Festival of the Living Dead (reviewed by Lisa Marie Bowman)
Opening with a montage of scenes from Night of the Living Dead mixed in with actual footage of civil unrest from the 60s, Festival of the Living Dead imagines a world where a zombie outbreak actually did occur in 1968.
Humanity survived. All of the zombies were apparently put down by human hunters and the plague of the living dead was ended. In order to commemorate the night of the living dead, a Festival of the Living Dead is held every year at the sight of the zombie outbreak. Over the past 55 years, the Festival has become a high-priced event that can only be attended by people who are willing to spend a lot of money for the honor to stay in tents, listen to live music, and set fire to a giant wicker woman. Essentially, the Festival of the Living Dead is Burning Man but instead of basing the festival of new age nonsense, the Festival is based on a zombie outbreak.
Unfortunately, those who attend the Festival have lost sight of what the party is supposed to be about. Now, instead of celebrating the survival of humanity and paying honor to those who lost their lives (sometimes more than once in one night!), the people attending the Festival are just influencers who are hoping to go viral. Early on in the film, Iris (Carmen Bicondova) point out how weird and tacky it is to have a festival celebrating an event where so many people died.
This year, the folks at the Festival of the Living Dead are going to be reminded about what the entire festival is supposed to be about! When one vlogger films himself snorting what he claims to be a crushed meteorite, everyone assumes that he’s just another person looking for online fame. But soon, he’s foaming at the mouth, throwing up, and then savagely attacking the festival staff. Of course, those who have seen the original Night of the Living Dead will remember the much-ridiculed scene in which a news reporter is heard to speculate that the dead are coming back to life due to space dust that was brought back to Earth by NASA. It turns out that reporter knew what he was talking about. It’s not just a case of Hell no longer having room for the dead. It’s the meteorites!
Ash (Ashley Moore) and her friends try to survive the Festival of the Living Dead, which turns out to not be an easy task. Not only are zombies famous for being relentless in their pursuit of the living but the living are famous for reacting to living dead outbreaks in the dumbest ways possible. Ash has one cool friend, that would be Iris. Unfortunately, the rest of her friends are nowhere near as smart. Fortunately, Ash has zombie hunting in her blood. Though the film doesn’t specifically state it, it’s suggested that her grandfather was Ben, the hero of Night of the Living Dead.
Festival of the Living Dead is a loving homage to Night of the Living Dead and its sequels. It’s undeniably derivative but it’s also made with so much love for the genre that it doesn’t matter that you’ll be able to guess who is going to live and who is going to die from the minute they first appear onscreen. Ashley Moore, Carmen Bicondova, and Christian Rose (as the film’s bravest character) all give strong performances and the film’s central joke — which is that everyone at the Festival is either too stoned or too stupid to initially notice the zombie outbreak — is one that works because it’s rooted in fact. Do you seriously think anyone at Burning Man would notice the living dead?