George Romero’s Living Dead Universe continues its fight with Generation Z.
The most recent sequel within this so-called Living Dead series is Festival of the Living Dead. For her birthday Ash (Ashley Moore) has the opportunity to attend the Festival of the Living Dead, which is a more wilderness-oriented festival that has similarities to popular music festivals like Burning Man. Unfortunately for Ash and her much cooler friends, they run into some problems about the theme of the actual festival where people dress as zombies during the event.
The writers and directors are real-life sisters Jen and Sylvia Soska, and Festival of the Living Dead is among many horror movies less than ninety minutes long that Tubi has acquired over the last few years. All of which seem to have a formula to them, not that formula is bad for something. Festival of the Living Dead is filled with Gen Z aesthetics right from the outfits to the social media fodder featured within the movie.
The conflict that occurs in the film is quite entertaining and could have been applied to any young adult film or teenage comedy. This time, it is Ash’s turn to do a bit of maturing as she has a dream but the dream is suddenly put on hold because she has to take care of her younger sibling. Thankfully, Ash has her simple friends who still dream. In this case, the friend is named Iris (Carmen Biscondova), who has to take care of Ash’s brother. Funny’n’heady with the number of her head is with four first-trimester audiovisual students. That trip does not pan out. On the way, drug-related incidents occur, a member of the group gets involved in a car hassle and a single zombie figure decorates the roadway as a harbinger of what awaits at the festival.
The festival is enjoyable as the buildup is rather classic, and events a build up surrounding the festival itself, which is a letdown for Festival of the Living Dead as it becomes somewhat disorganized. Not a lot of actions make sense over there and that might well be budgetary as opposed to not being effective in communicating its point. Nevertheless, it is easy to try and assume how much longer one can remain on this ride.
The festival is what cements this location as part of the Night of the Living Dead universe, as it is used to celebrate the events of 1968 (guess we made it out of it o k as a society?). A stretch maybe, but it’s a story detail that shouldn’t be allowed to detract from the enjoyment of the zombie cliches present in the film.
George Romero would appreciate this motion film-wise in the sense that what he developed is still evolving in today’s era. The only problem here is that Night of the Living Dead for some, is an art film, and Festival of the Living Dead does somewhat seem like a more toned-down saccharin-style horror film that went straight to on-demand and streaming services.
Nonetheless, it’s an entertaining however tricky entry into the canon. A good addition to the series but forgettable. Most of the Romero-made films in this universe always have a strong statement about society, but all Festival of the Living Dead can achieve is that kids these days do indeed have a lot of TikTok time. That is both their boon and bane nowadays when it comes to the storyline of this movie.
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