This might sound completely bizarre, but zombie movies are quite similar to pizzas, I know what in the hell are you talking, but think about, they are. First some are icky, dripping grease and unappealing, and others the process to make them very unhealthy (ever seen some of those kitchens – time to barf), and then there’s the gourmet, vegan and just simply the perfect ones. Oh of course there’s the Italian delicatessens or Sicilians, with a few other variations, but in the end often enough somebody makes the frozen or freezer burned for the fans to gobble down uneasily, but likely suffer some bowel discomfort. That’s brings us to this television creation from The Asylum and released October 26, 2013 on Syfy , that contains the basic ingredients of genre zombie elements, thanks to the trio screenwriters Richard Schenkman (Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies [2012]), Keith Allan, and Delondra Williams both who worked on Rise of the Zombies [2012] hence all had experience with the undead storylines. Then mix in director John Gulagar known for Piranha 3DD [2012] and most recently Children of the Corn: Runaway [2018], appeared incapable hands, then again one must recall its television horror.
One night, the dead rise no actual reason, both those recently died and others long buried, as the madness slowly rises, a handful of people attempt to survive the onslaught of the growing number of zombies. Hence traveling through an accident scene, Patrick (Anthony Michael Hall (Halloween Kills [2020])) realizes the dangers and takes a short cut, right by the horror cliché of a cemetery in the car with him, his daughter Traci (Rachel G. Fox) and friend Rachel (Meg Rutenberg). It appears that Patrick and his family are friends of neighbor Joseph (Alan Ruck (Carnage Park [2016])) and his family, with terrible planning and immoral preppers next door, more on this in moment. After striking a man down with his car Patrick investigates, but the dead are marching onward, and Rachel runs into the cemetery getting separated from her friend and they also scamper across the graveyard to a makeshift grounds-keeper building. While chaos reigns on, Rachel climbs a tree, drops her phone (which keeps working even the cell towers should be overwhelmed – wait that’s a thinking element not included in the movie); she then throws her flip-flops at a zombie to distract, perhaps in a former life he had a foot fetish because it worked; however, she falls out of the script soon afterwards. Meanwhile, as Patrick tries to make it home, his wife Birdy (Daryl Hannah (The Final Terror [1983])) along with her senile whining mother Nana (Shirley Jones) begin struggle for survive, and a Janice (Tia Robinson (Rise of the Zombies [2012])) friend of theirs makes a breaking entrance, though any viewer knows she won’t make it to the end. As madness occurs with one family the other struggles too namely with Joseph’s mismanagement of everything, his one son Perry (Daniel Ross Ownes (The Final [2010])) refuse to go into the shelter because he’s waiting for his girlfriend Traci, ugh young love. Meanwhile, Joseph holds the housekeeper Irina (Zoe Canner) prisoner locking her in unsafe room as she utters weirdness, but his young son Nathan causes deadly consequences within the lovely Victorian House. All of the stupid decisions doom their survival. The police make a minor appearance making foolish choices and neither able to help anyone. But one sees the problems, running here and there and escape the clutches of the undead, dwindling the body count, until dawn where the dead stay dead.
A few things, first this is not a remake of the 2003 film of the same name by director David J. Francis, and then the filmmakers brought in some talent actors, but they become trapped in a script that suffers from no actual plot and tissue-paper thinness of characters. Then deploying the stereotypical manner of killing off Tia Robinson’s character, serious groans for that action, this leads to the issue of a quicken pace to a movie, various scenes and situations developing quicken and ending even faster, which made it impossible to root for a character. The set construction in some areas are typical cheap for The Asylum movies and television in general, but they squander some wonderful locations while the technical aspects all hit the marks from cinematography by Damian Horan (Assimilate [2019]), lighting sounds, and the music came from none other than Alan Howarth (Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers [1989]), a name well-known in the horror community, some positives versus many negatives. One thing I did notice about the zombies in general it’s obvious the have great teeth structure, never rotting out, or chipping one on bones or skulls incredible talent, also the rotting corpses don’t have parts of themselves falling off, they know how to keep themselves together.
Overall I found myself torn on this movie, on one aspect quicken pace for the dead uprising, , no reason given for it happening and no introduction to the characters however works as strong negative, it has the audience less caring of the centralized characters, which to root for and others to despise. Zombie Night ignores a few important concepts in the subgenres, first the characters namely the people and how this apocalypse affects their lives, survival and emotional breakdowns. Therefore if you enjoy slap dash bash zombie flicks, running barely on empty than this flick might just munch on you for a while.
TAGLINE:
- Tonight, at sundown … the dead will live.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2978716/
IMDb Rating: 3.4/10
Baron’s Rating: 3.5/10