Zombie Night, 2013

    The dead rise and attack the living, and some folks are caught up in it and struggle to survive. Uh, that's the plot. That is it. Seriously. Absolutely nothing original here. It is Zombie Night.

    There is something 'phoned-in' feeling here. As if someone at Asylum pictures said, "Get some big names, some special effects, a decent budget and keep it 'old-school,' and it can't lose."  (An’ yet, I knew I was in for it when the disc had previews for Sharknado!)

    So, the big-name cast includes Anthony Michael Hall, Daryl Hannah, Shirley Jones, and Alan Ruck. But clearly, none of them considered this resumé material, because their performances were perfunctory at best. Not bad, just not really into it. (Maybe they, too, were bored with the absolute lack of story!) 

    Of course, if the characters were given ANY TYPE of back-story, perhaps they would be more interesting to watch.

    The titular zombies had good make-up, and were fairly convincing. (One MIGHT be mean and say they were more convincing than the living!) These dead were full-on 'Romeros', creepy, scary, and fun to watch.

    So, there are my slams. On the plus side, the 'Rules of Romero' are in full effect: shambling, slow dead, eating the flesh of the living, contagion through bites, & dispatched only with head shots. The only new twist anywhere in this film, (SPOILER ALERT!!!) is the part where the dead, uh, 'de-animate' at sunrise, and become regular ol' dead again. This is never explained and only mentioned  in passing mid-film about a news report from Europe, and became the focus of hope for the survivors, to get through until sunrise. To me, this seems kinda like a cheap 'out' to wrap up the movie. But since there was no explanation for the outbreak, an explanation for its conclusion is asking for a bit much.

    There is nothing overly horrible about Zombie Night, it just has a noticeable lack of good to it. I mean, it is watchable, and could quell a zombie-movie craving, but I think re-watching Dawn of the Dead, (the 1978 original, NOT the 2004 pile of... I mean, version,) would be much more satisfying. The Zombie Movie Rubrik granted it a 2.5 with the zombies doing all the heavy-lifting on the scoring.

    Go into it knowing that it is a made-for-tv movie from SyFy and you may enjoy it. Like a nice slice of dry, toasted, white bread. 

The official trailer on the ol' YouTube  ➜ ZOMBIE NIGHT