If you thought the original "Night of the Living Dead" was too slow and not gory enough, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has a movie for you.
"Night of the Animated Dead" is an almost shot-for-shot cartoon remake of George Romero's 1968 zombie classic that was released Tuesday via digital and will be available on Blu-ray and DVD Oct. 5. It's a mostly faithful recreation that includes a few extra scenes, a brisker pace and significantly more blood.
"This is a remake of the original movie," director Jason Axxin told the Post-Gazette. "It's essentially a way to make a classic more accessible to modern audiences. ... This is in color and there's a lot more gore and violence. But we wanted to make sure it's still 'Night of the Living Dead.'"
The animated "Living Dead" was first revealed earlier this summer with a voice cast that includes Dule Hill as Ben, originally played by Duane Jones; Josh Duhamel as Harry, originally played by Karl Hardman; and Katee Sackhoff as Judy, originally played by Judith Ridley.
The movie also brought back characters Barbara (Katharine Isabelle, originally Judith O'Dea), Johnny (Jimmi Simpson, originally Russell Streiner), Tom (James Roday Rodriguez, originally Keith Wayne) and Helen (Nancy Travis, originally Marilyn Eastman), among others.
"Night of the Living Dead" was famously filmed in western Pennsylvania, mostly in and around Evans City. Axxin grew up in New York and has no direct ties to the area, though he is a longtime fan of Romero's work, especially "Night of the Living Dead."
"It's a legendary movie," he said. "I wanted to make sure by doing this that the film came across more as a love letter to the original film than a complete reboot or remake of it."
Axxin, who also directed the 2019 animated horror flick "To Your Last Death," said his inspiration for amping up the graphic elements for "Living Dead" came from famed horror director Sam Raimi and his "Evil Dead" movies. This version has a new scene that was only alluded to in the original and a more fleshed-out ending with "a little more depth and emotion."
"The style we aimed for was a style of realism just because when you have human characters in a movie and there's violence, the audience has a buffer because it's animated," he said. "I don't have to feel anything when someone gets shot or hurt. The closer you get to realism allows audiences to connect more with what's going on."
Axxin made a point to "get as much right as possible" when it came to western Pennsylvania, making sure all the local town names were correct. He didn't visit the area, but he and his team did quite a bit of research into how it looked in the late 1960s when the original film was shot and set.
He believes the faster pace and extra gore in "Night of the Animated Dead" will be especially attractive to people who haven't seen its namesake.
"If you were ever hesitant to watch the original film, this is the version to see," Axxin said. "It's a fast-paced roller coaster ride of violence."
