Festival of the Living Dead (2024)
Director: Jen SoskaSylvia Soska
Writers: Miriam Lyapin, Helen Marsh
Stars: Ashley Moore, Andre Anthony, Camren Bicondova
Where to Watch: Tubi
Synopsis: While attending a festival to commemorate the original zombie attack, Ash and her friends encounter the living dead and must fight back or be devoured.
Thoughts: I’m pretty easy to please when it comes to zombie movies. Undead people lumbering after the living? Check. The living people hiding from the undead? Check. Lots of gross eating of flesh and shooting zombies in the head? Check. Then sprinkle in a dash of the Soska sisters at the helm and you’ve got a recipe for - eh. Wait, what went wrong? Oh yeah, teenagers. Let me backup a bit. So, this movie takes place in the universe of Night of the Living Dead. As in, the events in Night of the Living Dead happened in the past, the living overcame the event, and now it’s commemorated. So, cool concept or kinda hokey? I still can’t decide. But aside from some fun NotLD easter eggs hidden throughout the movie, it felt a little unnecessary to link the two. And then there’s the fact that our entire cast of characters are high school kids (and one actual kid) who make extra poor choices, are struggling to fit in, are succumbing to peer pressure, are growing apart and fighting, are being obnoxious partiers, are panicking extra hard in the face of danger, and are doing no favors for empowering women. And then there’s the zombies, who, because it’s at some kind of burning man type festival, everyone is dressed in a costume of sorts, and so the zombies aren’t simply undead people, but undead “clowns” and “angels” and “fairies” (oh my). And one of my weird pet peeves is costume-wearing zombies. Admittedly the least scary element of this zombie movie was the actual zombies, and instead I was horrified by the living. Not exactly what I thought I signed up for, and certainly a huge disappointment considering the directors.
2 out of 5 💀s
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