller than I expected. It was cool.
So the show starts late at 12:15pm and we're rushed through the Cast/Crew portion of the evening and basically all we get is the guy responsible for the 3D talking and the Director does a few shout outs. So onto the film.
My Reaction: I wish I could say I really loved the film. Hell, I wish I can say it was at least pretty good, but sadly, I was a little let down by it. Probably because its NOTLD and we've all seen the original and the Tom Savini version and the countless rip-offs, there's nothing new. Well, that's not true. A few things are different. Cell phones have been invented, but no one carries them. The big twist from the other versions involves the cause of the rise of the dead which is related to Sid Haig's character. I won't go into too much detail right now, I'll spoil it for those who want it spoiled later. The acting was good enough and it was competently directed. The sound design lacked something and the gunshots sounded like weak fireworks.
But. The 3D was awesome. That's what makes this film, obviously. If you get a chance to see it in 3D, I definitely recommend it. I was never really a big fan of 3D, not having too much exposure to it, but it really creates a deeper involvement. It's amazing to see the new depths of the film. I'm a fan, now. Plus, we get some 3D boobies. One scene with broken glass seemed to put the fragments in your lap.
The Basic Story: Barb and her brother are on the way to the cemetery. Yup. They get there and uhoh, Zombies. Ben swoops in on a motorcycle and rescues her, taking her to his friends house. There we meet all our victims and the story is off. The house is under siege.
Clever Things(?): There were a few cool references to the source material thrown in. They're watching the original NOTLD on TV and one pot-head refers to it as "the curse of the movie." The famous line "They're coming to get you, Barbara" is replaced with a text message "Barb. Coming 4 u" They also refer to the living dead as zombies in this one. There's a lot of familiar things, but I do respect that they tried to go in new ways, although it didn't hook me.
Alright, that's about it for me. I'll tack on some spoilerish stuff at the bottom. But like I said, if you can see this projected in 3D, definitely do it. Otherwise, its a remake that doesn't quite hit all the right notes. Sig Haig still rocks. Oh, and if you catch this, keep your glasses on and stay through the credits. Don't say I never gave you anything.
Run-And-Gun
Spoilers of Varying Degrees:
The inhabitants of the house are growing large amounts of marijuana and are thus reluctant to call the cops. Turns out the phones are down later anyways, but there is a lot of pot smoking going on and cool 3D smoke rings and joint passes. Sig Haig's character is the owner of a Mortuary who, after the death of his father, could not bring himself to cremate any bodies. So for the past 2 years he's just been storing them and he figures there must be a few hundred. Haig's mortuary was also supposed to be used to destroy medical wastes and medical experiments, but he couldn't bring himself to use the crematorium at all. He figures some stuff leaked into the bodies and waa-laa. Living Dead. This actually leads to a pretty cool God complex he develops and his relation to the zombies is unique, but the rest of the movie is still unfulfilling. Haig double-crosses Ben and Barb and is more interested in taking care of the Zombies then other humans. He even keeps his own father, zombified, in the living room and feeds him from his own wrist. The last few minutes are actually really interesting. Its a shame the whole movie couldn't have been just a bit more than it is, and really get you interested in something new. That's about that.
