Horror Movie Review: Night Of The Living Dead 3D: Re-Animation (2012)

Another Night of the Living Dead movie, another one with a stupid name & another one that thinks ‘3D’ is going to get the audience interested. Amazingly this is a prequel to the movie, Night of the Living Dead 3D released back in 2006. You can read a review of it here…spoilers, it was terrible.

How this movie came about is anyone’s guess but how the director managed to get 2 horror movie heavyweights, Andrew Divoff (Wishmaster) & Jeffery Combs (Re-Animator) involved is deserving of a round of applause.

Seriously…the movie is worth watching alone for these 2 & I had the silliest grin on my face when they finally appeared on screen together.

The story is paper-thin & expects you to fill in a lot of the blanks yourself. Gerald Tovar Jr (Divoff) has inherited his families mortuary after his father died. Along with his assistants; the necrophilia-loving Goth girl, DyeAnne & newly-hired, Christie he is attempting to continue the work his father did. The only problem is the bodies are re-animating.

Unwilling to dispose of them he keeps them locked up in a room at the back. It seems some came from the Government & Gerald is desperate to capture the proof on camera. When his brother, Harold (Combs) arrives wanting money Gerald decides to confide in him about the corpses.

Harold isn’t convinced so Gerald takes him to their old house to show him the footage he has captured. Meanwhile at the Mortuary it’s all going wrong, a visit by Sister Sara (a character clearly based on Sarah Palin) occurs as Aunt Lou (the receptionist) accidently lets the dead out & gets bit. The assistants get high while dealing with a corpse & suddenly the outbreak is off & running.

That’s the story in a nutshell…it’s pretty un-inspiring & extremely boring. If you were expecting a deep & detailed explanation of how the outbreak began, you’re not getting it here. This is really disappointing & it’s not helped by a real lack of anything else going on.

Both Divoff & Combs are great to see but only Divoff has anything really meaty to sink his teeth in. Combs feels really under-used in the end & it’s a pity we didn’t get to see a bit more from him. Thankfully the duo’s interaction & conversations keep the movie afloat. Listen out for the many classic zombie movie references that don’t feel forced either.

The rest of the cast are pointless, zombie fodder, a crap Sarah Palin joke & some necrophilia jokes/references. Seriously, a getting high scene results in some strange images. Thankfully it doesn’t last long as the few zombies that do appear get going. The practical effects look good but there are a few to many CGI moments that don’t hold up so well.

I didn’t watch it in 3D & really struggled to see what parts were supposed to actually be 3D. There were a few things like blood splatters, dismemberment & an obvious gun butt to the head but nothing that seemed like it would really stand out.

An incredibly disappointing movie that would have scored a lot less had it not been for Divoff & Combs. The movie feels cheap & at times looks even cheaper.