Back from the dead

It has been noted that zombies are the new vampires. After stumbling their way through graves throughout the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, zombies in films were deep-sixed in the 1990s when moviegoers became smitten – or is it bitten – with vampires. In recent years, however, zombie films have been unearthed and have regained a place in the hearts of horror movie buffs.
Some horror buffs never gave up the ghost. Bayonne screenwriter Sam Platizky has for years been playing homage to the zombie genre and is poised to do so again with the upcoming premier of “Red Scare,” his second feature-length movie.

_____________
Bayonne Screenwriter Sam Platizky has for years been playing homage to the zombie genre.
____________
Described by Platizky as a spoof in the tradition of Mel Brooks, “Red Scare” is set during the U.S.-Soviet Cold War, when our biggest security threats were nuclear weapons, not terrorists. The film follows the antics of a group of Americans and their dimwitted leader as they attempt to counter a crew of Soviet-controlled zombies. Those unfamiliar with Platizky’s writing style needn’t worry about any heavy-handed political treatise with a Message; Platizky tends to keep things light. Audiences can expect lots of zombie schtick (moaning, stiff walks through the graveyard), and very little debate on the arms race.
Directed by William Dautrick Jr., “Red Scare” seems to include some of the same hallmarks of Platizky’s style featured in “Blaming George Romero,” his debut feature. The man referenced in the title, Romero, is a famed horror/gore movie director. In “Blaming,” lead character Sam and his loser friends try to become unlikely heroes when the world falls victim to a zombie apocalypse. Given their pathetic lives, it’s hard to imagine Sam and Co. fending off an attack by domesticated cats, let alone flesh-seeking zombies.
Platizky and Dautrick, who was assistant director for “Blaming George Romero,” seem to be treading similar ground in “Red Scare,” which was shot in black and white, in a nod to Romero’s 1968 classic, “Night of the Living Dead” and the Cold War’s heyday.
Filmed on location throughout Hudson County including sites in Jersey City, “Red Scare” features the work of several local actors.
The Frank Theatres (191 Lefante Way, Bayonne) will debut “Red Scare” on Thursday, Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20, a portion of which will be donated to the Simpson-Baber Foundation for the Autistic of Bayonne.
In addition to “Red Scare,” the evening will also include a screening of the independent short “Dark Wings.” The screening will also feature a Q&A with the cast and crew of “Red Scare.”
For more information about the screening, send an e-mail to RedScareMovie@gmail.com. For more information about Simpson-Baber, visit www.Simpson-Baber.org.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.