Undead - 2002

When brothers Michael and Peter Spierig set out to make a zombie movie, they did it with an originality and flair that was unexpected. Most low budget zombie films rip-off the Romero tradition shamelessly and callously, or they innovate with fast-moving zombies, slow-moving plots, and tired old premises. Not so with Undead. Undead takes a new look at zombies, while still keeping much of the original conventions and adding a new spin on the legends. It’s also a joy to watch; the gore and the special effects, all made at the hands of the two filmmakers and a computer are nothing short of brilliant and amazing.

A strange acidic rainfall, corpse-like reanimated Zombies, and extraterrestrial comets, spaceships, and aliens suddenly victimize a small town in Australia. When everyone in town succumbs to the strange invasion, the only surviving humans must band together to survive, as well as solve the mystery of what has happened to their beloved community. The cast is an assortment of normal humans we might find in our own neighborhoods; there’s Rene, the pretty local beauty pageant winner; Marion, the town Looney and gun enthusiast; Dirk and Emma, small-town police officials; and the pregnant Sallyanne and her lover Wayne. When they hole up in Marion’s house, they quickly learn that they will become zombie food if they don’t make a move, and fast, to get out of town. If only the aliens hadn’t built a huge extraterrestrial wall around Berkeley, they might be able to drive out, but there seems to be no escape. With Sallyanne going into labor, the acid rain burning them as it pours down, and a strange sickness developing around them all, Rene must learn to lead, or to allow her and the rest of the survivors to perish.

This film is compared to Night of the Living Dead and Dead Alive, but to my eyes this Australian zombie movie seems more like early Peter Jackson work. It’s low budget, but well made, and while it is extremely gory and gross, it’s still really funny and campy at just the right moment. Based on an earlier trilogy of films made by the Spierig brothers called The Undead Trilogy, it’s an homage and a cool sci-fi horror movie that seems almost too expensive, too advanced, and too professional, to be just like all the other crappy zombie movies coming out. With a 1950’s feel and a real science fiction element, “Undead” has a similar feel and tone to movies like Night of the Creeps and Critters 2. It has very cool special effects, and some really unnervingly violent gore sequences that shock and amuse. John Woo type action sequences and stunts add an awesome action-film ingredient that lends some spice to a tired sub-genre. Felicity Mason and Mungo McKay give great performances as Rene the beauty and Marion the outcast. Felicity has the ability to play a believable victim while not pathetically giving in to ancient stereotypes of women in distress. Mungo McKay is half hero and half weirdo, a sort of Van Helsing/NRA member crossbreed who concocts new ways to use rifles, and to destroy zombies. The funniest character in the film, Constable Harrison, is played by a very funny Dirk Hunter to perfection. The cussing, nervous, and egotistical cop is a thoroughly needed comic relief for a death-weary audience at just the right moments.

Undead is different from other zombie films, but remember that it is still a zombie movie. It doesn’t make any new innovations in the zombie mythos, but it does add on to the modern folkloric legend by preserving the tenets of Romero’s zombies, while being able to have some fun with the science fiction genre as well. Undead is really fun and really gory. It’s the perfect film for people who wish there were more films from Peter Jackson’s early repertoire.

Written and directed by: Peter and Michael Spierig
Featuring: felicity mason, Mungo McKay, Rob Jenkins, Lisa Cunningham, Dirk Hunter, and Emma Randall
2002
104 minutes

Review by Heidi Martinuzzi.

The Roost - 2005

This film rocks. I can’t put it any other way. The Roost is in many ways a true horror throwback to the seventies and eighties, when low budget films still looked and acted like films, but in many ways it also employs real tricks of the trade that are fun and imaginative. Some truly eerie cinematography and some fine direction take this idiotically written little flick and turn it into a fun and cool trip down memory lane. Other films, of late, have tried to emulate this style and accomplish this décor (like 2004’s overrated Malevolence by Steven Mena), but few succeed where The Roost does.

A rather long and almost tiresome opening lets the audience in on a small little secret; the film is going to suck. It will suck in that really nice Worms/Pumkinhead/Motel Hell way that we all know and love. And it does. The cute ode to TV horror hosts and black and white comedy horror like Elvira and The Munsters doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the story, but, then again, the rest of the story doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the story. Several ill-fated youngsters on a dark road fall prey to a muddy road on the way to a friend’s wedding. When they can’t get their tire unstuck, they decide to take a walk down the dark and deserted country highway in order to search for help. What happens next s a bunch of creepy and nonsensical events that are so much fun to watch you forget, nay, you don’t care, that The Roost has almost no real plot.

The direction really stands out in The Roost. Bordering on improv, the dialogue feels unrehearsed and the long moments in-between statements comes off as artistic and professional, rather than amateurish and embarrassing. The Roost’s director Ti West really has a definitive style involving dark shadows, long silences, and (thank god!) no excessive or unnecessary dialogue. The Roost also isn’t afraid to show off its b-level special effects in broad lighting, and in color. Unlike so many b-movies and indie horror films, The Roost isn’t embarrassed by its budget. By bold-facedly highlighting the blood and gore, the film seems proud of itself, and therefore, we (the audience) feel proud of it too. West also has an advantage when it comes to his film; his location is really great. The old barn that 75% of the film is shot in is creepy, interesting, and allowed for so many artistic possibilities. West didn’t waste any of them. West has proven that barns can be creepy, too. So can darkness, subtlety, and suspense. The Roost employs all of them.

The acting is above average, probably due to the excellent direction, and the pace and timing are nothing short of perfection for a horror film. However, I won’t lie. The plot makes no sense at all, and there is no effort made to explain it. The Roost involves killer bats and bloodthirsty zombies, and somehow the two are connected. I saw the movie, but I still have no idea how, or even why, these two elements are even together in one film.

Despite its insistence that it is a b-film and deserves to be on a late night horror host show on public access, The Roost is actually better than that. Sure, the grainy, pixilated contours of the images, the lack of budget, and the downright moronic storyline might be qualifiers for such a fate, but the talent of the director, fx team, and cinematographer boost The Roost to a much higher level of horror enjoyment.

Written and directed by: Ti West
Produced by: Susan Leber
Featuring: To Noonan, Karl Jacob, Vanessa Horneff, Sean Reid, Wil Horneff, Barbara Wilhide, Richard Little, John Speredakos
2005
80 minutes

Review by Heidi Martinuzzi.

They Day They Came Back - 2005

The Day They Came Back centers around a conflict in trio—the government (headed by Paul Kratka of Friday the 13^th Part 3, 1982), a commando (Chico Mendez of Troma’s PDA Massacre, 2004), and the group of young people stuck between the two while zombies have risen and are taking over. These zombies stem from a private research laboratory in which there were experiments in DNA mutation, toxic testing, and blood cell incubation—all of which, the fan will agree, are acceptable ingredients in the zombie flick recipe.

The Day They Came Back is part of what you hope for in a zombie short. Director Scott Goldberg has obviously taken the time and care to make it look slick, which is so much more than what we can usually expect. The Day They Came Back has good cinematography and the atmosphere is brought forward and kept up throughout, aided by an original score by Brazilian composer Marinho Nobre. This is an especially nice touch that sets it apart from the usual thrash-metal score that accompanies low-budget zombie films.

It does, however, run into some problems, but they’re not really the kind that one with $3,000 and 22 minutes can fix. The Day They Came Back runs less like a short film and more like a long trailer. This is only really bothersome in the sense that you really wouldn’t mind watching the feature this could be, if only there was one. It would have been interesting to see what Goldberg could accomplish with a little more cash and a little more time.

Frankly, most other troubles are really too trivial to mention in the face of Goldberg’s accomplishment—which is having made well an intriguing and well shot little zombie flick that I believe that fans of the apocalypse zombie story will appreciate and enjoy quite a bit. Goldberg, who admits to being relatively new to the zombie sub-genre (his introduction was in early 2003 with Day of the Dead!), does better what a lot of people who claim to be zombie fans from birth have done. This is fun to see and will maybe lay to rest the one-upmanship that is often seen on message boards and websites.

According to Goldberg’s website, The Day They Came Back 2 is in pre-production for Fall of 2006. My own advice to him would be to save those dollars and use The Day They Came Back to acquire additional funding. Instead of a short sequel, give us this one again, but in feature form.

To watch it yourself, just click the pic below.

For a ZAGG interview with Scott Goldberg, click here.

Choking Hazard - 2004

I can only assume that the Czech Republic is doing relatively well since the fall of Communism in 1989—in fact, I believe it’s a proven truth, that the sign of a country on the political mends is whether or not it makes a gory zombie movie. It’s also nice to see that the Czech’s have a good sense of humor. Choking Hazard goes a long way in proving that.

Choking Hazard is a bizarre tale weaving the odd, but if you think about it, quite obvious, threads of zombies and philosophy. It opens with a woman in black, who blows a zombie’s head off with a shotgun. This seems a bit disjointed as we don’t see her again until the end, but if you’re living in the Czech Republic, you get the joke. The woman is Dagmar Patrasova, popular children’s television show host. The story swirls around a group of people who head into the woods to the Halali Motel to try to figure out the meaning of life, which is rather ironic. The group consists of a young nihilist named Verner, a girl with an apparent obsessive-compulsive disorder named Hanusova, an alcoholic named Krenocova who believes that one can find the meaning of life in an orgasm, and a hardcore porn start named Mechura who also happens to be a Jehovah’s Witness. A blind philosophy professor named Dr. Renis (played by Czech comedy star, Jaroslav Dusek) heads the group with his constant droning on about this and that philosopher. There is a particularly amusing bit about how a philosopher should die—Renis doesn’t seem to die quite as a philosopher should. Rounding out the group are the organizers, Lefnerova, and her whipped husband, Nedobyl.

During the first evening of their weekend retreat, for reasons not entirely clear, numerous zombie woodsman (called Woombies). According to director Marek Dobes, the traditional Czech forest ranger, or woodsman, “hunt the weak members of the herd in our forests because they try to limit the number of ill and crippled beasts to help with the balance of nature, which can’t work on its own, because the ecological factors are so limited in the surviving European forests.” While no other explanation seems to exist as to why these woodsmen would rise on this particular night and attack the people in this particular motel—this is as good a reason as any. All of the attendees of the retreat are searching for something that they could probably do just fine in life not knowing if they just lived their lives, which might be seen as a kind of weakness.

According to Renis, there are two things that control our actions in our lives, those being Instinct and Reason. And these two things do indeed materialize in the form of the zombie woodsmen, which come in those two flavors: the dumb and clumsy Instinct and the smart and dangerous Reason. While our cast of characters is whittled away (and by the way, how does one properly capture what it’s like to be blind and eaten by zombies? Watch this film to find out), we the audience can toy with the philosophical query of which is most important, Instinct or Reason. In the end, in a silly scene where a Reason zombie gets covered in blood and is attacked by a dimwitted Instinct zombie, you can reach your own conclusion.

What is most enjoyable about Choking Hazard is the obvious thought and consideration put into it that gives it a bit more substance that your average gore-fest, but at the same time, the lack of seriousness that accompanies it allows it to be critical of that very substance. It’s a movie that allows you to feel sort of clever to play with the ideological underpinnings, yet also allows you to laugh it off and have fun with it. Combine that with some slick shooting and some good acting and you’ve got yourself a winner.

Directed by: Marek Dobes
Written by: Marek Dobes and Stepen Kopriva

Feeding the Masses - 2004

Often I wonder if indie horror filmmakers actually watch other indie horror films; you see the same cliché’s used over and over again, the same stories, characters, and ideas rehashed but never made any better, and you also catch them making the same mistakes. Not so with Feeding the Masses. Indie veteran Trent Haaga knows how to avoid the problems, even with newcomers Ted Marr and Richard Griffin taking the reigns.

Feeding The Masses is a very sophisticated zombie film that, like Romero’s trilogy (I hate t use the comparison but it is really fitting) is deeply intelligent and incredibly engaging; it’s just such a shame the budget couldn’t always keep up with the script. Written by Trent Haaga and directed by Richard Griffin, Feeding The Masses is an elaboration on the social implications of having our world taken over by zombies. This time the point of view is that of the journalist, and integrity, truth, and freedom of the press are the main issues. In war-torn times like our present, when anti and pro-war propaganda populate out televisions, radios, and written publications, we as Americans have a hard time deciphering between fact and fiction. Untrustworthy government officials and corporate machines are cliché villains, but they give us an enemy within our own nation to team up against in Feeding The Masses. Basically, with a good story like this, you could substitute zombies for anything; terrorism, war, smallpox...and it would still be a frightening horror film with a strong social commentary.

The strength of this film lies strongly on the characters; Torch, the cameraman, (played by the talented William Garberina) is a strong lead, he’s funny and he’s likeable, while being able to add quirkiness to the role. Rachael Morris is a bland Shelley, the anchorwoman, but her character is fresh and real, while Michael Propster is a sympathetic and charming foil to Garberina’s reckless wit. Add to it all the evilly uncaring government official Agent Barnes (William DeCoff) and a handsome soldier named Roger who has a thing for Shelley (played by Patrick Cotter) and you have a perfect formula for success. In fact, it might even make a pretty good sitcom, if you took out the zombies. Or maybe you should leave them in.

It’s really nice to come across an indie horror film about zombies that doesn’t just show naked women being taken apart by zombies, because frankly, it gets old. Some impressive CG sequences allow the feeling of holocaust and disaster to really sink in. Tanks, buses; they really did their best in terms of budget, but still couldn’t pull off some of the necessary effects that the script demanded. Feeding will show you your fair share of gore, but the emotional impact it has is similar to things you might have felt watching the Dawn of the Dead remake; it’s very well done, though director Richard Griffin sometimes loses opportunities to create action and often his characters go under-directed, keeping Feeding The Masses from being as impressive as it could be. Because of the budget constraints it can’t compete with higher budgeted indie horror like 28 Days Later, which are essentially the same sub-genre and cater to the same audience. An ambiguous and abrupt ending leaves the viewer craving more; gore, death, sadness, storyline; just more.

A great soundtrack adds power and class to the film, showing it’s a cut above the standard in more ways than one.

Written by: Trent Haaga
Directed by: Richard Griffin
Featuring: Patrick Cohen, Billy Garberina, Rachael Morris, Michael Propster
2005

Review by Heidi Martinuzzi.

Raving Maniacs - 2005

There’s a rave going on. It’s gonna be great. Tuesday and her boyfriend J.T., and their friend Katie, and Katie’s brother, are going out partying to the biggest rave in Providence, Rhode Island. Of course, the reckless kids become part of an alien plot to distribute some strange drugs (they’re so strange, that they glow in the dark) among the ravers at the party. The socially smart storyline tells a tale of reckless youth with no control over the substances they ingest in heir endless quest for stimulation, feeling, and euphoria. The risks of doing some drugs may never be discovered until it’s too late, when the party's over.

This collaboration between Trent Haaga, Richard Griffin, and Christine Peltier all takes place at night in the darkness, at a rave. It’s got great atmosphere, and unwavering action when it comes to the set, costumes, and good cinematography. Unlike in their earlier endeavor, Feeding the Masses, Griffin employs some creative shots, beautiful and otherworldly lighting, and some seriously disturbing sequences guaranteed to make you queasy. Talent allows Griffin and his cinematographer to create atmosphere unlike anything most indie films are capable of generating; it’s stunningly fun and terrifying. Patrick Cohen stars as the club manager, who has a past with the dark and sexy Tuesday. Unfortunately, Tuesday is now dating the volatile and dangerous J.T., and he and Jessie (Patrick Cohen) have an evil rivalry. Throw into the mix a Vietnam vet, a nerd who loves his game boy, and a couple who work at the club, and you get; that’s right. To many characters. Immediately hampered by an opening that takes a good half hour to create because of all the different storylines and sub plots, Raving Maniacs is slow to get started.

Once the action does get going, it’s pretty good. The new glow-in-the-dark drug being distributed is actually of alien origin- it’s actually a pretty gross concept and will make you think twice about what you put in your mouth next time someone offers you something at a rave. The effect of the drug is an induced mindless, zombie-like highly sexual state that inspires you to randomly copulate in the most grotesque of ways with those around you. As the sex turns violent and bizarre, the few who didn’t take the drugs start to notice something is amiss. By that time, it’s too late for those who are infected, and for those who aren’t, because army protocol dictates that the facility be quarantined and no one gets out until after backup arrives. But is backup coming? Can one ex-marine hold down the doors while the innocent and the contaminated alike try to escape the rave? Its all frightening and fun from this point on, with some seriously disturbing scenes that cross the line of decency without being superfluous or unnecessary. (And THAT is a task hard to accomplish)

Griffin takes some pretty big risks with a low budget; it’s impossible to aspire to this level of filmmaking without acknowledging that the rave is going to suffer if the technology can’t be paid for. He does all right with what he’s got and actually makes a pretty intimidating feature relying on clever camera angles and creatively sinister lighting. Where Griffin fails Raving Maniacs is in his relationship with the actors; he doesn’t push them as far as they need to go to be believable. Emily Morettini as Tuesday can’t compete with Andrew Vellenoweth’s charisma and energy onscreen, and Patrick Cohen’s Jessie has a confidant, if somewhat affected, ability to contend. The long character development definitely holds back the characters once they are established; with so many intros and setups, the deaths come too quickly and seemingly out of nowhere. An unexpected love story comes through for the romantics in the end, but the glaringly obvious ramifications of frivolity and a callous attitude towards drugs looms largely over the entire narrative; drugs don’t make you different, they make everyone the same. Just like the traditional mindless zombie that Raving Maniacs imitates, those who indulge in addictions will become part of a pack of desperate and deluded sufferers.

Written by: Richard Griffin, Trent Haaga, Christine Peltier
Directed by: Richard Griffin
Starring: Patrick Cohen, Emily Morettini, Andrew Vellenoweth, Christine Peltier, Ryan Patrick Kenny, Jennifer Zigler, V. Orion Delwaterman, Edwin Cottle, Patrick Pitu, William DeCoff
2005

Review by Heidi Martinuzzi.

After the End, Act I - 2005

After The End, Act I, is a disappointing film, to say the least. I’d like to say that this is D. Ryan Mowry’s firsts film, and chalk up the terrible cinematography and writing to inexperience, but I can’t. Mowry has made several previous independent films through his company Sneuwbal Films, After The End, Act I, being the most recent. 30 minutes is a terribly awkward length for a short film to begin with, and with the lack of budget, the bad sound, and the terribly amateur directing, it’s more awkward yet.

After The End, Act I, is apparently the first of several Acts set in the not-too-distant future when nuclear holocaust has turned everyone into zombies, except for a few pot smoking slackers living out in a Pennsylvania wasteland. Intending to pay homage to an already beaten to death idea of Romero’s Living Dead out in Pittsburgh, Mowry actually sets the film in the decidedly un-Pennsylvania-like Arizona, where desert cacti and sand let us know we are definitely not shooting on location. The beginning credits open with stock footage of H-bombs and nuclear holocaust of a level of professionalism not to be repeated ever again in the film. The music and the opening credits insinuate a much more professional film than what was actually created. Like so many independent filmmakers, the music and the graphics on the credits take precedent over the actual script and filmmaking itself, not only cheating the viewers but providing a stunning good/not good contrast between credits and story that is unforgivable. Mowry’s characters are shallow and hopelessly underwritten people who are not affected by the total destruction of the universe. They sit around all day and smoke pot. This is not a film about survival or about human relationships; it’s a film about pot smokers smoking too much pot. The world happens to be dead all around them. While the idea has merit as a joke, it’s not much to base over half an hour of footage on, let alone subsequent sequels and Acts. The film wants to cause laughter and inspire cult fans, but can never get over how funny it thinks it, and it never gets remotely serious enough to inspire real care on the part of the viewer.

Words that describe After The End, Act I: unintentionally ridiculous, badly filmed, and insultingly condescending in its attitude towards horror fans; yes, we do like zombies, yes, we do like Romero. That’s not enough to make you a filmmaker. Films require talent, planning, and care, and that’s something After the End just doesn’t have.

The Trailers and Teasers for the second and third acts that follow the initial footage is just as badly made. More like a teaser for a company that wants to get their film financed, so they made a short, After The End packages itself as a real movie. It’s not. Not only does this film not warrant any further acts, it doesn’t belong in a video store or on a shelf with other movies made by fans-turned-filmmakers.

Written and Directed by D. Ryan Mowry
2005
33 Minutes
Sneuwbal Films

Review by Heidi Matinuzzi.