Zombies, with extra laughs, gore and felt, arrive in time for Halloween

This Halloween, if you just watch George A. Romero’s classic film Night of the Living Dead, you’re doing it wrong. What you need to do instead: Watch Night of the Living Dead. The puppet version.

You read that right; we haven’t overdosed on too much trick-or-treating candy (yet): Once again, Milwaukee plays host to Angry Young Men, ltd.’s Night of the Living Dead, The Puppet Show!, set for Halloween night at the Oriental Theatre.

This comedic yet still-gory take on the film was originally conceived by company founder Bill Olsen, who helped the show take its first shambling steps in 2007. He says the production was originally meant to support a local horror convention (now-defunct) called It Came From Lake Michigan, which needed a little something extra beyond film screenings.

“Our first and rawest version of NOTLD-tps was held in the basement of the 4-H building at the State Fairgrounds,” Olsen said. “It was attended by 12 people, some of them not even related to us.”

There were, of course, a great deal of horror films Olsen and company could have picked to honor/parody, but Night of the Living Dead was – if you’ll forgive the unavoidable – a no-brainer.

“[Night of the Living Dead] had the right combination of audience familiarity and visceral thrills,” Olsen said. “Who doesn’t dig zombies? It’s a classic! It’s the granddaddy of the whole genre!” Of course, there was practicality involved too: “It’s also in the public domain, so we wouldn’t get sued.”

Since then, Olsen and his team – a core group that has stayed essentially the same over the last six years – has been tweaking the show year after year, redesigning the props, script, jokes and even the puppets each time they bring the film to life. He says Angry Young Men’s version follows basically the same plot outline as Romero’s film, with two main differences. There’s the comedy, of course, mostly topical or references to other horror movies. And, as Olsen eagerly points out, their version is bloodier.

“There’s far more gore in our version than the original movie,” Olsen said. The trick, of course, is that for the puppets, blood and guts takes the form of red streamers and lots and lots of plush organs, but that’s not any reason to stay away. “The combination of jokes-per-minute and graphic puppet violence creates an over-the-top frantic zaniness that makes for a swell night out.”

Their audiences have agreed; Olsen says there’s a regular, dedicated fan base that tends to return for annual Night of the Living Dead productions, as well as their performances as Full-Frontal Puppetry, and that the same fan base often brings their friends along for the ride the next time around. “Word of mouth has always been very kind to us,” he said.

But puppetry is a style of theater Olsen says he’d keep up with even if audiences didn’t flock to the show as well. “I’ve loved the art form of puppetry since I was a kid. Puppets helped teach me to read, puppets made me laugh when I was feeling low and now puppets have become my life’s calling. It’s wonderful when, with a twist of an arm rod or moving your hand in the puppet’s mouth just so, you can relate something complex and beautiful that can mesmerize an audience. And you can make really, really bad puns.”

Olsen won’t reveal any of the new developments he and the cast have put together for this year’s show – “That would be telling,” he points out – but promises you won’t be disappointed, whether you’re a newbie or returning veteran of the show. And really, how can you say no to a show where you might get lucky enough to have puppet brains fall into your lap?

Night of the Living Dead, The Puppet Show will be performed only once, Thursday, Oct. 31 (Halloween, of course), at 7:30 p.m. at the Oriental Theatre. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the Oriental Theatre box office.