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Release Date: September 9th, 2006 (limited)

I had the pleasure of hitting Grauman’s Egyptian Theater for a midnight showing and American Premiere of Night of the Living Dead 3D. Sig Haig, Brianna Brown, as well as some other cast and crew, were all in attendance, so it was a good night to be there.

Night of the Living Dead 3D is clearly a remake. I’ve seen the original and the previous remake, and this film is clearly the worst of them. Not that it’s a bad film, it’s just really not that great. Now don’t get me wrong, the 3D was freakin amazing. If you get a chance to see this in 3D, by all means take it. I hope more and more films get shot on 3D in the future. It’s really a completely new experience.

The basic storyline is this: The dead have returned to life and want to feed on the living. Barb is on the run from the zombies when she’s rescued by Ben, a low-level drug dealer who spirits her away to his supplier and fellow deadhead’s house. The zombies follow them here and soon the house is under siege. The caretaker of the local mortuary shows up and it’s clear he’s not telling the whole truth.

The acting of the film is good for a low budget film. It didn’t detract from the experience at all, and the directing was competent. The sound-design left a lot to be desired, though, as the gunshots sounded like impotent fireworks. The gore factor was ok, but pretty low in comparison to other remakes.

All in all, its a fun thing to see in 3D and before you ask, yes they shoot a bullet at you, yes glass breaks towards you, there’s a cool shovel thrust and most importantly of all – Yes, there are boobies in 3D. I’m glad we got that out of the way.

It has a short run-time and will probably only appeal to fans of 3D or NOTLD, and even then it’s not that engaging and really doesn’t offer anything new, despite the slightly changed plotline. Now, I’ve never been totally against remakes and even give most of them a shot and came out liking a few of them. This one has severe “I’m a remake” syndrome though, and you just know you’ve seen it before and whats going to happen. Even though they throw you a little curveball, it still ends up just being more of the same.

Final Grade: C

The Upside: The 3D is awesome. See it if you can, but only in 3D.

The Downside: The story is unoriginal and fails to engage the audience. It’s just another remake.

On the Side: The films world premiere was in Spain. This was the American premiere. The crew needed specially designed steadicam and glidecam systems to support the innovative HD3 3D cameras that were used.