Night of the Living Dead: Darkest Dawn shambles onto VOD

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

It's been a long road to release for NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: DARKEST DAWN, an animated remake of George A. Romero's 1968 classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD that updates the story to modern day. Production began in 2009, and there have been times when fans have questioned the fate of DARKEST DAWN (originally announced as NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: ORIGINS), but the finished film has just made its way to VOD. It's available right now on iTunes.

Directed by Zebediah Y. De Soto and Krisztian Majdik from a screenplay De Soto wrote with Jib Polhemus, David Schwartz, and Mario Goldstein, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: DARKEST DAWN centers on 

a group of survivors fighting to stay alive when a mysterious plague unleashes the undead on New York City. Barricaded in an abandoned apartment building, the characters from the original film face new terror and question each others compassion and sense of humanity as they fight to stay alive against the army of the walking dead.

The impressive vocal cast includes Tony Todd as Ben, a role he played in live action in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 1990; Danielle Harris as Barbara; DAY OF THE DEAD's Joe Pilato as Harry Cooper; Tom Sizemore as Chief McClelland; and Bill Moseley as Johnny, a character he previously played in NOTLD '90.

The film was produced by Simon West, director of such films as CON AIR and the 2006 version of WHEN A STRANGER CALLS.

I don't usually like how NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD projects turn out when they don't have Romero directly involved (examples: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 3D and NOTLD3D: RE-ANIMATION), but my obsession with the original film causes me to be curious enough to check them out. I've been curious about DARKEST DAWN for a long time now, so I'll be giving it a chance soon.

Danielle Harris