It’s usually a bad omen, when a bad film is asking big favors of its audience in spite of a weak start. First, the fact that a man who looks to be in his late forties is with a woman in her early thirties is a stretch, but then what happens next is pretty abysmal. His wife and daughter, on the way to the store, are hit by a car coming up a driveway. Now, why didn’t they look back at the car, who knows? But, the car proceeds to hit two obvious dummies that we’re told is their bodies. And then Forsberg asks the big favor. We’re asked to believe that this doctor, who had no idea of the accident, was able to find their bodies, get their bodies from the hospital, and keep them in his hospital, without anyone asking questions, and without any explanations as to a funeral, or any other arrangements after death. I’d forgive these glaring holes if this was set in the early nineteenth century, but with “Leben Tod,” these questions were unforgivable.

“Night of the Dead: Leben Tod” is about a doctor whose wife and child were hit by a car. A year later, he and his son experiment on corpses with a mysterious enzyme he created, and the shit hits the fan. A small family arrives in dire need of help, and a woman giving birth dies and returns as a zombie. The zombies scream and run, and seemingly sneak around, all of which results in bloody feasting that’s never as good as it should be.

Forsberg, instead of telling two different stories that should be connected, instead tells two different stories altogether, and “Leben Tod” ultimately feels sloppy. The Dr. realizes his patients are coming back from the dead, and attempts to store them, and the young pregnant heroine Anais explores the hospital, accidentally letting out patients. Cue a zombie who approaches Anais standing over grunting like a dog in yet another inadvertently comic moment, and runs off instead of eating her. “Leben Tod,” played with more originality, much better direction, and with a new cast, possibly would have succeeded in being genuinely creepy. Instead of… this.

Forsberg's zombie horror flick is pretty awful. I was open-minded to the fact that I'd have at least a campy entertaining horror entry with some sense of humor, but I couldn't even get that. "Night of the Dead" has all the right ideas, and none of what it takes to be good.

• For more information on "Night of the Dead: Leben Tod," visit the official homepage.

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