Night of the Animated Dead

• Directed by Jason Axinn
• September 21, 2021-Digital / October 5, 2021 Blu-ray and DVD

Voice Cast

• Harry Cooper-Josh Duhamel
• Ben-Dulé Hill
• Barbara-Katharine Isabelle
• Tom-James Roday Rodriguez
• Judy-Katee Sackhoff
• Sheriff McClelland-Will Sasso
• John-Jimmi Simpson
• Helen Cooper-Nancy Travis
• Vince-Stefan Marks
• Radio Announcer, General, Field Reporter-William Calvert
• TV Commentator, Reporter #2-Chris Edgerly
• Dr. Grimes-Ian Duncan
• Posse Member-Matt Corboy
• Karen-Ashley Lambert           
• Scientist #1-Dave Zyler
• Scientist #2, Police Officer-Jason Griffith
• Reporter #1-Warren Sroka

While visiting their father’s grave, two siblings are attacked in what is the first sign of a zombie apocalypse.

Having seen animated films like the two Dead Space promotional films as well as the promotional movie Dante’s Inferno for the game of the same name based on the book, I have been convinced that doing a serious animated horror film is possible. With quality animation and a willingness to hold nothing back, you could make something quite frightening. So when I heard of this I was intrigued.

Night of the Animated Dead certainly shows the potential, but it is more a step in the right direction than an achievement of the concept of making an animated horror film. The level of gore and shocking imagery was detailed and high, but their were no real scares to be had.

This film obviously draws its inspiration from Night of the Living Dead though this film is said to not be part of the official Dead canon. They forgot to tack on a copyright notice to the original so it exists in the public domain. Oops! It has been quite a few years since I have seen the original movie but there are most certainly points here where I recognize elements of that movie. But this film also contains some clearly new scenes as well. They managed to streamline and tell the same story in a shorter time without really loosing anything.

I admit though I would have preferred to see a completely animated version of the source material where they used the completed audio and simply created an animated film around that. I think that would have been kind of cool, but it would have also required better animation than they use here.

The characters designs are pretty good and do a fine job of emulating the original film, but the execution of the animation is rather stiff. I am guessing it was all done in flash animation which in my understanding is cost-effective (i.e. cheap) but such a technique should only be reserved for humorous things. You can use that and make it jokey but if you are going for something more serious you should probably spend a few more bucks. Despite the use of cheap animation, they have a good and engaging story.

A quick search will bring up images if you are interested in a visual comparison between this and the original. In my opinion this looks very much like the original film. The character designs are so very close as is the entire look. The only way they could have been any closer would have been to make the film in black and white.

Even though there are some shortcomings I would recommend Night of the Animated Dead. The quality of the story manages to cover the limitations of the animation and keep you interested from beginning to end. I say watch it!