For the next week or so, the zombie apocalypse is in full swing at the Cottonwood Center for the Arts. Outside, a Jeep teeters on a curb, abandoned. Zombies shamble hungrily through the street and parking lot. A few humans keep them at bay as theatergoers slip into the building and up the low-lit stairs to the Star Bar Players’ adaptation of the film “Night of the Living Dead.”

It runs Thursdays through Sundays through Oct. 30.

Zombies are in. But without George A. Romero’s 1968 hit, there might never have been a “Walking Dead,” “Resident Evil” or any of the scores of movies propelled by the undead. Before it, the magically reanimated were typically no more than mindless pawns in service of an evil master. Romero created a vision far scarier (and gorier) for the post-Hiroshima world: Corpses, which were possibly irradiated by a space probe, climbing from their graves to devour human flesh.

Although writer Bob Morsch switches genders and sexual orientation of some characters, his adaptation largely sticks to the film: A group of people are trapped in an abandoned farmhouse, which is surrounded by zombies, and things go to hell in a handbasket. Robert Hatton’s lighting, Jonathan Eberhardt’s makeup and Dylan Mosley and Stephanie Schlis’ set are appropriately stark, strongly suggesting Romero’s harsh black-and-white cinematography. Morsch’s sound could have been lifted directly from the film’s soundtrack.

On opening night, though, directors Mosley and Morsch’s 50-minute production seemed uncertain about what it wanted to be: camp, horror or a balance of the two.

It was also often confusing, as when Johnny (Ethan Everhart) boards up the windows so noisily that you can’t hear another character’s explanation about what’s happening. Fumbled execution of bits (for instance, a missed stage slap or talking over each other) and awkward exchanges (young lovers who seem uncomfortable sitting together) suggest that the cast hadn’t rehearsed enough.

Tammy Smith, who plays the take-charge Dallas, is warm and angry and simply human as she tries to take the situation in hand. But she appears to improvise a lot and often for no apparent reason. And her eventual fate, which should be a shock, sadly lacked punch.

My favorite moments in the play were unexpected. Like when a growling zombie reached out for me on his way to the stage. (I actually recoiled.) Or the scene late in the play when the hall goes dark, only a bleak radio dispatch piercing the blackness. In that moment, we are trapped, too, helpless and waiting to discover our collective fate.

That’s perhaps the most disappointing aspect of “Living Dead.” I expect innovation from Star Bar, but here, writer Morsch – with co-director Mosley – could have done more to push the boundaries between the stage and the audience, and with it, create the tension that would have made the evening memorable.

Tracy Mobley-Matinez Saturday December 13, 2014. Photo by Jeff Kearney

Jeff Keaerney