Children of the Living Dead

Last updated
Children of the Living Dead
Childrenofthelivingdead.jpg
U.S. DVD Cover
Directed byTor Ramsey
Written byKaren Lee Wolf
Produced byKaren Lee Wolf
Starring
  • Tom Savini
  • Marty Schiff
  • Damien Luvara
  • Jamie McCoy
  • Sam Nicotero
Cinematography Bill Hinzman
Edited by
Music by Alan Howarth
Distributed by Artisan Entertainment
Release date
  • October 9, 2001 (2001-10-09)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$500,000 [1]

Children of the Living Dead is a 2001 American zombie film written by directed by Tor Ramsey and executive produced by John A. Russo. Russo had previously developed a colorized version of Night of the Living Dead (1968) for the films 30th anniversary and would add additional scenes added to it. Children of the Living Dead was made as a sequel to this version of the film. It was released direct-to-video on October 9, 2001.

Contents

Children of the Living Dead was shot in Pittsburgh and Ohio. Director Tor Ramsey said that production was difficult, with Russo and producer and screenwriter Karen Wolf having him hire many of their friends as crew members. Both Russo, and actor make-up artist Tom Savini have later spoken negatively about the film.

Plot

Serial killer and serial rapist Abbott Hayes disappears from the morgue and becomes the leader of several waves of zombies that attack his home town. Fourteen years after the last zombie attack, a businessman relocates bodies from a local cemetery to pave the way for progress, but sets in motion Abbott's next undead assault.

Cast

Production

Children of the Living Dead was produced by John Russo, who had released a colorized version of Night of the Living Dead for its 30th anniversary, which included additional scenes and was colorized. [2] Children of the Living Dead was intended to be a sequel to the 30th anniversary version of the film. It was shot in Pittsburgh and Ohio with principal photography beginning on July 7, 2000, with a budget of $500,000. [2] The screenplay in the film was written by the daughter of executive producer Joseph Wolf, Karen Lee Wolf who also produced the film. [3] Make-up artist on the film Vincent Guastini described the head zombie in the film, Abbott Hayes, as "the Nosferatu of zombies" giving him long fingernails and glowing blue eyes. [3] Along with acting in the film, Savini also coordinated the stunts. [3]

Director Tor Ramsey felt the production was difficult, with producers Russo and Karen Wolf telling him to cast many of their friends as crew members rather than the people he originally had in mind. [2] Russo stated that when he signed on to it, Joe Wolf was financing the film and stated that Wolf felt his screenplay for the film was great and that he had intentions to direct it. [4] Russo stated that Wolf then came to him saying he wanted to do his daughter's script which Russo described as "horrible." [4] Russo declared that he "wanted to resign every day but I couldn't because these people would've lost a summer's worth of work. We hoped for the best and hoped it’d get revised and instead it’s a piece of crap. I call it The Living Abomination of Children." [4] In an interview with Tom Savini about his career, he referred to the film as "the biggest piece-of-shit movie ever made" and that his lines were dubbed. [5] Savini echoed what Ramsey stating that the "producer on the show as an idiot. I think her father gave her that movie as a present, and she didn't know what the hell she was doing." and that "the film shouldn't even be on the shelves of video stores." [5]

Release

Children of the Living Dead was released directly to video on October 9, 2001, on VHS and DVD by Artisan. [2] [6]

Reception

The film received negative reviews from critics. [7] Contemporary reviews included, Pete Sankey of Rue Morgue stated the film had no "blood, no action, nothing impressive at all" and that the entire film was dubbed and "it seems as little effort as possible was made to get the sound in sync with the lip movements." [8] Sankey concluded that the film was a "coma-inducing, incomprehensible mess." [8] An unnamed reviewer in Fangoria opined that "It's hard to tell what the primary problem is here: the awful actors, the nickel-and-dime budget or the wretched, childish script; let's call it a three-way tie." [9] The reviewer went on to state that Abbott Hayes "wears what looks like a store-bought Halloween mask and gloves". [9] A retrospective review from Peter Dendle in The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, Volume 2 had him declare the film as "Wretched and hopeless", finding the film "dismal, boring, and unnecessarily complicated, all at once." [1]

Russo called it the worst film that he had worked on, and said that he was often tempted to resign from the production. [4] Savini has also been dismissive of the film; in an interview, he said that it was originally meant to be a serious horror film but turned out horrible. [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>Night of the Living Dead</i> 1968 American horror film

Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent horror film directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, written by Romero and John Russo, produced by Russell Streiner and Karl Hardman, and starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea. The story follows seven people trapped in a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania, under assault by reanimated corpses. Although the flesh-eating monsters that appear in the film are referred to as "ghouls", they are credited with popularizing the modern portrayal of zombies in popular culture.

<i>Night of the Living Dead</i> (1990 film) 1990 film by Tom Savini

Night of the Living Dead is a 1990 American horror film directed by Tom Savini and starring Tony Todd and Patricia Tallman. It is a remake of George A. Romero's 1968 film of the same title; Romero rewrote the original 1968 screenplay he had originally co-authored with John A. Russo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Savini</span> American actor, stuntman, director and makeup artist

Thomas Vincent Savini is an American prosthetic makeup artist, actor, stunt performer and film director. He is known for his makeup and special effects work on many films directed by George A. Romero, including Martin, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Creepshow, and Monkey Shines; he also created the special effects and makeup for many cult classics like Friday the 13th, Maniac, The Burning, The Prowler, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.

<i>Bride of Re-Animator</i> 1991 film by Brian Yuzna

Bride of Re-Animator is a 1990 American comedy horror film produced and directed by Brian Yuzna and written by Yuzna, Rick Fry, and Woody Keith. It is a sequel to the 1985 film Re-Animator and the second entry in the Re-Animator film series. Like its predecessor, it is loosely based on the serialized story "Herbert West–Reanimator" (1921-1922) by H. P. Lovecraft. Unlike its predecessor, it was released direct-to-video.

Living Dead, also informally known as Of The Dead is a blanket term for the loosely connected horror franchise that originated from the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. The film, written by George A. Romero and John A. Russo, primarily focuses on a group of people gathering at a farmhouse to survive from an onslaught of zombies in rural Pennsylvania. It is known to have inspired the modern interpretation of zombies as reanimated human corpses that feast on the flesh and/or brains of the living.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John A. Russo</span> American film director

John A. Russo, sometimes credited as Jack Russo or John Russo, is an American screenwriter and film director most commonly associated with the 1968 horror classic film Night of the Living Dead, which he co-wrote with director George Romero. As a screenwriter, his credits include Night of the Living Dead, The Majorettes, Midnight, and Santa Claws. The latter two, he also directed. He has performed small roles as an actor, most notably the first ghoul who is stabbed in the head in Night of the Living Dead, as well as cameos in There's Always Vanilla and House of Frankenstein 1997. He was the publisher and managing editor of the magazine Scream Queens Illustrated, which featured popular stars of horror films and other genres.

<i>The Return of the Living Dead</i> 1985 film by Dan OBannon

The Return of the Living Dead is a 1985 American comedy horror film written and directed by Dan O'Bannon from a story by Rudy Ricci, John Russo, and Russell Streiner, and starring Clu Gulager, James Karen, Thom Mathews, and Don Calfa. The film tells the story of how a warehouse owner, accompanied by his two employees, mortician friend and a group of teenage punks, deal with the accidental release of a horde of unkillable, brain-hungry zombies onto an unsuspecting town.

<i>Let Sleeping Corpses Lie</i> (film) 1974 horror film directed by Jorge Grau

Let Sleeping Corpses Lie is a 1974 zombie horror film directed by Jorge Grau, and starring Cristina Galbó, Ray Lovelock and Arthur Kennedy. It focuses on two protagonists who are harassed by a local police investigator in the English countryside and are implicated in murders committed by zombies who have been brought to life by a farming tool designed to kill insects via ultra-sonic radiation.

<i>Nightmare City</i> Film by Umberto Lenzi

Nightmare City is a 1980 Italian-Spanish science-fiction horror film directed by Umberto Lenzi. It stars Hugo Stiglitz as a TV news reporter who witnesses the collapse of order in a city overrun by irradiated blood-drinking ghouls. Victims rise from the dead to join the host, adding to the chaos.

<i>Dead Air</i> (2009 film) 2009 American film

Dead Air is a 2009 American science fiction-horror film directed by Corbin Bernsen and starring Bill Moseley and Patricia Tallman. The story focuses on a radio station that warns its listeners after an explosion unleashes zombies into Los Angeles. Screenwriter Kenny Yakkel explained before the film's release that the "undead" presented are not actual zombies: "It's like a PCP zombie movie, that's my take on it 'cause they're not really dead."

<i>Zombie Holocaust</i> 1980 Italian film

Zombie Holocaust is a 1980 Italian horror film directed by Marino Girolami. The film is about a team of scientists who follow a trail of corpses in New York to a remote Indonesian island where they meet a mad doctor who performs experiments on both the living and dead in his laboratory. The team face both zombies and cannibals in an attempt to stop the doctor. The film was re-edited and released theatrically in the United States in 1982 under the title Doctor Butcher M.D.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim O'Rear</span> American actor

Jim O'Rear is an American actor, screenwriter, and director.

Revenge of the Zombies is a 1943 comedy horror film, directed by Steve Sekely, starring John Carradine and Gale Storm. Dr. Max Heinrich von Altermann, is a mad scientist working to create a race of living dead warriors for the Third Reich.

<i>A Virgin Among the Living Dead</i> 1973 film

Virgin Among the Living Dead is a film directed by Jesús Franco. Franco shot the film in Portugal in 1971 with the film it was only being released to the public in 1973. While credited as a production of Liechtenstein, it was submitted theatrically as being the product of various countries with Franco biographer suggesting that the Prodif Ets. company was set up as a tax shelter.

Night of the Living Dead is a zombie horror media franchise created by George A. Romero beginning with the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, directed by Romero and cowritten with John A. Russo. The franchise predominantly centers on different groups of people attempting to survive during the outbreak and evolution of a zombie apocalypse. The latest installment of the series, Survival of the Dead, was released in 2009, with a sequel, Twilight of the Dead, in development. This would be the first film in the series not directed by George Romero, who died on July 16, 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig W. Chenery</span> British writer

Craig W. Chenery is a British-American author, screenwriter, comic book writer, and artist with a particular interest in the dark humor, zombie, horror, comedy, pop culture, Star Wars and special effects genres.

<i>Zombie Wars</i> 2007 American film

Zombie Wars is a 2007 American war horror film written and directed by David A. Prior. It stars Adam Mayfield, Alissa Koenig, Jim Marlow, and Kristi Renee Pearce as humans struggling against zombie overlords.

KNB EFX Group is an American special effects company that specializes in prosthetic makeup, animatronics, and other practical effects. It was founded in 1988 by Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero, and Howard Berger, though Kurtzman left in 2003. After establishing a reputation for gory effects in horror films throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, they broadened to performing animatronics and makeup effects for mainstream comedy and drama films. Their work on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Walking Dead have netted them multiple awards and nominations.

References

  1. 1 2 Dendle, Peter (2012). The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, Volume 2: 2000–2010. McFarland & Company. pp. 41–42. ISBN   978-0-7864-6163-9.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Tiech, John (2012). Pittsburgh Film History: On Set in the Steel City. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 110–111. ISBN   978-1614235897.
  3. 1 2 3 Kuehls, Dave (2001). ""Children of the Living Dead" - Savini vs. Zombies". Fangoria . No. 204. p. 9.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Gammon, Dave (2012-05-02). "Interview: John Russo (Night of the Living Dead)". HorrorNews.Net. Archived from the original on 2015-04-01. Retrieved 2015-03-04.
  5. 1 2 Kay, Glenn (2008). Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide (2nd ed.). Chicago Review Press. p. 191. ISBN   978-1556527708.
  6. ↑ "Video Chopping List". Fangoria. No. 208. November 2001. p. 12.
  7. ↑ Savitski, Joseph (2004-11-14). "Children of the Living Dead (2004) Movie Review". Beyond Hollywood. Archived from the original on 2015-04-03. Retrieved 2015-03-04.
  8. 1 2 Sankey, Pete (January 2002). "Bored Stiffs". Rue Morgue . No. 25. p. 30. ISSN   1481-1103.
  9. 1 2 "The Video Eye of Dr.Cyclops". Fangoria. No. 209. January 2002. p. 49.
  10. ↑ Carr, Kevin (2003-07-29). "Tom Savini: A Real Sex Machine". Film Threat . Retrieved 2015-03-04.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.