Good movie but grossly overrated

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

After years of disappearances around town, the local sheriff finds them all tied to a local legend about a ravenous zombie intent on waging war on humanity and forces the town's survivors to fight off his undead hordes.This here actually wasn't that bad. One of the better elements is the fact that it features a main zombie who has a distinct personality and a sense of intelligence which is a nice change of pace from most zombie films, staying in the shadows while setting out a game plan and knows when to sneak up on victims. This gives it more than a typical zombie film in his behavior, and along with the rather impressive make-up work on the zombies with lots of wounds that get bloodier and more disgusting, and with their rotting, dead look and glaring fangs create some pretty imposing features and makes for an overall effective amount of zombie mayhem. Another big factor here is the action within this one as this features a rather enjoyable amount of action within this. The fact that the film starts off with a big action scene of them trying to knock off hordes of zombies rampaging through the countryside is a big plus, leading to a lot of close-calls and big action as the odds are stacked towards them enough to make them seem like a threat. Other great sequences include the great barnyard encounter as well as the big swarm encounters through town that occur in the later half which really makes for an entertaining time. Along with some fun suspense scenes of the zombies attacking the townspeople in a series of surprise attacks as well as plenty of great bloodshed are the film's good points, while this one here doesn't have too many flaws to it. The fact that it does have some really blatant obviousness in its cheapness is something to get over. The gore and wounds are hardly realistic, especially the finale bloodbath though there are plenty of obvious examples before that and allow for some pretty big examples. Aside from the low-budget, another flaw in here is that the film has a bit of a problem with pacing here, especially in the middle section. This is due to a confusing habit of changing around years, jumping around to different years at various points along the way by seemingly injecting a new scene into the film almost every time it changes scenes. It's not clear why this is done and it's purpose is a puzzling one since it could've easily done so without changing around the years around to make this as confusing as it is. While some out there will decry the new treatment afforded to the zombies' behavior and actions, it's not enough to hold it back like the rest of the film's flaws.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

A gaggle of zombies led by rapist and serial killer Abbot Hayes (A. Barrett Worland sporting laughable make-up) terrorize a small town. Man, does this stupendously schlocky stinkeroonie strike out something rotten in almost every possible way: flat (non)direction by Tor Ramsey, draggy pacing, shoddy zombie make-up, zero tension or creepy atmosphere, lousy acting from a lame no-name cast, poorly staged zombie attack set pieces, a plodding narrative, ham-fisted attempts at humor, plain cinematography by S. Willian Hinzman, painfully obvious post-production looping, ghastly tin-eared dialogue ("Die you freaks from hell!"), annoying characters, a generic hum'n'shiver score by Alan Howarth, slapdash editing, a pitiful main undead villain who projects not a jot of scary menace, a terrible script by Karen L. Wolf, a hilariously inept climactic battle between the zombies and a bunch of gung-ho construction workers, and even a groan-inducing "it ain't over yet!" sequel set-up ending. Tom Savini's regrettably brief vigorous turn as rough'n'tumble survivalist par excellence Deputy Hughs provides the sole bright spot in this otherwise seriously dim clunker. A total wash-out.

This film is terrible. As a matter of fact it's so terrible that you absolutely must watch it! This will have you laughing for the duration of the movie, though it is not supposed to be funny. But I guess that's part of what makes you laugh so hard. The "acting" is almost non-existent and the dialogue delivered without any real conviction. Some of the lines are just the corniest things you will ever hear. The main antagonist, zombie "king" Abbott Hayes, walks like a 70's pimp daddy and mutters guttural sounds and half-hearted shrieks as he comically wiggles his tongue. One may come to the conclusion that the actor portraying him is "special", which may be the case, since this whole "film" could be considered "special". But if that's the case, I guess it would be rude to laugh and point...screw it!! That's all you can do with this movie. It is horrible, but WELL worth watching. Be sure to watch, just don't expect it to be good, expect it to be "good".

My interest was peaked when a friend and I came across this title at the video store. Thinking that we had seen every Zombie movie known to man, we, of course, snatched it right up. In the opening scenes we saw a familiar face, the infamous, Tom (Sex Machine) Savini. That, unfortunately, was the end of any excitement.With a title like "Children of the living dead" I expected to see Baby Zombies, little kid Zombies, or even a freak-tastic Zombie sex scene. But, to all disappointment, there was none of the above.Being that Savini is a Modern day Make-up Mastermind, I feel robbed and betrayed by this film.Abbot Hayes (Main Zombie) was portrayed an almost "Freddy Kruger" of the living dead as he kept coming back to kill a small group of children who got away years before. The camera work sucked, the actors were under-trained, and most of the special effects were probably done by my 8 year old son.If the only contribution in my life has been to stop anyone else from seeing this film, then it was a success of immense proportions. Please save your self in true "Living Dead" style and Shoot yourself in the head before being subjected to this horrible tragedy. I would rather watch a 30 day loop of Gremlins 2.