Children of the Living Dead - The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.

Children of the Living Dead
USA 2002. Director: Tor Ramsey
Cast: Tom Savini, Martin Schiff, Damien Luvara, Heidi Hinzman

Producer John A. Russo and actor/cinematograher Bill Hinzman has done everything in their power to mismanage, exploit and desecrate the original Night of the Living Dead, including shooting new footage and calling it the 30th anniversary edition or something (avoid at all costs). Children of the Living Dead is the latest cash-in from the duo, and as long as George Romero doesn't get his thumbs out of his Pittsburgh ass for a fourth real living dead movie, we are forced to be content with amateurish "remakes" such as this.

The plot is as follows. 14 years ago, in a little small town somewhere in Pennsylvania, the dead walked the earth until Tom Savini could kill them all almost by himself. Only he missed one; Abbot Hayes, a once death-sentenced and electricuted psychotic killer turned zombie. Now 14 years later Hayes is still said to walk around at night. When a constructing company arrives and begin to build on the old graveyard, digging up the dead bodies in order to move them to another place, they give Hayes a good opportunity to wake the dead once again.

The prologue is acceptable. After all, there's zombies all over the field getting shot in the head as they're trying to reach the town and the meat. I should probably be ashamed for saying it, but that's all I need. Tom Savini also does a good day's work here, shooting and blowing up zombies in ingenious manor. Unfortunately, as soon as Savini buys the farm (i.e dies) the film becomes a piece of crap. Dubbed crap even. There's nothing in the last 75 minutes of the film to recommend. There's an attempt at getting the film back on track at the end, when a dozen of construction workers armed to their teeth are trapped in a house under siege by zombies, but even this ends up stupid and inept. Children of the Living Dead makes a nice double-bill with Bill Hinzman's Revenge of the Living Zombies, but there's not one single scene in any of them that beats any scene in any film in George Romero's classic Dead trilogy.