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Night of the Animated Dead
By Brian Costello,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Graphic violence in animated remake of classic horror tale.
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Night of the Animated Dead
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What's the Story?
In NIGHT OF THE ANIMATED DEAD, Barbara (Katherine Isabelle) and her brother Johnny have arrived at a cemetery in rural Pennsylvania to leave flowers at their father's grave. Shortly after arriving, they begin to see lurching bodies approaching them. While Barbara narrowly escapes when they attack, Johnny isn't so lucky. Running for her life, Barbara finds an empty farmhouse as she sees more and more undead beginning to approach the house. Soon, a man named Ben arrives, who escaped the zombies after they destroyed a nearby diner. Ben (Dule Hill) begins to board up the windows, and pleas with Barbara to help him, but she's traumatized by witnessing her brother's death. Soon, a man named Cooper (Josh Duhamel) and a local named Tom emerge from the basement, where they've been hiding with Mrs. Cooper and the Coopers' ailing daughter, Karen. After turning on the radio, they discover that hordes of dead people have come to life, attacking the living and feasting on their flesh. They also learn that the government and military have set up safe havens for the living to stay and survive while the government, military, scientists, and law enforcement try to figure out what's going on, and how to stop the zombies. Ben wants to fill the truck outside with gas and get everyone to safety, but Cooper wants to stay in the basement. As more and more zombies arrive outside the farmhouse, the situation inside the farmhouse becomes increasingly desperate, as Ben, Cooper, and the others try to find a way to live as the zombie hordes grow ever larger.
Is It Any Good?
This is an earnest, if unnecessary, animated remake of a genre-defining horror classic. Night of the Animated Dead is more graphically violent than the original, but aside from this and a minimalist (either due to style or economy) animation style, there's nothing much different from this and the 1968 Night of the Living Dead on which it's based. It doesn't bring any new perspectives to this movie, or to the zombieverse depicted in the other George Romero movies in the Dead franchise. If you've seen the original, this doesn't do much to bring on a deeper appreciation. If you haven't seen the original, there's no reason why you shouldn't just choose to watch the original instead. Nonetheless, while cynics may question why this would be made, it does come across as a sincere tribute to what makes Night of the Living Dead a classic.
The voice actors do solid work across the board, which plays into the tribute aspects of the movie. Perhaps the low-budget animation is also intended to be a tribute of sorts to the low-budget aesthetic of the original. If that's the case it's fine for what it is, but at the same time, like any tribute or remake, you want something new, something more than a modernized or animated version. This doesn't really do that, and if there's some question as to why it would be made in the first place, such questions naturally lead to why anyone should watch it in the first place. Why listen to a note-for-note cover band when you can just as easily listen to the real deal? Tribute or not, there isn't enough here to justify its existence.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about remakes like Night of the Animated Dead. How is this similar to and different from the original Night of the Living Dead? Which do you prefer, and why?
How does this movie stay true to some of the deeper messages the original was communicating about the events, mood, and tensions of the 1960s?
Movies and TV shows centered on zombies remain popular. Why do you think this is?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: September 21, 2021
- Cast: Josh Duhamel , Dule Hill , Katharine Isabelle
- Director: Jason Axinn
- Inclusion Information: Black actors, Female actors
- Studio: Warner Home Video
- Genre: Horror
- Topics: Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- Run time: 71 minutes
- MPAA rating: R
- MPAA explanation: Bloody/gruesome zombie violence.
- Last updated: October 8, 2022
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