The Night Eats the World (2018)

 

Before I even get into reviewing The Night Eats the World, I have to say I'm picky when it comes to zombie stories.  I guess it starts with me admitting that I never was a fan of the original Night of the Living Dead.  In fact, I like the remake better that came out in 1990.  I'm not talking about movies featuring the voodoo created zombies of White Zombie and those in that sub-genre, they are a different breed of zombie all together.  Now with that being said, I love the sequel that Romero gave us in 1978 and I also enjoyed Land of the Dead from 2005.  Day of the Dead from 1985, not so much.  On TV I enjoy The Walking Dead television series, well I used to anyway.  Again, not so much today.  In fact, I'm going to say something here that might be a little controversial but I'm going to say it anyway.  Zombie apocalypse films are done.  We need to move on from them.  I'm sure as with any sub genre of horror film there will be some zombie films that will still come out here in the 2020's and still be enjoyable but I think those will be the exception and not the rule.

 

 

Films like Sean of the Dead, 28 Days Later, and 28 Weeks Later are some of the more recent offerings that I enjoyed.  But for every Sean of the Dead there's The House of the Dead.  Utter garbage that one!  But here we are over 50 years after Romero changed the genre we are still getting zombie movies.  The day of the zombie is over.  There's nothing really new ever shown, and The Night Eats the World is guilty of that.  The Night Eats the World basically shows one mans experience as he tries to navigate the beginnings of the zombie apocalypse.  How many times can I see this happen and not be tired to death of it?  In this one we have some of the fast zombies we have seen in 28 Days Later and World War Z.  We have the scene where Sam awakens the morning after a party and the zombie outbreak has begun over night.  Like everyone else there's the learning curve we go through with him.  There's the obligatory setting out endless containers to catch rainwater scenes.  Riveting!

 

  Now, I'm not going to completely bash The Night Eats the World, there are some positives here.  The makeup effects are above average especially all the zombies with missing limbs, some of them were unsettling.  One interesting story line saw Sam, who is played by Anders Danielsen Lie (The Worst Person in the World and Personal Shopper), find a trapped zombie named Alfred behind the gated door of the apartments lift.  Sam has conversations with Alfred and at times it appears that Alfred may have some comprehension of what Sam is saying.  Eventually Sam releases Alfred from the lift and allows him to go back into his own apartment.  Before long, a ton of zombies flood into the apartment building and come after Sam.  Average zombie movie fare that really needs to come up with new ideas for the entire genre because this really feels tired now.  This isn't anyone's fault associated with this particular film it's just that my safety valve had to relieve some pressure and this was the film that got the brunt of it.  So I'll give this two cassette tapes out of five.  It's like that old recliner that has seen it's better days but there you still sit waiting for it to be comfortable again.  Spoiler alert:  it probably won't.  Time to move on to something new.