Zombie

State of Emergency (2011) Review

February 17, 2014 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: Chaos consumes a small town when a chemical facility explodes releasing a deadly toxin. Moments after the leak, the town’s residents show signs of mutation, causing the military to quarantine the area leaving any survivors helpless and trapped inside. The story follows Jim, a young man isolated within the red zone, as he eludes flesh eating zombies in an attempt to win back his freedom.

Quick Review: State of Emergency is an interesting low budget indie movie that spends more time focusing on its characters than it does on zombie attacks.

And it’s not as bad as it sounds actually. Quite similar to The Battery, strong leads and character development all make up for the lack of action on screen.

State of Emergency feels like an episode of The Walking Dead (you know one of this episode where not much happens until the end) with better dialog.

Unfortunately, technically it also sounds and looks like a TV movie. The sound mixing is quite awful and the score reminiscent of the numerous horror/fantastic shows on tv right now. The special effects are quite awkward but fortunately the zombies make-up are alright.

If you’re a fan of the post-apocalyptic genre and zombies in particular, you will enjoy State of Emergency for what it is, a low-key entry in the genre.

My Rating: 5.5/10

Director: Turner Clay

Origin: US

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The Battery (2012) Review

December 28, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: The personalities of two former baseball players clash as they traverse the rural back roads of a post-plague New England teeming with the undead.

My Quick Review: The Battery is a slow burn that will grow on you after a while.

I have to admit that after half an hour or so I was starting to look at my watch. But suddenly, for some reason I just started to enjoy watching those 2 characters on screen and having a banter with each other.

What struck me in The Battery is the realness of the situation (as realistic as a zombie outbreak can be) and how our main characters react in certain situations: for instance the masturbation scene totally makes sense considering how sex deprived you might be when you haven’t seen a woman for months, but was never (to my knowledge) addressed in a zombie movie before.

The very slow and weak zombies are also a breath of fresh air in an age where zombies seem to grow faster and stronger with each new movie (I’m looking at you World War Z).

Finally the friendship between the 2 main protagonists reminded me of Resolution, another indie gem heavily relying on a strong bound between two friends.

Obviously, The Battery can not be recommended to action horror fans or gore fiends, but if you like your movies to be about character development in a realistic post apocalyptic world, you will enjoy the hell out of it.

My rating: 6/10

Director: Jeremy Gardner

Origin: US

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World War Z (2013) Review

December 6, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: United Nations employee Gerry Lane traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments, and threatening to destroy humanity itself.

Quick Review: Since I did not have the time to go check World War Z when it was out (moving to another country will do this for you) I had to wait for the blu-ray to be available before I could get this review out.

Was it worth the wait? Yes and No. As a summer action blockbuster World War Z check all the boxes: big movie star, unrelentless on-screen action, feel good ending, family values….

But as a zombie movie, World War Z can only disappoint. The movie invasion is here being treated on a world scale with our hero actually traveling to many different places and being confronted to hordes of zombies everywhere he sets foot.

While those scenes of quick moving zombies will have your heartbeat going faster and maybe even get your palms sweaty, there is no denying that we lose much of the tension that a slow building scarefest would provide. Impressive, World War Z is most certainly, scary and gory, not so much.

It’s also quite obvious that the movie has been cut a few times, some transition are not very smooth and we never have the time to really get a sense of the geography of each situation. Jerusalem for instance is presented as this impenetrable fortress but minutes after Brad Pitt arrives, the zombies find their way above the wall. It seems very contrived, to say the least, that it could not have happened before.

So yeah it is spectacular to watch swarms of zombies running through cities but I was lacking the small scale tension that a Night of the living dead style home invasion could bring to us. The Walking Dead shows us on a weekly basis what is possible with one or two locations, a bunch of zombies and a few survivors.

There is a sequel in production for World War Z, but at this point I don’t see what is left to tell in this story.

My Rating: 7 (as a summer popcorn movie), 5.5 (as a horror movie)

Director: Marc Forster

Origin: US

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V/H/S/2 Review

June 9, 2013 by Eric S. 2 Comments

Synopsis (from IMDb) : Searching for a missing student, two private investigators break into his house and find collection of VHS tapes. Viewing the horrific contents of each cassette, they realize there may be dark motives behind the student’s disappearance.

My Review: After a stretch of really bad movies, it seems I’m on a roll again. Following Resolution (go and watch it already!) yesterday, V/H/S 2 is another horror gem that I can only recommend (and a big improvement on the first movie).

I did enjoy the first V/H/S but it was also a flawed movie with some weak segments. V/H/S 2 only has one average segment IMO (the last one) but all the others range from good to great while featuring horror movie classic genres such as Ghosts, Demons, Zombies and Aliens.

It’s quite difficult to be original when doing found footage movies but this time all the directors put their own twist to it and it is refreshing.

We start with Clinical Trials, from Adam Wingard (V/H/S, You’re Next, ABCs of Death). The pitch is similar to the movie The Eye, where our main protagonist is starting to see ghosts right after an eye operation (he conveninently has a camera in his eye, allowing us to see the movie POV style). I did jump couple of times (when the ghosts appear) and the tension is good enough to sustain the whole duration of the short. I would compare Clinical Trials to an Asian Ghost Movie on speed. Highly satisfying beginning!!

Rating: 7/10

The second segment, A Ride in The Park, from directors/writer Eduardo Sanchez, Jamie Nash and Gregg Hale (Blair Witch Project, Lovely Molly) is a take on the zombie genre. The twist is that the camera is on the zombie’s head (similar to Ben Wheatley’s segment in ABC’s of Death) so we have a few gory shots of him feeding on his victims. This is a fast paced short that will satisfy zombie and gore fans alike.

Rating: 6/10

The third Segment, Safe Heaven, from directors Gareth Evans (The raid) and Timo Tjahjanto (Macabre, The ABCs of Death) is, by far, my favorite. It starts pretty slow with a team of journalists investigating a cult (with the help of hidden cameras on their bodies) but when the shit starts hitting the fan, I was almost jumping up and down out my seat from pure joy and adrenaline. The pace and action is reminiscent of The Raid and the weirdness and gore is on par with Macabre and the L segment from ABC’s of Death. With Safe Heaven, Gareth and Timo prove that teaming them up was a match made in heaven or in this case, hell.

Rating: 8/10

The last segment, Alien Abduction Slumber Party, from writer/director Jason Eisener (Hobo with a Shotgun, The ABCs of Death), is the weakest of the bunch for me. I did not really care for the use of a dog as a tripod and, despite some neat sound effects, could not get emotionally attached to the story, the same way I was with Clinical Trials. As a result, all scares or sense of tension disappeared quickly.

Rating: 5/10

The wrap around segment, Tape 49, written and directed by Simon Barrett did an OK job of transitioning us into each stories and had its moments at the end. An improvement over the wrap around segment of the first V/H/S but nothing to write home about.

Rating: 6/10

V/H/S 2 belongs to the short list of horror sequels that are actually better than the original. I truly believe that the Found Footage genre is better served by short stories as shown here. It allows many different creative directors to test the medium and each stoy does not need to drag into overly long introductory segments that plague many of the found footage movies out there.

Now waiting for V/H/S 3. Bring it on!!

My Rating: 7.5/10

Watch V/H/S 2 Here Now Before it’s in Theaters!

28 Days Later Review

June 7, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: (from IMDb) Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.

Neoli’s Review: Ask me to recommend a good zombie-themed horror film and I’ll recommend 28 Days Later in a heartbeat. Danny Boyle directed this film which we might expect to feature the same hip and cool vibe as his classic Trainspotting. And guess what Alex Garland wrote the script, the guy who gave us the equally hip and cool The Beach, so inevitably 28 Days Later is all that too. Actually, 28 Days Later is the film that made zombies hip again.

Then again, when you’re trying to survive a hopelessly anarchic, zombie-infested London, being hip and cool is the last thing on your mind. Nevertheless, Jim (played by Cillian Murphy—the always cheekbony-handsome Cillian Murphy!) and Selena (played by Naomie Harris, the strong female character, and black at that) make running away from zombies such a lovely enterprise. Together they’re joined by father-and-daughter team Frank and Hannah to balance the mix.

In 28 Days Later, the zombification process is given a plausible explanation: it’s from a virus (dubbed RAGE) originating from chimpanzees. One bite or intravenous contact with the infected blood and humans are immediately reduced to a zombie–not the usual zombie with a doddering gait and head lolled to one side but the raging maniac kind. I prefer the first kind of course since I figure they’re much easier to outrun. But the fact that the film settles for the quick-moving zombie variety gives it its fast and energetic pace.

In any case, I’ll have to say it was fun—and dare I say—enjoyable watching 28 Days Later. You don’t obsess much about the gore and the horror. You’re much too concerned with the running away and the fending off the zombies and the surviving. And ultimately you care about the bond Jim and his friends make along the way. You root for them and sincerely want them to win, and it breaks your heart when one of them doesn’t make it.

At some point it’s no longer about the dread of what the zombies can do to you. It’s also about the dread of what the other survivors—in this case, the military—are capable of doing for their own purposes.

The DVD copy of 28 Days Later reveals several alternate endings, but the ending where Jim survives his gunshot wound is the one they use. In this scene, there’s a brief, nanosecond inset of H-E-L spelled in big letters. It flashes too quickly for you to form any opinion, but nevertheless I remember thinking it’s “hell” being slowly and graphically spelled out for Jim as he lies on his deathbed. Eventually, he wakes up and goes out of the house and sees Selena and Hannah sewing a giant banner that says HELLO to anyone who cares to help.

It’s not a desperate HELP they wrote there. It’s a hopeful HELLO, and that makes all the difference.

Neoli’s Rating: 8/10

Directed by: Danny Boyle

Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns

Year: 2002

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