Shudder Saturday: Undead (2003)

I have owned Undead for many years, and have enjoyed it since I first saw it back in the early 2000s. I want to say that I first saw it on VHS, but I'm not exactly sure. It's been about twenty years, cut me some slack. What I always remembered about Undead was the visual style and the quirky humour. There are certain elements of it that I always forget though, and they end up leaving viewers with a mixed bag, in terms of the viewing experience.

An avalanche of meteorites end up turning a small Australian town into the epicentre of what could be labelled as a standard zombie outbreak. René (Felicity Mason) finds herself caught up in the middle of some undead awfulness, but there's a silver lining to the cloud when she encounters the sharp-shooting skills of Marion (Mungo McKay). Others soon join them as they hide out in an isolated house, and it's soon time to come up with a proper escape plan.

The feature debut written and directed by The Spierig Brothers (Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig), Undead is a fun horror comedy that takes a familiar premise and adds one or two fun twists (which I won't spoil here). The special effects, mostly created by the brothers on home equipment, hold up well, with a great mix of practical gore and VFX helping to present a realistic world in which the unrealistic carnage is unfolding. The whole movie has a specific visual style, and The Spierig Brothers have retained that trademark, variations on their rather unique look, throughout their entire filmography (from the superior Daybreakers to the disappointing Winchester).

Mason is a good female lead, showing a core of strength and intelligence even when relying on the skills of McKay's character, while McKay himself does a great job of being the typical strong and silent "hero" of the piece. Dirk Hunter and Emma Randall are fun, playing a pair of confused and nervous police officers, and Rob Jenkins and Lisa Cunningham are a young couple, the latter also pregnant, who take a bit longer to, let's put it politely, show how useful they might be in a scenario that doesn't allow a lot of room for error.

I have to end on a slightly negative note though, sorry. Undead is never as good as I remember it being. It feels a bit overlong, mainly due to a wealth of scenes that simply focus on people shooting hordes of the undead, the humour isn't as consistent as it could be, and that cool visual style makes it feel like one scene just bleeds into another, which also seems to make each sequence feel stretched out, once again affecting the energy and pacing of the film.

Worth your time, but more for the small moments of inventiveness than the other things you might expect from a movie, like tighter plotting, a good sense of momentum, and fleshed out characters.

6/10

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The Revenant (2009)

The Revenant is one of the many movies that I've had on my shelf for some time and just not taken the time to watch before now. Once I buy films any sense of urgency disappears. I own it, I can watch it whenever I like. Which, unfortunately, often leaves me with a hell of a big backlog of stuff that I really should watch. Thankfully, friends (both online and offline) tend to prod at me until I watch titles that they highly recommend and this was the case with The Revenant. Not for the first time, and surely not for the last, I am glad that I took the advice of others and finally got around to watching this one.

Bart (David Anders) is on active duty in the military when he's unfortunately killed by death-dealing enemy bullets of death. His funeral takes place and then his loved ones, including his best friend Joey (played by Chris Wylde), try to deal with the loss in their own particular ways. The grief process can take a long time and take many strange turns but Joey finds things extra complicated when Bart turns up on his doorstep, apparently having left his grave and somehow come back to life. It's all very confusing, and quite disturbing, but doesn't take long for Joey to go with the flow and try to convince Bart of the best ways to use "the dark gift".

Written and directed by Kerry Prior, this is a whole lot of fun that mixes in some decent blood and gore with a bit of pondering on the very essence of good and evil. A cross between a vampire, zombie and vigilante movie, there are also numerous nods to beloved classics and at least one scene featuring a decapitated head that was the best decapitated head scene I can recall having seen since Re-Animator.

The acting from the two leads is fine, not the best I've seen in the genre but far, far better than a thousand other low-budget films you could pick up from your nearest movie store. David Anders is likeable, despite the potential danger that his character brings with him, while Chris Wylde is entertaining enough before his personality take a bit of a downward, darker turn in the last half hour or so. Louise Griffiths is quite lovely and Jacy King plays a character who could have been potentially annoying but ends up simply trying to convince others to use common sense.

It's perfectly paced, running at about 110 minutes but with plenty packed in there, and full of energy and I can't imagine any horror fan taking a major dislike to this one. Just damn good fun.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Revenant-DVD/dp/B005NVMMDE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341092164&sr=8-1