w00f "Night of the Dead" is an incredibly low-budget knockoff of the much superior "Re-Animator" series. A general rule of thumb I have when selecting a horror flick to watch is that if more than two cast and/or crew members have the same last name, I lower my expectations. In "Night of the Dead," we have a writer/director, two actors and a producer all named Forsberg. Another indicator: a line on the DVD cover stating that this movie is "More shocking than Re-Animator!" My expectations were very low, but I love cheesy B (and lower!) grade horror flicks, so I gave it a chance.For the most part, Night of the Dead is just another straight to video, forgettable zombie splatter flick. A mad scientist with an unconvincing German accent and even less convincing lab techniques has whipped up a serum that re-animates the dead, but the dead kill the living and won't die again themselves. Somehow, the re-animated dead are contagious. If you get bitten, or if their blood gets into your bloodstream, you turn into a crazy zombie, too. This movie's greatest shortcoming is that there's absolutely nothing innovative or imaginative about it. Every single scene is interchangeable with the scenes from scores of other low-budget zombie horror movies.Most of the acting ranges from mediocre to downright awful (particularly noteworthy in this regard is David Reynolds as Gunther, the Igor to the film's equivalent of Dr. Frankenstein). There is one actor who I found very watchable, though; Diedre V. Lyons, the lead female zombie, does as good a job with the material she's given as I can imagine anyone doing. Clearly, she can act, and I wouldn't mind seeing more of her in future films, horror or otherwise.Another high point in this otherwise undistinguished flick is the special effects makeup. For such a low-budget effort, some of that work is actually very good, easily on par with noteworthy films by Romero and his ilk.There's not much more to say about Night of the Dead, though. Horror fans have seen all this before and it seems that we'll see it all again. For most viewers, the identity of this film will merge over time with those of any number of others in the genre, forming a shapeless mess quite like the buckets of gore splashed liberally about the set of the film itself.

ericxton OK people first off i chose another film over this one (serum) in hopes that between the two that one would have been better .... i have a theory "if a movie doesn't show stills from the movie itself then its so low budget that they don't want you to know it ..." ...welll that theory has stood strong and never been proved wrong until this movie !!! and i honestly doubt that my theory will ever be proved wrong again but im glad it was this time ...GREAT FILM !!! HOLY CRAP !!! everything about it was great .... good story line ...usual doctor crazy making living dead ..but the story had good solid feeling behind it ...the actors made it work even better and the gore was freaking great !!! thats what im saying when it comes to low budget films !!!! so good job to all involved with the making of this film ...and to all those out there looking for anything to watch about zombies with a better than average feel from todays films about zombies then check it out ...well worth the rent (4), vocalist - GOD IN A MACHINE

cyclone259 Originally I was going to give this film (1) star for being pointless and boring, but I'm now considering bumping it up to 2 or 3 stars. Why? Well, it's still pointless and boring, but I actually had what appear to be slight, yet tepid empathetic feelings for a couple of the characters namely those portrayed by Louis Graham and Lola Forsberg.Don't get me wrong. I'm not giving them Oscar nods, it's just that I could on some level empathize with Dr. Schreklich's character and the longing to bring back people that you lost. It reminded me of the dark, relentless obsession reflected by the father in Pet Sematary (the book, not the movie). Lola Forsberg did a decent job of portraying the voracious undead daughter that her father was still trying to love, despite her obvious "hunger for the living" issues.Aside from bumping up the likability level a notch or two, the movie was like I said before.... boring. Here's the plot synopsis as written by the director / writer / producer, etc.: "Pregnant and frightened,Anais is not allowed to leave the specialized hospital where her husband, Peter has a medical internship with his uncle, Dr. Gabriel Schreklich, a man with a serum that can resurrect the dead. But things go terribly wrong and the Ghouls take over the hospital. Now, the only way for Anais to save her unborn baby is to get one of the Ghouls to help her to escape." Why Anais is being kept at the clinic isn't made clear until the end of the film and then it's rather cheesy. There are obvious blunders throughout the film, namely why some of the fully ambulatory characters couldn't outrun a slow-moving ghoul. The most hilarious though is at the end of the movie where after escaping the exploding clinic, they cut to a scene of Anais (she's pregnant) sitting with a blanket on her. A paramedic listens to her swollen belly and says "Sorry, but it appears your baby didn't make it." He then walks off like it's no big deal, leaving a pregnant woman with a dead fetus (turns out it's an undead fetus) in her womb sitting on the curb so he can take a coffee break. My other favorite scene (also at the end of the movie) is when the only other survivor, Dr. Schreklich's undead daughter, Lola shows up amazingly well-kept after the explosion and walks over to Anais. A fireman says "Is this your daughter?" to which Anais hesitates and says "Uh, why yes she is." Thankfully that's all the proof the fireman needs for a complete stranger to take custody of a young, lost child. I assume he also heads off to have a coffee break with the paramedic from the earlier interaction.This production is not better than any version of "Re-animator", even the 'made-for-video' releases. The box art is extremely deceptive to give the appearance of a "Re-animator-esque" film, although both movies are about reanimating the dead, Re-animator is leaps and bounds in every aspect: production, acting, effects, etc. While I don't doubt that Mr. Forsberg has talent, every now and then you get a dud along the way.

elliecarlson As with his last film, Alien Abduction, Eric Forsberg does amazing work with a small budget. I would really be eager to see what he could do with more money. His actors are all excellent and the script has good plot twists and lots of humor. The special effects are turn-away scary, and his monster/ghoul/zombie things show unique individuality not usually seen in this type of film. I really liked the plot twist at the end, something he also did in Alien Abduction and I didn't see either of them coming. Mr. Forsberg is a most talented screenwriter and director, limited only by budget. Somebody give this guy a huge chunk of money and let him make a first rate film, I know he could do it.