Hot off their Rippaverse debut with Yaira Vol. 1 #1, indie horror vets The Soska Sisters are planning to resurrect the universe of horror genius George A. Romero with a brand new TUBI original horror film, Festival of the Living Dead.
A spiritual sequel to Romero’s 1968 holy grail of zombie outings, Festival of the Living Dead takes place in modern times and sees the outbreak at the center of the original film, once a terrifying real world event, now treated as a subject of morbid fascination and nostalgia – replete with an annual festival held to commemorate the horror.
“The film is a sequel to Romero’s masterpiece original,” described the Soska sisters of the film’s premise, “the story follows Ben’s grandchildren 55 years after the incident”.
For Jen and Sylvia, Festival of the Living Dead will serve as follow-up to their 2019 remake of the David Cronenberg body horror classic, Rabid (1977).
Given their history, The Twisted Twins are no strangers to graphic violence, and it’s a welcome development to see them bring their savage abilities to the zombie subgenre – which not only welcomes gore, but revels it.
The ‘hero’ of both the original film and 1990 remake, Ben (played by Duane Jones and Tony Todd) makes it to the end before getting shot by friendly fire – or a mercy kill depending on which version is watched.
This time around, his granddaughter Ash (Ashley Moore) takes center stage, with The Soska Sisters’ sequel focusing on her and her friends’ trip to the aforementioned ‘outbreak commemoration festival’.
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Unfortunately for the rag-tag group of teens, everything goes south fast when a blast of radioactive space dust hits the festival and the throngs of party people are joined by hordes of the living dead.
As such, Ash and her friends find that rather than escape, their best chance for survival is battling through the throngs of zombies in front of them.
Alongside Moore, the film will also star Camren Bicondova (Selena Kyle in Gotham), Andre Anthony (Lincoln Eusebio in the official live-action Yaira trailer), Christian Rose (Paul in Out of My Mind), Shiloh O’Reilly (Brad in Christmas with a Kiss), Gage Marsh (Steve Forbes in Batwoman), Keana Lyn Bastidas (Callie Shaw in The Hardy Boys), and Maia Jae Bastidas (Justine Garcia in Gen V).
The film also stars Camren Bicondova (Gotham), Andre Anthony (The Night Agent), Christian Rose, Shiloh O’Reilly, Gage Marsh (You Me Her), Keana Lyn Bastidas (The Hardy Boys) and Maia Jae Bastidas (Rabbit Hole). It was shot in Vancouver, BC.
Festival of the Living Dead will be available to stream this Friday exclusively on TUBI.