It’s admittedly a little weird to write about a film, when you know most of the people who are in it…

Raising The Dead: Re-Examining ‘Night of The Living Dead’ is a Hollywood Suite original production that debuts tonight on Hollywood Suite at 9PM before a double bill of the dead with Night of the Living Dead & Dawn of the Dead (1978) and while it’s got the occasional hiccup during its 36 minute run time it’s a smartly made and relevant look at a film that truly birthed a modern genre that is still being made today.

To put it mildly, Night of the Living Dead is really the standard bearer for not only the Zombie Apocalypse type movie but also in really allowing the horror genre to be able to make not only social statements, but political and even satirical ones as well.  Raising The Dead: Re-Examining The ‘Night of The Living Dead isn’t about looking at the making of, but rather doing a healthy deep dive into how this no-budget drive-in B flick; (which is all director George A Romero thought this would end up being )is still a driving influence on films today.

I can only hope that this is actually the first of many Hollywood Suite ‘original productions’ because it really does mine so much of the cinematic expertise that the city of Toronto has to offer while making sure that it all wasn’t getting too analytical and came from a place of love.

Director Ryan Mains along with Writers Alicia Fletcher and Cam Maitland allow this film to really be an exploration of the influence of not only the film but of the work of Romero himself because let’s face it; at all levels anybody who is in this industry of film and show business in any capacity also happens to be a fan.

Through new interviews with cast and crew, archival footage and a myriad of local film experts everything we get here will never be confused as being any kind of hard hitting examination of the film and the career of George A Romero but instead  it’s a love-in, and to be honest a well deserved one.

The input from the experts gets a little chaotic at times as there are just a few too many people on screen talking about their love of the film and Romero, however it all finds its footing in the interviews with the people who were there making the film and the steady voices of the writers Fletcher and Maitland (who also appear on screen) as they bring a real sturdy sense of the narrative thread that they want to tell us.   They served as anchors for the entire film allowing for the overall love of the material to equally shine besides its genuine cultural importance on not only the pop culture landscape but the cinematic one as well.

Ultimately I can only hope that this is the first of many original productions that we see from Hollywood Suite as Raising The Dead: Re-Examining The ‘Night Of The Living Dead’ is a neat little experiment that is not only accessible to people who have seen the film 100 times, but for someone coming to it all for the very first time.

That’s what it’s supposed to be all about, sharing the love of film to ALL audiences and productions like this can only help.

The documentary is also available, in colour and in a special black-and-white “Monochrome Edition,” On Demand, on the Hollywood Suite GO app and on HSGO.ca.