Review: Night of the Living Dead 3D: Re-animation (2012)

Another day, another zombie movie. In this sort of prequel to director Jeff Broadstreet's 2006 3D remake of Night of the Living Dead, Andrew (Wishmaster) Divoff plays Gerald Tovar, jr (the character Sid Haig played in the previous film), a mortician who has inherited the family business when papa died. Trouble is, Gerald has an aversion to fire, so has not been cremating bodies like he should be, leading to a back log of corpses. One of daddy's secrets was accepting and disposing of chemical waste from the military, and Gerald has kept this lucrative sideline, but instead of incinerating, he stores the bags with the bodies. When some waste comes in contact with the rotten pile, the dead begin to rise again, much the annoyance (at first) of Gerald. Adding to his problems are prodigal brother Harold (the wonderful Jeffrey Combs) begins sniffing around for some inheritance money. There's a sort of sub-plot involving a Sarah Palin-type (Denise Duff) and some not too subtle humour aimed at the right wing side of American politics (as I'm British, I'll plead ignorance of such things to stay on the safe side) but it's the undead you want to see, and when they do appear there is some fun to be had. There's also a bizarre drug induced sequence with the mortuary assistant, a lovely goth looking girl named DyeAnne (Robin Sydney from The Gingerbread Man) who claims to have necromantic tenancies, handyman Russell (Adam Chambers, who played a different character in 2006 film) and newly employed embalmer Cristie (Sarah Lieving) which doesn't really add anything other than the chance to watch Robin get down to her undies and ride a corpse.

The story really has very little to do with the original George A Romero story (although it does manage to reference it when the brothers begin to talk about the 'problem'; "Are they shamblers or sprinters?" "Slow.." "Ahh... Romero Zombies!") which is a blessing, at least. Would we really want another re-hash of the same story? However, the zombie sub-genre is getting very tired now, and even the interesting story we have here can not save it. Nor, sadly, can the 3D effects. While it is fun to have shovels and shotguns pointed out of the  screen at you, they should embellish, not replace the enjoyment of the film.

Had it not been for the two fantastic genre favourite leads, this may well have been an arduous watch. As it is, it is at least entertaining if a little drawn out. The effects range from fantastic to the annoyingly awful, with too much emphasis on CGI gore. A lot of the 3D effects were rendered in CGI too which while it works, leads the image to look a little too layered, and false rather than the natural vision 3D should provide.

It's worth checking out, and try and watch it in 3D as you will at least get the most out of what is on offer. I'd imagine watching it 'flat' would drop it down a point at least.
The Blu-ray has several interesting special features (which are in 3D too, bonus!) including one on the creation of the CGI 3D effects which is worth a look). If you have the hardware to watch this in the extra dimension, it's worth a rent certainly, or wait for the price to reduce and check it out. Personally, I manage to snag it from Amazon for £8 as a pre-order (last I checked it was still at that price). Try and avoid the anaglyph DVD version though to get the best out of the 3D.
6 out of 10

The Taint (2010) - hold on to your wangs!

Imagine Bad Taste, Street Trash and all the Troma films you can think of being put in a cinematic blender with a parody porn movie... and you still wouldn't get anything as "out there" as The Taint.

 

An experimental fluid, meant to have the same effect as viagra, only stronger has gotten into the water supply causing all the males (and their members) to become very angry and very violent. Can our hero, Paddy O' Ginny (co director Drew Bolduc), himself a misogynistic wimp and the lovely Misandra (Colleen Walsh) save the day from the marauding,  head smashing, jizz spurting morons who have become tainted?

 

While most low (no) budget films rely on their gross out effects and eagerness of their female cast members to disrobe to entertain, The Taint spends large chunks of its brief 70min running time on back story and plot. But don't worry, the gore is back sooner than you think! The effects here are nothing short of superb, regardless of the budget - although the constant fake penises are a little too, well, fake (the adult shop must have sold out of dildos while these guys were making this, that many get destroyed!)

The thing with this film is, it's actually very well made. The guys have managed to make a no budget film that uses it's lack of budget to it's advantage. The characters have that throw back to the 80s look with the wigs, etc.. (remember the Beastie Boys' Sabotage promo shot by Spike Jonze?) and the dialogue is suitably over the top, but the winner here, as I say is the effects. It's the sort of film Bill Zebub wishes he could make, but keeps missing out on. 

What's even better is the price of the film. You can get it from the guys themselves for less than £10 UK delivered. ($12 in the US). They are also selling it on good old retro VHS and with other packages that are worth looking at. This is a cult classic just waiting to be discovered, and devoured, the perfect film to watch with a few mates and a few beers . Go and discover people...
8 out of 10