A trailer for the animated Night of the Living Dead remake, Night of the Animated Dead, has officially debuted. George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead revolutionized the horror genre when it hit theaters back in 1968. Not only did it terrify audiences with its brutality and ominous tone, but it also arguably created the modern archetype of the cinematic zombie.
Debuting in the late 1960s, Night of the Living Dead created many of the rules that we now associate with the zombie genre. Everything from shooting zombies in the head to their iconic, slow shambles became mainstream in the late George Romero’s film and influenced generations of horror filmmakers to come. The film has been franchised, referenced, and even remade numerous times due to its original distributor failing to issue copyright upon its release.
Related: George Romero’s Unmade Zombie Musical, Explained
It has been well over five decades since Romero redefined what a zombie could be in pop culture, and Night of the Living Dead has once again been remade, this time in animation. Warner Bros. has released the trailer for Night of the Animated Dead (via IGN), and it promises plenty of blood and zombie carnage for fans of the original to feast on. Check out the trailer below:
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Though it filters the story through a somewhat more colorful lens, Night of the Animated Dead appears to largely be a straightforward adaptation of the original film. Night of the Animated Dead follows a group of survivors as they hide out in a remote farmhouse as hordes of corpses mysteriously begin to reanimate and consume the living. When Barbara (Katharine Isabelle) and Johnny (Jimmi Simpson) are attacked at a cemetery, Barbara makes her way to the house where she meets Ben (Dulé Hill). As a black man, Ben finds himself thrust into a leadership role amid rising tensions and racial prejudices from Harry Cooper (Josh Duhamel), another survivor who has barricaded his family in the house’s basement.
It will be interesting to see how audiences react to Night of the Animated Dead when the film debuts. Though seemingly faithful to the original in terms of storytelling, the animated take on Romero’s work adds a colorful new sheen to the original black and white property. Many have tried to recapture the magic of the original Night of the Living Dead, and while some sequels, spinoffs, and homages to Romero have been successful, few returns to the specific 1968 source material have recaptured the glory. That said, considering how faithful this looks to the original, it may be just what audiences are looking for right now. Night of the Animated Dead will be available on Digital on September 21, as well as on Blu-ray and DVD on October 5.
Next: Dawn of the Dead: What George Romero Thought of Zack Snyder’s Remake
