By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The classic ghouls are shambling (not running) back to the screen in the latest follow-up to the George A. Romero classic.
Writer/director Marcus Slabine (THE DARK OFFERINGS) gave us the exclusive first look at one of the zombies for his filmed-in-secret NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD II. Below you can see the Shark Bait Zombie, whom Slabine reveals is played by David Howard Thornton, donning even heavier makeup than he did as Art the Clown in TERRIFIER and its forthcoming sequel. “David is completely unrecognizable in a full body suit and face prosthetics,” Slabine tells us, “thanks to effects makeup designer/producer Elizabeth Piper S. and her team: Jackie Hughes, Susie Bua, Beatrice Sniper, Angel Soltero, Angelina Vincenzi and Mario Lacagnina, with special thanks to pieces created by RBFX and Damien Leone. Elizabeth did an incredible job capturing and creating the look and design, and says, ‘This is only a taste of what I designed for the movie.’ ” Jolene Marie Richardson (The Last Drive-In) served as costume designer on the project.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD II takes place on a remote island where a small group of survivors of the zombie apocalypse take shelter, only to face fresh terror when the flesheaters find their way ashore. “Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD changed cinema as we know it and created one of the greatest subgenres out there,” Slabine says. “His DEAD series has been an inspiration to filmmakers such as myself, and getting to play within the zombie universe is a dream come true. We all poured a lot of love, passion and blood–so much blood–into the making of this movie, and truly hope it resonates with people. We want to honor this universe and truly make something that fans will love and enjoy on its own merit. As the writer/director, I wanted to create a movie with deep characters, a captivating original story and the zombie gore that we all love so dearly. Also, the zombies will not run!”
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD II is a co-production of Into The Labyrinth LLC and Without A Net Productions, with Slabine, Piper, Vincent Petrosini, Elyssa Rabinowitz, Steve Conca and Karin Agstam as producers. The filmmakers will be announcing some horror icons and celebrities in the movie’s cast this Friday, July 2 at Living Dead Weekend in Pittsburgh, and the official website will become active in a couple of days as well; you can sign up there to receive e-mails about the latest updates.
