Last Thursday night, the Rifftrax gang (who we have had previous disagreements with, see our Plan 9 From Outer Space review) hosted a screening of the classic, and unfortunately Anti-Zombie film, ‘Night of the Living Dead’.

And of course, they made fun of it.

(har-har. But it *could* be viewed as a Rifftrax fan mocking the movie, not the Zombies!)

Overall, the Zombie Rights Campaign was pleasantly surprised. Granted, Rifftrax’s politics vis a vis Zombie Rights still needs work. And there were quite a few ahistorical jokes about brain-eating (which is not seen in ‘Night of the Living Dead’ or any other Romero Zombie film).

And there was definitely a misunderstanding of Zombie history, with ‘Night of the Living Dead’ presented as, if not the first Zombie film, the one that ‘set all the rules’. Which ignores the lengthy cinematic history of Zombies on film, going back, at least, to ‘White Zombie’ in 1932.. This was of course 36 years before ‘Night of the Living Dead’. They also had a title card stating that there haven’t been any innovations in Zombie films since ’28 Days Later’, which we could take issue with.

But still, in spite of all this? It was much Zombie Friendlier than their ‘Plan 9′ event. No ‘Re Your Brains’ musical stereotyping of the Undead. Fewer overtly Anti-Zombie jokes. And overall, the Rifftrax crew were taking more jabs at the Living characters and their bizarre behavior, rather than the Zombies, who were seen as at least not killing one another right and left.

We appreciate that. So in the spirit of good faith, and rewarding good behavior, we’re giving this one a Zombie Neutral rating.

Tags: Movies, Public Appearance, Review

This entry was posted by John Sears on Monday, October 28th, 2013 at 10:47 am and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.