Showing posts with label zombie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zombie. Show all posts

Sunday, 17 July 2022

Netflix And Chill: Resident Evil (2022)

I have liked almost every incarnation of Resident Evil. If something has been released with the Umbrella logo on it then I am always optimistic. And just writing that sentence has reminded me that I have somehow not yet got around to watching Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, an animated show released last year. Regardless of my own tardiness, whether it is the games themselves, the film series starring Milla Jovovich in the lead role, the animated movies, Welcome To Raccoon City, or some episodic TV, I am always happy to consume the wide variety of branded media made available. The animated movies, despite how well they can recreate the game characters and drop them into a variety of scenarios, have arguably been my least favourite RE releases, but even they have moments and details to enjoy.

Take a general peek at reactions from fans, however, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that every attempt to make a live-action Resident Evil film or show has been a planned assault on the delicate sensibilities on every zombie-blasting videogamer. Nobody is happy, often because they think that any live-action story set in the world of Resident Evil tends to diverge too far away from what they love about the games.

The same thing has happened here, judging by the overwhelmingly negative reaction I have seen to this show. And a lot of people quantify their views by ensuring that you know they have been playing the Resident Evil games for over two decades. I've also been playing the Resident Evil games for over two decades . . . and I liked this latest instalment in the ever-expanding franchise.

The main storyline is split between two time periods. There's the current year (yes, 2022), in which two sisters, Billie (Siena Agudong) and Jade (Tamara Smart) struggle to acclimatise to their new life in New Raccoon City. They're helped by the fact that their father is Albert Wesker (Lance Reddick), an indispensable part of the Umbrella Corporation, meaning he usually has the clout to make any big problem disappear. He cannot magically fix two daughters who have spent too long left to their own devices though, which bites him on the ass when the siblings decide to break into an Umbrella facility after realising that they use animals in some of their test procedures. The other year depicted onscreen is 2036. The world has gone a bit dangerous, to put it mildly, and the adult Jade (Ella Balinska) is trying to avoid being eaten by zombies, known as "Zeroes", while also evading capture by Umbrella.

Look, I'm not going to sit here and try to tell people that this is the best thing to ever have the Resident Evil name attached to it. I can understand why parts of it could annoy people who wanted much more zombie action. Many scenes play out like a standard teen drama when we're being show the sisters experiencing the calm before the storm in 2022, the cast aren't all at the top of the talent tree (special mention to Turlough Convery for almost being so awful that I considered giving up on the whole thing), and the zombies are much livelier than their videogame counterparts.

BUT, and it IS a big but, you get Lance Reddick killing it in the role of Wesker, you get a memorably vicious dog, the zombie action is pretty well-presented, there's a massive killer with a chainsaw at one point, and it has at least three genuinely brilliant moments dotted throughout the entire series. There's a good variety of diversity behind and in front of the camera, I'm not going to namecheck every director and writer though (sorry), and the structure of the storyline allows the creators to deliver something that isn't a complete rehash of the games, but also allows them to tuck in some appreciated callback. Oh, and there are some great soundtrack choices made.

Other highlights include Paola Núńez in the role of Evelyn Marcus, someone who appears to be one of the highest bosses in the Umbrella Corporation, and a couple of impressively-rendered gigantic beasties that serve as a reminder that the viruses created by Umbrella don't really care what species you are, they will mess with anything.

I would happily watch this again, if I had the time in my busy viewing schedule. I will happily watch a second season (I hope there IS going to be a second season). And I will happily keep being bemused by the overly negative reaction from fans of the brand.  It's definitely not perfect, and I have already mentioned that I can see why viewers are more annoyed by some parts of the storyline, but it's another very enjoyable addition to the Umbrella family.

7/10

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Tuesday, 26 January 2021

Seoul Station (2016)

Life is full of difficult decisions. Some more difficult than others. I have been lucky enough to attend the Edinburgh International Film Festival annually for the better part of the past decade, and often with a press pass (thanks to my time writing for Flickfeast). And it was an absolute treat for me, despite trying to cram in five or six movies a day for ten days. I would get the schedule and pick films, often based on nothing more than the timings. This allowed me to enjoy some very pleasant surprises, but also led me to some disappointments. One of those disappointments was me missing out on a chance to watch Seoul Station, an animated zombie movie that I thought sounded interesting. That disappointment was compounded over time when I saw Train To Busan, an excellent zombie movie that many horror fans immediately fell in love with. Seoul Station is a prequel to that movie, although it takes a very different approach to the zombie epidemic framework of the narrative.

The film focuses on Hye-sun (voiced by Shum Eun-kyung), a young woman who has run away from her pimp and is currently struggling to make a better life with her boyfriend, Ki-woong (Lee Joon). The two get separated during the start of an outbreak of zombieism (with Seoul Station the point of origin for the infection), and Ki-woong ends up on a search for Hye-sun, accompanied by her daddy, Suk-gyu (Ryu Seung-ryong). 

Written and directed by Yeon Sang-ho, Seoul Station is a very interesting take on the zombie movie. Not only is it a very different beast from Train To Busan, it's also very different from many other modern zombie movies that seem to have the social commentary in the mix by accident. This is a very pointed film, shining a bright light on the class divide and the problems that can affect the most unfortunate citizens of South Korea. And it's done in a way that perfectly balances the personal stories with the zombie carnage.

The voice cast do well enough, although they're part of a very effective audio tapestry that complements the animation throughout. Horror fans may be disappointed by the fact that things aren't as wild and gory as the format could allow them to be, but there's a decent amount of bloodshed, although the style is realistic and restrained throughout much of the runtime. 

There's not too much else to say about the film though. It's a solid bit of entertainment, it's a good little slice of animated horror, and it nicely kicks off what would become a trilogy of diverse and interesting zombie movies. Worth a watch. And if you don't like it, or have little time for animated horror movies, . . . the next instalment will reward your patience.

8/10

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Thursday, 13 August 2020

Boy Eats Girl (2005)

As lovely as she may be, it's weird to think that there was a time in which Samantha Mumba was being sold as some kind of worthy addition to a movie cast. I cannot even recall her musical hit(s), but I recall never thinking of her as being poised for a career in acting. But a small filmography proves me wrong. The quality of the movies there, well, that's a different matter entirely.

Boy Eats Girl isn't terrible. It's just a bit confused. Which is what you might expect from a zombie film that is also hitting all of the beats for a standard teen flick. It's still better than Warm Bodies, but that's not saying much.

Mumba plays Jessica, a young woman who has an admirer in the shape of Nathan (David Leon). But Nathan doesn't want to make a move, for fear of ruining their friendship. Despite the encouragement from his other mates, Diggs (Tadhg Murphy) and Henry (Laurence Kinlan). Much like so many other teen movies, you get a school bully (Samson, played by Mark Huberman), a gorgeous "rival" (Cheryl, played by Sara James), and a mother (played by Deirder O'Kane) who panics when she finds out that her son has accidentally suicided himself and tries to fix it with a book of mumbo jumbo sorcery that starts a zombie epidemic. That last part may not feature in many teen movies, but it's in this one.

There aren't many other titles in the filmography of director Stephen Bradley or writer Derek Landy that stand out. You might say that Boy Eats Girl is the biggest thing they've done, in terms of the cast involved and the exposure it had when first released. Which makes it easy to see why they've never really clawed themselves up to some higher level. There's enough here to make it a fairly enjoyable enough 80 minutes, as long as you're not too demanding or hard to please, but there's not enough here to make it stand out in any way. The comedy falls a bit flat, the zombie carnage is very tame, and the third act just leads to everything ending with a whimper, rather than a bang. What works, surprisingly, is the mix of characters. They may be a bundle of stereotypes, but they're all given enough individual moments to help them be more memorable than they otherwise would be, and the cast provide varying results.

Leon isn't a bad male lead - imagine if Andrew Lincoln made his debut as a strung-out goth - and Mumba is pretty and sweet enough to make the central potential pairing worthwhile. James, Huberman, O'Kane, and the likes of Bryan Murray and Lalor Roddy all do well in their supporting roles, but the main chuckles come from Murphy and Kinlan, the sidekicks who are willing to help their mate when able to break through their fear-induced paralysis.

A lot of people will absolutely hate this. It uses zombies in a way that zombie movie fans will dislike, it tries to coast along on a mix of small-time charm and youthful energy. But it almost works. Almost. It might have done a bit better if it didn't also feel designed to give Mumba a push that never really felt earned (as much as I don't actively dislike her).

4/10

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Sunday, 12 April 2020

Netflix And Chill: Cargo (2017)

Based on a superb short film from 2013, Cargo is a zombie horror with a bit of a difference. It shows the lengths a parent will go to in order to keep a child safe, and reach somewhere they can have a chance at life, with or without them.


Martin Freeman is Andy, a man we see at the start of this movie with his partner, Kay. The two have a young daughter, Rosie, and they are trying to survive a world in which zombies are a wandering threat. Things change greatly when Kay is bitten, leaving the family unit as just father and daughter, so Andy plans a journey that he hopes will take them both to a better place.

Written by Yolanda Ramke, who also-co-directed with Ben Howling (the same positions they inhabited for their short film), Cargo is one of many films that come along to remind you of how many wonderful variations we can have within the zombie movie subgenre. The focus is on survival, as it so often is, but there's a lack of self-interest here. All that Andy wants to do is to give his daughter a chance to have some kind of life, and his every decision is informed by this, whether the people he meets are good or not.

Freeman is a great choice for the lead role, he always brings a quality to his characters that have you on his side from the very beginning and there's some added ingredient here watching this Englishman trying to plod on under the glare of an Australian sun (for that is where the film is set). Simone Landers is very good as young Thoomi, the inverse of Andy, a child trying their best to protect their father, and Anthony Hayes and Caren Pistorius play the kind of characters you often see in a zombie movie, ones that behave in ways that show a moral compass birling and whirling around differently in a world gone mad (well . . . that's more Hayes, really, but both have moments to keep you on your toes until you figure out how things are going to play out).

Cargo is a very good film. It uses some very familiar zombie movie moments, but they're all given that twist because it's a parent and child trying to survive them. It's also a great illustration of how to expand an impressive short into a feature. There are three key scenes here that are taken from the short film, but everything in between feels like a nice addition to the world, and to the story, in stead of just material used to pad out something that should have just stayed a short (as happens with a number of these things).

Not a film for those who need an excess of shambling undead, buckets of gore, and the standard third act situation of survivors being cornered and gradually overrun by hordes of zombies, Cargo is one to watch if you're wanting some horror with heart. If you're sitting there from the very beginning, rubbing your hands with glee, wondering when the baby will get eaten then it's probably best that you find something else to watch.

8/10

There's A disc available here.


Wednesday, 18 March 2020

Prime Time: Detention Of The Dead (2012)

The only film, to date, directed by Alex Craig Mann (who also helped to get it into screenplay form, from the play by Rob Rinow, and it seems like odd material to present on stage), Detention Of The Dead is exactly what you expect it to be. It's The Breakfast Club with a load of zombies thrown in to the mix.

You have the nerd (Eddie, Jacob Zachar), the jock (Brad, Jayson Blair). the jock friend of the alpha jock (Jimmy, Max Adler), the stoner (Ash, Justin Chon), the cheerleader (Janet, Christa B. Allen), and a goth (Willow, Alexa Nikolas). There's one other pupil in detention, Mark (Joseph Porter), but he's only there to suffer from a bite wound and then attack the teacher (Mrs. Rumblethorp, Michele Messmer). That's it. The zombie problem becomes apparent very early on, the teens all figure it out and start to make a plan that they hope will help them avoid being eaten, and everyone takes turns at getting along with one another and letting long-held feelings of anger rise to the surface.

Detention Of The Dead, despite how much fun you think it could be, is disappointingly average throughout. Utilising a group of characters who are nothing more than complete cinematic stereotypes can work, usually by underlining every aspect of them conforming to the stereotype or by subverting expectations, but nothing is done here to make them of any more interest. At all. I wish I was exaggerating, but this could have easily been written by teenaged me, overflowing with my wealth of John Hughes movie references and deciding they could be mashed up with some zombie carnage. If you want that kind of thing done well then I encourage you to seek out the far superior Dance Of The Dead (the fantastic second feature from talented director Gregg Bishop).

The cast don't do a terrible job, considering how little they are given to really work with. The leads are likeable enough, but that stems from how easy it is to dislike some of the other characters for various reasons. I also usually like goth gals in movies, so that helps, even if Nikolas is playing someone who seems fairly uncommitted to the full goth aesthetic.

Mann directs competently enough, punctuating the runtime with occasionally excellent gore gags and balancing things nicely between the fight for survival and the standard teen conversations we've heard many times before. The script has enough dialogue to clarify that at least one of the characters knows enough about zombies to be more useful in this situation than the others, and it moves on quickly enough after namechecking Romero, but it's clear that this is a film to be accessible to those after a light horror comedy, as opposed to zombie movie fans who would appreciate a lot more nods to the big names in the subgenre.

The biggest problem, and it can often be a problem for films that use zombies in a way that tries to mix genres, is that the zombies never feel like a major threat. They ARE, and we see them munching on bodies and obviously trying to get at our heroes, but there are too many moments that have the main characters either still having fun in the middle of the flesh-eating or making progress just that bit too easily.

Not a bad film, it's just a shame that Detention Of The Dead doesn't do enough to be a good one. It's passable entertainment, but it could have been much better.

5/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.


Wednesday, 15 January 2020

Prime Time: Big Tits Zombie (2010)

AKA The Big Tits Dragon AKA BTZ.

A film that epitomises the very worst of the kind of content that can sometimes be churned out by the Japanese, BTZ (I'm going to refer to it as that, any other full title is just ridiculous) is full of puerile humour and silliness from start to finish. There are one or two highlights, and they're not necessarily what you might be thinking, but it's generally a poor viewing experience, and a surprisingly dull one, that at least has the decency to be over and done with in about 80 minutes, before the end credits roll.

The simple plot sees a bunch of strippers accidentally unleashing a horde of zombies when one of them (Maria, played by Mari Sakurai) reads from a Book Of The Dead that has been carelessly left in some tunnels under a strip club. The undead start to cause problems for the women, there's a bit of gratuitous nudity, and one scene I can never unsee features a bitten woman displaying a mutated and spiky vulva that shoots fire. There's a sentence I never thought I would type out.

Directed by Takao Nakano, who also wrote the screenplay (adapted from a manga series, because of course it is), this is one of a number of movies to come up with the seemingly brilliant premise of pitting zombies against strippers. I can see why that's an appealing idea, certainly for anyone marketing a film to the casual male film fan who wants something he can throw on at the weekend while he has some snacks and drinks. Like a bit of gore and bloodshed? Yes. Like attractive women getting gratuitously naked? Yes. Here you go.

And yet, as hard as this may be for some people to accept, a film often needs more than just those things. A bit of wit is often the key to improving the whole thing, and that's something generally lacking here. Although BTZ is not lacking in humour, and one or two gags land, it's usually aimed too low, satisfying none but the most immature of viewers. Considering the fact that only one or two of the main characters make any kind of impression, the special effects aren't very special (you get disappointing CGI and the crudest practical appliances on display here), and the gore quotient is disappointing, and you can already see why this proves ultimately disappointing.

Sakurai is one of the few to be able to make her character stand out, mainly thanks to her way of dealing with the discovery, and subsequent zombies. Sora Aio, Risa Kasumi, and Tamayo also do decent work, respectively portraying the characters of Lena, Ginko, and Nene. Could I tell you right now exactly how things panned out for every one of them? No, I've forgotten most of this film already, doing my damnedest to write this review before more details escape like tiny leaves from an ever-so-slightly split teabag. But I remember generally liking those four leads.

If you're making a film that is essentially a joke then the joke needs to be funny. BTZ isn't funny, or at least it's certainly not funny enough to warrant the feature length. Which leaves you with a film that isn't good enough to provide a few chuckles, isn't gory or violent enough to please horror fans, and doesn't even throw in the level of nudity that the title promises. I'd be curious to know if anyone actually saw and enjoyed it.

3/10


Sunday, 23 June 2019

Netflix And Chill: Redcon-1 (2018)

I have said it before, and will say it again. There's nothing like a good zombie movie. And, unfortunately, Redcon-1 is nothing like a good zombie movie. I'm not sure if that's really so bad, we see at least a dozen bad zombie movies churned out every year, but it feels a bit worse than some others because, well, it seems to think that it is a good movie. It wants to be a smart horror that recalls the likes of 28 Days Later..., which is a bold move, but it falls down in a number of ways.

Here's a summary of the plot. Stop me if you have heard this before. There's been an outbreak of zombieitis. Soldiers, headed up by Captain Marcus Stanton (Oris Erhuero), are sent to find a scientist who may have a cure. The zombies are smarter than some other zombies we have seen over the years, but not smart enough to completely usurp the human race. You also get roving gangs of people who enjoy fighting and killing, and generally causing a bit of a ruckus, and there's a young girl who may have a better immune system than most, when it comes to this particular medical problem anyway.

Director Chee Keong Cheung has other films to his credit, but the last thing he directed was a decade ago, and that perhaps explains why he forgets a lot of the basics here. Because there's very little here that is executed with energy and style. You get some gore occasionally, and some of it is decent enough, but gore loses any impact when there's nothing else to grab your attention (despite what the more hardcore gorehounds may tell you).

The script, co-written by Cheung, Steve Horvath, and actor Mark Strange, is a mess. Characters are rapidly introduced to put them in a queue of people who will help check off the list of "50 zombie movie clichés", there's no tension, even in sequences that have the zombie menace overpowering a number of humans in their midst, and the dialogue makes the whole thing feel like a spoof.

Poor Erhuero, he tries his best but just can't do enough to lift up everyone, and everything else, around him. He's the best thing here, by some margin, but the film tries hard to make him look bad. At least he is someone you remember once the end credits have rolled, unlike the aforementioned Strange, Goodale, or even Katarina Leigh Waters. Or the little girl who plays . . . the little girl (I didn't jot her name down and I'll be damned if I am about to rewatch this crap just to get one name right).

Strange choices abound, from the editing to the soundtrack, the jarring jumps in tone, and the immediate changes in characters who are required to become brave/heroic/troubled as soon as some zombie dentures get too close to them. Even the pacing is off, with this thing clocking in at just under two hours, and the whole thing drags, despite there being an action scene thrown in every 10-15 minutes.

There are worse zombie movies out there. There always will be. But that doesn't make this one any better. It tries to have a little bit of polish but, as the old saying goes, you can't polish a turd.

3/10

There's a disc here if you want to waste some money.
Americans can buy the same disc here.


Sunday, 19 May 2019

Netflix And Chill: Peelers (2016)

Here's something I never thought I would say some years ago. I have seen LOTS of horror comedies that pit strippers against zombies. A couple of them were released a few years ago, while the best one (Zombie Strippers!) was released just over a decade ago. Which makes Peelers feel like a latecomer to what was a fleeting trend. That wouldn't be a bad thing if it looked as if everyone involved had been taking extra time and care to make sure everything was as good as it could be. Sadly, it doesn't look that way.

It's the closing night of a small strip club, a bittersweet time for owner/star Blue Jean (Wren Walker). What should be a night of celebration and sexiness, although the quirk of each act is often difficult to actually label sexy, is interrupted by a group of people who have become infected and are going to zombie around all over the place. There's biting, limb removal, bodies being too active unless damaged through the brain, and a smattering of nudity.

Written by Lisa DeVita, her first feature script, Peelers is pretty dire throughout, and the script is the main culprit. I can reel off a number of the other cast members, for example, but none of them make an impression, which means the whole thing rests on the shoulders of Wren Walker. While she does okay in her role, she has to deliver some lines and character moments that feel far too close to parody to be taken seriously. DeVita obviously thinks the central idea is good enough to make up for any other failings. It's not, not when it is so sorely mishandled. Potential weapons are highlighted in the first act (they may as well have large neon signs pointing to them), tensions are created that end up not actually feeding in to the main plot when things start to get more dangerous and bloody. They are either not used well enough or just dismissed after far too short a time.

Director Sevé Schelenz takes a step back here, after the imperfect but interesting Skew, although there are individual moments that work well. The highlight is a lapdance for two gentlemen being performed while the dancer is temporarily unaware of her clients moving from the state of living to dead.

JUST because they turned up and did what was asked of them, I will mention Caz Odin Darko, Madison J. Loos, Kirsty Peters, and Nikki Wallin. There are many others onscreen, but they are the ones I am namechecking before returning to mention Walker again. Although hampered by the weak script here, I wouldn't mind seeing Walker in a similar role that gives her much better treatment. She's the best thing here, and would work well in something with a better ensemble of characters.

The gore effects aren't good enough, mainly thanks to the wrong-headed idea that the FX would be improved/complemented by CGI, most of the characters are completely forgettable and disposable, the humour doesn't work, and nor does the horror. Yep, ending with something else I didn't think I would ever say, this is the least enjoyable movie pitting strippers against zombies that I have seen. Check out any of the others ahead of this.

3/10

Americans can buy the blu here.


Friday, 26 April 2019

Anna And The Apocalypse (2017)

Written by Alan McDonald and the late Ryan McHenry (expanding upon his 2011 short, Zombie Musical), Anna And The Apocalypse is a fun time for people who can accept that it mixes some gore gags with teen drama, a bit of comedy, some musical numbers, and a wee bit of added Scottishness. It's a good film, almost a great one (and many have already showered it with love as they watch and rewatch it while singing along with the songs), and one I was happy to finally see a little while ago, and then buy on DVD. Some of the goodwill towards it MAY have been built up by some of that special film festival atmosphere and the attitudes of those involved (having heard director John McPhail in conversation a few times now, I find the guy hilarious and wonderful) but I don't think that should take away from the fact that the film still had to be good enough to win people round when it started to "do the rounds".

Anna Shepherd (Ella Hunt) is the Anna of the title, which means she's going to be right there in the middle of a horrible zombie epidemic. At Christmas. It breaks out around her before she realises what is happening, leading to her initially seeking shelter in her workplace, the local bowling alley. But she won't be alone. Alongside her will be her best friend, John (Malcolm Cumming), and an assorted mixed bag of characters including Steph (Sarah Swire), Chris (Christopher Leveaux), and eventually Nick (Ben Wiggins). All of them have different ways of dealing with the situation and different motivations. Some just want to survive, some seem to have fun killing zombies, and some still hope to be reunited with loved ones. Mark Benton is Anna's father, who ends up stuck in her school with a horrible headmaster (played by Paul Kaye) and other survivors, including Lisa (Chris's partner, played by Marli Siu).

Considering the relatively small budget that this must have had, Anna And The Apocalypse is a film that looks and feels very nicely put together. The quality of the sound and camerawork is excellent throughout, if sometimes a bit rough around the edges when it comes to some of the FX work and the cheats used to imply a bigger picture just offscreen, and the only major gripe I have with is the lack of choreography that feels creative enough in many of the musical numbers. Even then, I understand the time and money needed to work on these things so it's not something I find unforgivable. Don't expect this to be The Greatest Showman with zombies and you should be okay.

For most of my movie reviews I tend to work through the various performances from the main cast members to highlight any great, or very poor, work. I'm not going to do that here. It feels as if it would be unfair. Not everyone is on quite the same level, that's all I will say, but most at least get a moment in which they shine, or have a way of working with the others that shows why they were picked for their role. Okay, I'll say that Hunt is great in the lead role, and that Cumming is so likeable that it's almost sickening, dammit, but you'll just have to see how you feel about everyone else when you watch the movie.

I'm also not going to grade every song on the soundtrack. I wish a few of them were a bit catchier but, as I have said before, an original musical is bloody hard to get right. The fact that this film includes such varied joys as "Hollywood Ending" (the standout, I think most people would agree), "Turning My Life Around", "Soldier At War", "It's That Time Of Year" and "The Fish Wrap" (the latter two both make me laugh hard) proves that it's got enough to have you tapping your toes and singing along, once you learn the words.

The script may not be as jam-packed or hilarious as it could be, especially if you don't have the penchant for cheesy gags that I do, but it admirably weaves together everything that it makes time for, scatters plenty of references throughout (probably deliberately, but one or two may be coincidental), and unabashedly aims for some emotional punches that most other movies in this bracket wouldn't even attempt. It also makes great use of Christmas elements without making every single scene bright red and green and overstuffed with Santas and elves.

Will you love this? Maybe, maybe not. I hope you will at least enjoy it, especially if you're a British viewer after something home-grown. It's a film that you have to meet halfway, that's the way I see it. The opening scenes may put some off but once it gets going then you're in for a good time, and then you start to grow attached to the characters, the humour starts to work, and it ends up being a little gem that everyone involved can feel rightly proud of.

7/10

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Saturday, 20 April 2019

Shudder Saturday: Last Ones Out (2016)

When it was released almost a decade ago, The Dead was an impressively unique, and tense, zombie movie. Set in Africa, it managed to stand out in a mass of shambling undead horror films. If Last Ones Out had been released some time before The Dead then maybe we would view that in the same way. Maybe it would be the one to hold up as a fine example of what can be done within the parameters of a standard zombie film. Or maybe it would still be as easy to dismiss as it is today.

Greg Kriek plays Henry, an American who is due to undergo an operation to remove his appendix while he's in Africa. Before that can happen, however, a viral outbreak turns the country into a zombie hotspot, leaving him to flee to safety with three relative strangers (Sunet, played by Christia Visser, and Siseko, played by Tshamano Sebe, and Vincent, played by Vukile Zuma). Can they avoid the zombies and reach safety? And will Henry be able to move on with his appendectomy left undone?

Last Ones Out isn't a bad film, not when you consider the obvious limitations on the budget and resources that must have been available to writer-director Howard Fyvie (billed here as Howard James Fyvie). He's scraped enough money and talent together to make something that is at least half-decent and well-intentioned, but we all know where good intentions can lead. What Fyvie hasn't done, unfortunately, is spent as much time as possible tweaking his script and plotting out a worthwhile tale that can carry viewers along from start to finish through a mix of thought-provoking situations and standard cannibalistic cadaver conflicts.

He also hasn't put together a strong enough cast. Kriek is far too hard to like, thanks to the mix of script issues and a performance that doesn't help matters. Visser, Sebe, and Zuma all do better, largely because they're not the standard lead players, and there are also decent supporting roles from everyone else who gets involved with the action.

There's one standout scene, I think it's at approximately the halfway point, which involves some off-the-cuff medical attention being given in an unsuitable, and vulnerable, location but the rest of Last Ones Out is disappointingly bland and cliched, whether it is the way people deal with others who may be infected, the behaviour of the selfish character who could endanger everyone while being so stubborn and careless, or even the flashes of feral viciousness that show when the zombies have prey in their sights.

Not enough is done with the setting, there's nothing new added to the subgenre, and I would have to say that, despite having a level of skill and polish that so many other, cheap, zombie movies lack, Last Ones Out should be one of the last you check out from any pile of potential new horror viewings.

3/10

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Sunday, 6 May 2018

Dead By Dawn 2018: Aj Zombies! (2017)

We've seen it before, and I won't do this film a disservice by naming the most obvious modern horror comedy it seems to resemble, but Aj Zombies! is still a lot of fun, making up for a lack of originality with a core group of fun characters and some solid laughs.

Emilram Cossio stars as Felipe, not one of life's winners. His mother works for the family of Claudia (Anahi de Cardenas), a lovely young woman who barely notices him, and it's when he goes to visit her at her place of work that Felipe and Claudia both realise that there's been an outbreak of zombiefication. They stick together in an attempt to stay alive, soon joined by an oblivious drunk (Miguel Iza) and a security guard (Cesar Ritter).

Adapted from a web series of the same name, although I am unfamiliar with it, director Daniel Martin Rodriguez does very good work with the script by Pablo Carrillo, Gonzalo Rodriguez Risco and Bruno Rosina, a script that touches on some fun ideas without ever hammering you over the head with them. The opening scenes alone show the size of the class/economic divide in Peru, the isolation of individuals who spend their times on their mobile phones, and how the zombie epidemic can easily start to grow before people even realise what is happening.

The pacing is almost perfect, with a few smaller set-pieces intersperesed throughout the character moments and interplay, but gorehounds may be a bit disappointed by the lack of any serious amounts of grue (although there are a couple of decent moments).

It's the leads that help make this more memorable, however, and Iza should be singled out for his constantly hilarious drunkard, either making sure that he has his alcohol to hand or sometimes breaking out into a random musical moment. Ritter provides some big laughs too, and Cossio and De Cardenas both become more rounded and sweet characters in comparison to their new companions, making the journey more satisfying, and tense.

There are now, I believe, approximately 1,053 zombie comedies out there for you to choose from. This is one of the better ones, thanks to the characters, the Peruvian setting, and a finale that feels appropriate while also maintaining the balance of comedy and zombie threat.

7/10

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Wednesday, 25 April 2018

Dead By Dawn 2018: The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue (1974)

AKA Let Sleeping Corpses Lie.

A favourite among many zombie movie fans, The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue is as bizarre a blend of rotting cadavers, dubbing, and odd Britishness as you should probably expect from the title.

I should also say right now that it's not really as good as I remember, and it's hard to understand quite why it has maintained such an enduring reputation over the years. There are many good moments throughout, undeniabley, but the pacing is slower than a snail's pace, and the main characters are nearly impossible to like and root for.

Ray Lovelock is George Meaning, a young man (or damn hippy, depending on your viewpoint) heading out for a trip on his motorbike. Cristina Galbo is Edna Simmonds, a young woman who reverses into George's motorbike. That puts the two of them together for the rest of the movie, as they travel through the British countryside and discover a number of lively corpses that end up killing people. The police (led by an Inspector, played by Arthur Kennedy) obviously don't believe the truth. Because who would?

Directed by Jorge Grau, and written by Sandro Continenza and Marcello Coscia, this is a film that places atmosphere and one or two set-pieces above everything else. Which is fine, especially when you get to the set-pieces, and especially when you have the scenes that have the atmosphere laid on as thick as it can be (soil-covered, shambling zombies look great, tension is created, and there's also some good sound design to help). It's just not so fine for the other 50-odd minutes of the runtime.

It's hard to rate the performances of Lovelock, Galbo, and Kennedy, although the latter gets to spit out some wonderfully derisory soundbites, because the script is so bad in sketching out their characters. Lovelock comes across as a bit of a douchebag, at best, while Galbo is just too simpering and passive throughout. Kennedy is a horrible authority figure, but he's at least consistently amusing with it (not necessarily intentionally).

I can't say that this is a BAD film. The explanation for the reanimation of the corpses is a pretty good one, the plotting is silly but also a bit more focused than many other zombie movies, the undead all look . . . very peaky, and the punchline is a bit of a corker. It's just a shame that the script and performances drag things down quite a bit, although many other horror fans seem to be able to overlook those things while they bask in its redeeming qualities.

6/10

This zombie film can be bought here.


Tuesday, 24 April 2018

Dead By Dawn 2018: Dellamorte Dellamore (1994)

From my Flickfeast.co.uk review. Which may already be familiar to some.

AKA Cemetary Man.

Dellamorte Dellamore is a zombie movie, but it’s one unlike any other I can think of. It is, in fact, a perfect zombie movie to show someone who thinks that all zombie movies are basically the same shambling gorefest, from one film to the next.

Based on the novel by Tiziano Sclavi, director Michele Soavi crafts a masterpiece of existentialist horror, helped by writer Gianni Romoli and a pitch-perfect lead performance from Rupert Everett. The fact that the lovely Anna Falchi is also here, bewitching the male gaze with her consumate loveliness, is also a big plus.

Everett plays Francesco Dellamorte, aka the cemetery man. He looks after the dead. More importantly, he takes care of the dead when they rise up again, on the seventh night after their death. His existence is a lonely one, with most of his time spent in the cemetery in the company of his assistant, Gnaghi (François Hadji-Lazaro). Gnaghi can’t really speak more than one word, and his placid, childlike nature makes him an ideal person to help Francesco and share in the secret duty carried out in the cemetery. Things start to become complicated when Francesco falls in love with a beautiful woman (Falchi), leading to events that will have him questioning his life and his role as a dealer of death.

Sarcastic, exhausted, unhinged, and desperate are the words that I would use to describe Francesco, and all of these traits are expressed perfectly in the performance from Everett (one I would be tempted to call a career-best). Hadji-Lazaro does well in his supporting role, especially in the moments that hint at his character not being half as dumb as he appears to be, and Falchi is so gorgeous that it doesn’t matter when she’s given the most bizarre character developments.

As good as they all are, however, the cast are really just pawns moved in place by Romoli and Soavi. The director provides a succession of gorgeous imagery, with the main cemetery design an absolute triumph, and the design of every shot is atypically artistic for this sort of fare. The dialogue isn’t always as smooth as it could be, but that’s not a problem when you start to get your head around the ideas being toyed with. Francesco can’t decide what is worse, the dead coming to life or the living who are just dying over time anyway, and he starts to create a moral quagmire for himself when he stops seeing much difference between the two. But don’t worry, all of this thoughtful existentialism comes without any loss to the actual zombie action and bloodshed.

I hope this review is enough of a push for anyone who has yet to see the movie, and I didn’t even mention the relationship that involves one main character and a decapitated head, the zombie biker sequence that echoes Psychomania, or the ending that is as brilliant as it is bizarre.

9/10 

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Tuesday, 10 April 2018

Day Of The Dead: Bloodline (2018)

If there's one good thing that can come out of the release of Day Of The Dead: Bloodline it's the idea that I may not get constant grief from horror movie fans when I say, in hushed tones, that I really didn't mind the Day Of The Dead movie that came out in 2008. It got a lot of hate, and still does, but I enjoyed it as a simple bit of zombietastic fun, albeit one that sullies the good name of a Romero classic. But, trust me, it was a LOT better than Day Of The Dead 2: Contagium (2005). And it's a lot better than this eye-watering mess.

Talented director Hèctor Hernández Vicens (who made a great impression on me with The Corpse Of Anna Fritz) is going to have a struggle on his hands to make horror movie fans forgive and forget this. There are times when it doesn't seem like he should shoulder all of the blame, especially when you consider the weak script by Mark Tonderai and Lars Jacobson, but when poor choice follows poor choice, and is then followed by another poor choice, it's hard not to believe that Vicens is the one responsible for how ultimately awful this film is.

The plot is almost too dumb to even summarise. There's a zombie outbreak, of course, and Sophie Skelton becomes the main medical professional in a large shelter. Things happen, the safety of the shelter is placed in jeopardy, and Skelton ends up pursued by the zombiefied incarnation of the creepy man who lusted after her years ago (Max, played by Johnathon Schaech).

Where to begin here? The script that I already generously referred to as weak, when just calling it horrible would have been more appropriate? The decision to make the lead zombie threat an obsessed stalker/wannabe-rapist? The way the characters have been sketched to somehow ensure that viewers won't want to root for a single one of them? The nonsensical plotting, complete with an inserted sex scene that would have felt straight out of the European horrors of the '80s if it hadn't been so damn tame? There are a few decent moments of gore, but not enough to make up for the pain of the rest of the content of the movie.

And part of me doesn't really want to mention the cast, mainly because I try not to get personal and outright rude in any of my movie reviews (although I think it has happened once or twice). I don't have to worry, however, about singling anyone out here. Every single cast member is atrocious. Seriously. Not one person puts in a convincing, or even halfway decent, performance. It's as if Vicens asked them to forget anything they ever learned about their craft and give deliberately awful performances. I don't know why he would do that, but it's the only explanation I can come up with.

My rating for this film is incredibly generous, and I've ONLY gone as high as this because of three main factors: the gore, the fact that people were around to make sure that the equipment was all running properly, and the injuries/deaths that intermittently entertained me.

3/10

If you hate yourself then you can buy the film here.
American self-haters can buy it here.


Tuesday, 24 December 2013

A Cadaver Christmas (2011)

It took three people to write A Cadaver Christmas and you should know what to expect when you see that two of those three co-writers also bag two lead roles, with the third scribe also taking on the directing duties. Yes, A Cadaver Christmas may not be the worst independent, zombie-related, horror-comedy set at Christmas time, but it has too many flaws to make it a truly enjoyable experience.

Daniel Rairdin-Hale is a man who walks into a bar covered in blood, and he has a story to tell that nobody will believe. It involves a crowd of walking undead and creative use of the tools that he uses in his janitorial position. While nobody quite believes what they're hearing, they all end up sticking together until they get to the bottom of whatever is going on. The motley crew includes the bartender (Hanlon-Smith Dorsey) and one of his loyal customers (Ben Hopkins), a police officer (Yosh Hayashi) and his twisted perp (Andrew Ryan) - with all of them about to have a memorable Christmas.

Mixing elements of Braindead and Feast, with a few other splatterific titles referenced along the way, A Cadaver Christmas tries hard for most of its runtime, but it becomes clear after the first few scenes that this is a slight film built around a few set-pieces that aren't as memorable as they were in the minds of the men writing the script (Rairdin-Hale, Dorsey and director Joe Zerull).

The performances are all almost okay. I wouldn't say that anyone is terrible, but that's only because I am a kind soul who doesn't like to lay in to people who seemed to be trying their best. Let's just say that none of the main cast members are at ease in front of the camera, with each performance containing at least a hint of awkwardness.

But we horror fans can forgive any level of acting onscreen if the gore and pacing keep us happy, right? Well, there are one or two good gore gags, but this film falls into the trap that has claimed so many others. Sequences that should run for a minute or two are, instead, stretched beyond breaking point, and so much of the material feels like filler that it starts to become boring.

It's not unwatchable, not by any means, but I'm still waiting to see that truly great Christmas zombie movie. Hell, at this point I will settle for a good one. A Cadaver Christmas is just average, at best.

5/10

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Saturday, 21 December 2013

Stalled (2013)

It's a zombie movie that takes place during a workplace Christmas party, so I'm counting it as a Christmas movie.

Considering that Christmas celebrates a figure we could acknowledge as a superstar zombie (although there's no mention of any craving for brains after the resurrection), it is perhaps surprising that there aren't more movies mixing the living dead with the tinsel-adorned festivities. Mind you, when we have films as bad as Silent Night, Zombie Night and Santa Claus Versus The Zombies, maybe we should just be thankful.

Stalled is nowhere near as bad as those movies just mentioned. It's actually an enjoyably different spin on the zombie movie, focusing on a man (credited as W.C, played by Dan Palmer) trapped in a toilet stall while zombies starts to pile up around him. There's a woman in a nearby stall talking him through a few ideas, but this is, essentially, a one-man movie for the most part.

Palmer also wrote the movie, which is directed by Christian James (the two men having worked together on a variety of movies since their feature debut, Freak Out - a flawed, but enjoyable, horror comedy). Unfortunately, I can't say that this movie shows any major improvement in their skills, other than some ingenuity in being able to take the slight premise and stretch it out for just over 80 minutes.

The acting is okay, if I'm being nice, but bear in mind that I AM being nice. The various zombie effects are pretty poor, but one or two gore gags provide some amusement, and the attempts to create some interesting backgrounds to the main characters are appreciated, if not entirely successful.

Basically, Stalled is a film with some good intentions, but not-so-good execution. It starts to stretch credibility within the first 10-15 minutes and then has nowhere else to go, leaving the film as inert and ultimately useless as W.C.

It's not as funny as it thinks it is, it's not as enjoyably gory as it could be, and it's not deserving of some of the praise that I've seen heaped upon it this year, in my opinion. It's a one-joke film, with that joke being almost enjoyable enough to make it worth a watch.

5/10

Stalled is currently streaming on US Netflix and also available to pre-order from Amazon at this link - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stalled-Blu-ray-Dan-Palmer/dp/B00GY4N1FM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1387577223&sr=8-2&keywords=stalled



Tuesday, 12 March 2013

Braindead AKA Dead Alive (1992)

Despite the fact that he already had a number of films under his belt at this time, it's hard to argue against the fact that Braindead put Peter Jackson firmly on the road to great success (though few could envision just HOW great that success would be). Other films from him would have more importance (Bad Taste being his debut feature and The Frighteners being the film that led to the creation of WETA and that work that would help make The Lord Of The Rings movies) but Braindead will always have the blood and guts. And more blood. And more guts. And LOTS more blood.

The story is a simple one, set in New Zealand in the 1950s. Lionel (Timothy Balme) lives at home with his domineering mother (Elizabeth Moody) and doesn't really get to enjoy life as he should. This looks set to change when he somehow ends up taking the lovely Paquita (Diana Penalver) on a date to the zoo. Unfortunately, Lionel's mother is following them and she ends up being bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey. It's not long until she gets very sick and then dies. Then comes back to life. Poor Lionel can't bring himself to kill his zombie mother so he tries to control the situation, even when the bodies start to pile up and things get more and more dangerous. And bloody. It's important to mention that because Braindead actually held the record for the most fake blood used in a movie for many years.

Anyway, the above description might help you know what the core of the movie is about, but it doesn't even begin to describe the various, gory pleasures available throughout. From the opening sequence showing the Sumatran rat-monkey being collected by a New Zealand zoo official to a nauseating and memorable dinner scene to a priest who can do more than just pray for help when faced with trouble to another nauseating and memorable dinner scene to every bit of physical trauma and bloodshed in the second half of the movie, this is just one spoonful of gory goofiness after the next. And I've STILL not mentioned the best bits.

There is actually a bit more to it than just the zombie carnage, including some sneaky behaviour by Lionel's lecherous Uncle Les (Ian Watkin), but only a bit. The film is most concerned with getting from one pile of gore to the next and the singular focus is somewhat impressive. Having said that, Balme, Penalver and everyone else onscreen do great work, even when acting alongside some of the more outrageous practical effects or under heavy make-up.

Jackson also helped to co-write the screenplay with Fran Walsh and Stephen Sinclair and it's wonderfully economical in places while leaving plenty of room for the scenes that don't really focus on the dialogue (aka about 3/4 of the film). It's just a shame that, as is often the case with Peter Jackson movies, the rest of the film isn't as neat and concise. Of course I don't begrudge the man his scenes of bloody excess, but it's a shame that so many moments tend to overstay their welcome by a minute or two, leaving the whole thing feeling just a bit too much like overkill. It's hard to argue the point, however, when so many moments during the blood-drenched finale leave a big smile on my face, but there's just a slight imbalance somewhere that stops the movie from being as perfect as the younger version of me used to think it was (before I'd exposed myself to a fuller range of crazy horror movies out there).

I can't imagine any horror fan who likes to see a bit of the red stuff thrown around onscreen disliking Braindead. If you like your horror movies to be more restrained and/or psychological then don't rush to see this one, but if you like zombies, inventive practical gore gags and more fake blood than you'll see in almost any other film . . . . . . ever, then this is for you.
9/10

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Sunday, 21 October 2012

Burial Ground: The Nights Of Terror (1981)

Burial Ground: The Nights Of Terror is a surprisingly enjoyable and atmospheric horror movie that suffers from a lot of bad (over-)acting and the presence of THIS guy


playing one of the creepiest "children" that I've ever seen onscreen. That's probably due to the fact that he was a midget already in his mid-20s when he portrayed young Michael, a boy who dotes on his mother a little too much. But more on that later.

The plot is simplicity itself as a bunch of people arrive at a villa and start to encounter some zombies. It's all the fault of a professor, he managed to wake them up moments before becoming their first victim. That's all you need to know. The characters onscreen aren't all that well fleshed out or even interesting but they're there and they're in peril and that's all that's needed.

Directed by Andrea Bianchi and written by Piero Regnoli, Burial Ground: The Nights Of Terror has enough gore to appease fans of blood and viscera and plenty of atmosphere despite the many flaws. The zombies aren't the best I've ever seen but they're grimy and maggot-strewn and when heads are damaged the makers of the movie have gone for an interesting way of depicting the trauma, it's done in the style of shattering ceramic as opposed to bloody mush. There's some blood and mush on display but the shattering of each dried corpse head is a nice little touch that helps make the movie memorable.

The other thing making the movie memorable is the very strange and incestuous relationship depicted between young Michael (Peter Bark, pictured above) and his mother, Evelyn (Mariangela Giordano). The film hits all of the usual beats, in many ways, and shuffles from one zombie moment to another and then takes a massive swerve when Michael finds himself being offered comfort by his mother and trying to exploit the situation in a very Oedipal way. It's probably the most disturbing part of the whole film and certainly made Peter Bark an actor held with warped affection in the schlock-loving hearts of many genre fans.

Mind you, at least Bark and Giordano make an impression, which is more than can be said for the rest of the cast. It's not entirely their fault, they are ill-served by weak material that sometimes feels like it's going to veer into softcore porn territory before it gets back on track with yet another zombie appearance. The acting is bad, the script is weak and the film isn't one to recommend to anyone who wants a wholly satisfying movie experience. Thankfully, there are some positive aspects (mainly that atmosphere and the special effects here and there) to make it worth viewing at least once and I'd certainly advise fans of zombie movies to at least make up their own minds about it.

5/10

http://www.amazon.com/Burial-Ground-The-Nights-Terror/dp/B000063K1F/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350749640&sr=8-1&keywords=burial+grounds+nights+of+terror



Friday, 5 October 2012

Bloodlust Zombies (2011)

Written and directed by Dan Lantz, who also stars as an office security guard, Bloodlust Zombies is a low budget slice of zombie action, as if you couldn't guess from the title. It features some blood and gore that seems cheap and fake, pretty bad acting from everyone involved (with the exception of Lauren Todd, who is stuck delivering some poor lines but makes her character a very likeable one) and a general feeling of the thing overstaying its welcome even though it just clocks in at about 72 minutes in length.

The problem with zombie movies nowadays would seem to be that everyone thinks they can make one for very little money and with very little effort. That's maybe being a bit harsh on Lantz, who does actually pepper his film with some amusing little moments and lines, but it's a fair point to make in an age when anyone can pick up a digital camera at a fairly cheap price and try to create something that they hope will launch their career in movies.

Bloodlust Zombies takes place entirely in one building, a building in which people have been making a biological weapon. Can you guess what that biological weapon does? Oh yes, this is something that has been created to drop on wartime enemies and make them mindlessly attack each other instead of American soldiers. The testing has gone well and the staff are celebrating with champagne and shenanigans when an accident occurs that puts the building into lockdown and starts a small scale zombie epidemic.

There are a number of people onscreen but most of them are hard to care about. Adam Danoff is occasionally amusing as a ridiculously horny male office worker, Lantz has some fun in his security guard role but spoils it by constantly bemoaning about how it should have been his day off (an obvious reference, I assume, to Clerks) and Robert Heath, Catherine White and Janice Marie are average at best in their roles. As mentioned above, it's only Lauren Todd who makes a good impression.

The biggest name in the cast is Alexis Texas, best known for her work in the adult movie industry. Thea Alexis Samper, to use her real name, couldn't have been picked for her acting because she is, I'm sorry to say, absolutely awful. She's easily the worst offender onscreen and it would seem that nobody told her that acting in movies requires a slightly different approach to acting in hardcore adult movies. In fact, I have no idea why she's in the movie. She spends quite a bit of her screentime topless but a) there are many actresses trying to make their way into movies that will do nudity so it couldn't have been hard to find someone sexy AND able to act and b) anyone wanting to see the lady in a state of undress will be able to see far more of her in the likes of Naughty College Schoolgirls 42, Bad Ass Booty, Apple Bottom Snow Bunnies and The Naughty Cheerleaders Club (all titles randomly selected from her filmography on IMDb and all titles I was completely unaware of until writing this view so keep your sniggering to a minimum, please).

So with the poor script, bargain basement production values, lack of characters to care about and a main role that allows for a porn start to . . . . . . . . . . . get topless what does the movie have to offer undemanding film fans? There are, as I said, a few amusing moments and lines in the script but that's about all that the film has going for it and it's not enough to make a viewing worthwhile. Far from the worst thing that I've ever seen, but that's only because I've seen so many really BAD movies over the years, but not one that I'd ever recommend to others.

3/10

http://www.amazon.com/Bloodlust-Zombies-Alexis-Texas/dp/B004ZQJ5I8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349190857&sr=8-1&keywords=bloodlust+zombies



Tuesday, 22 May 2012

DeadHeads (2011)

It would seem to me to be an obvious irony that every time people think the zombie subgenre has been done to death it returns with a film that proves there's plenty of life in it yet. The zombie comedy, especially, has been doing well in recent years although not every attempt is successful. Thankfully, DeadHeads is a good one. In fact, it's the best that I've seen in the past few years.

Things begin with Mike Kellerman (Michael McKiddy) waking up and not realising that he has been zombiefied. The situation only becomes clear when he bumps into Brent (Ross Kidder). Well, his arm falling off helps to emphasise the point. Zombie or not, Mike has a ring in his pocket and a woman he loves and he decides that he must go to her and tell her exactly how he feels. Brent decides to help him. Perhaps along the way they can figure out just why they are smarter than the other groaning, shambling, flesh-eating zombies. Or perhaps they will just be happy if they avoid the company men who have been sent out to capture them and get them to a lab.

Brothers Brett Pierce and Drew T. Pierce wrote and directed this movie and they prove themselves to be majorly talented on both fronts. The film may be slightly rough and ready in places but there's a lot put onscreen that outshines many other horror comedies with bigger budgets than this one. The script is full of great exchanges, fun one-liners and numerous pop culture references while the practical effects are consistently superb.

The acting is also very good from most of the cast. McKiddy and Kidder are fantastic in the main roles, Markus Taylor does well in full-on zombie mode as Cheese, Thomas Galasso makes a great badass, Greg Dow and Benjamin Webster are both very funny and Harry Burkey is immensely likeable as Cliff, a man willing to pull over and help a couple of hitchhikers, even if they're looking a bit poorly. Natalie Victoria is suitably adorable as Ellie, the lady Mike is trying to reach, while Leonard Kelly-Young is perfectly acceptable as the villain of the piece. The only irritation comes from Eden Malyn, stuck with portraying her character like some kind of mousey, nervy woman who has wandered on from a children's TV show.

It may be a bit silly in places, obviously, and it may have some gaping plot holes but DeadHeads is a fantastic, funny film with some decent gore moments sparingly spread throughout and I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the likes of Wasting Away.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dead-Heads-DVD-Michael-McKiddy/dp/B004YJZAHG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1393758790&sr=8-2&keywords=deadheads