Zombie-Thon: October 2010

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Does this count?



j/k

[Rude]

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That's a pretty huge image just to make a joke, but yeah... it would definitely count. I should totally rent that now just for a laugh!
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Last Of The Living

Last Of The Living is little zom-com from New Zealand. It's pretty low-budget, and nothing special really... but there are a few moments worth watching.

I sorta' like the idea of picking up a story after the zombie uprising. There's no real explanations or exposition. Instead, we simply find ourselves watching three slackers who spend their time roaming from one home to the next, playing video games.

Of course that wouldn't make for a very exciting zombie movie, so they just had to complicate things. And what better way than to throw a girl into the mix! Actually, she's not just any girl... she's also some sort of scientist. And not just any scientist, either... but one with a potential cure! Continue Reading...

-Rude
www.zombiethon.wordpress.com

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

That's a pretty huge image just to make a joke....!

Sorry...didn't know how to resize it.

[ScottotD]

I bought DOGHOUSE, DANCE OF THE DEAD and ZOMBIES OF MASS DESTRUCTION from work today 

Can someone please PM me the mojo for embedding video?

[Rude]

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Day of the Dead (2008)

Don't let the name fool ya'... this definitely isn't Romero's Day Of The Dead. In fact, it's technically not even a sequel to Zack Snyder's 2004 version of Dawn Of The Dead. Instead Steve Miner helms this pseudo-remake of the zombie classic, and takes the story in an entirely different direction.

The small town of Leadville, Colorado is being sealed off and quarantined by the military due to an outbreak of flu-like symptoms. The infection spreads quickly and soon overwhelms all hospital and emergency services, before finally going full-zombie. Continue Reading...

-Rude
www.zombiethon.wordpress.com

[Rude]

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Zombie 4: After Death

I actually had high hopes for this one. I mean, it opens right away with ancient catacombs, voodoo priests, dancing zombies and the gates to Hell itself! Hardly any exposition or anything, just... BAM! It really hits the ground running.

But that peters out quickly, and instead we find ourselves on a pleasure cruise with some Budweiser-drinking mercenaries and their girlfriends. They loose control of their boat and eventually find themselves on some creepy jungle island.

It takes a little while to figure out how this all fits together, but imagine a mix between the Dharma Initiative and... oh, i don't know; The Serpent and the Rainbow or I Eat Your Skin. Something with voodoo zombies in it. Continue Reading...

-Rude
www.zombiethon.wordpress.com

[Rude]

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Grave Mistake

Wow, this was absolutely horrible. No kidding, guys... Grave Mistake was really, really bad. If someone ever tries to hand you a free copy of this movie, just back away from it slowly. Actually, ya' know what... scratch that, turn and run as fast as you can!

I'm pretty sure it was shot on an old camcorder that someone borrowed from their aunt or something. I have no idea how so many people were talked into appearing in this thing. But, judging by the horrible acting and bland scenery... i'm guessing it's full of locals who had nothing else to do with their weekend.

I'm not entirely certain, but i think the zombie outbreak in this film was caused by a redneck dumping windshield cleaner on a grave. So that should probably tell you just about everything you need to know, really. Continue Reading...

-Rude
www.zombiethon.wordpress.com

[Relaxing Dragon]

Remarkably positive take on the '08 Day of the Dead. I've found that to be one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Atrocious acting, shoddy story, laughable scenes of sped-up running zombies... the only really good feature are the gore effects, and even then half the time those are fairly craptastic efforts.

[Rude]

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Yeah, but then again you're a big fan of Trick 'R Treat, so... yeah. 

Seriously though, i wasn't fawning over DOD or anything. I think my review boils down to "it ain't half-bad." Which is lukewarm praise at best. But maybe after watching years and years of crappy zombie movies, anything with a budget starts to looks decent. There's just so few gems in the genre, that during Zombie-Thon anything even slightly entertaining will probably get a thumbs up from me at the time. The marathon tends to dull my critical analysis a bit, ya' know?!

Of course if you go watch Grave Mistake, something like Day Of The Dead might not look so bad in retrospect! 

-Rude
www.zombiethon.wordpress.com

[Relaxing Dragon]

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Yeah, but then again you're a big fan of Trick 'R Treat, so... yeah. 

Aww, low blow.

But yeah, I actually get what you mean. I suppose I am rather spoiled in my selection of zombie films (though I'm about to watch Survival of the Dead, and by accounts that one can go either way).

[Compound]

Of course if you go watch Grave Mistake, something like Day Of The Dead might not look so bad in retrospect! 

Rude, unlike RD I have seen a plethora of low grade zombie films. Day of the Dead 08 is still well below the "ain't half bad" mark.  I'll point to my 2008 review:

Day of the Dead (2008)
Well, after all of the build up of "OMG! DO NOT WANT!" from the internet, it's not that bad. Granted it doesn't bear much resemblance to the Romero films other than the fact that there's zombies in it and it certainly would have gotten a better reaction if it had been named "Zombie Nightmare" or something similar.  The plot? An eviiiiil government agency lets loose a biotoxin which turns folks in Leadville "This doesn't look like Bulgaria at all. Nope" Colorado into flesh eating zombies. Well, actually it turns them into sprinting zombies. Sprinting, wall climbing zombies. Sprinting, wall climbing, tool-using zombies. Hell, if they'd started breathing fire, I wouldn't have been surprised. The zombie rules in this one are a bit inconsistent. For example, since it's a disease changing people, why do the zombies need to be shot in the head? And if some people are immune, why would biting spread the love? It's the same contagion. They'd still be immune.  And I'm pretty sure that bleach does in fact kill everything. And a zombie body is still 90% water. And who the hell built a missile silo in the mountains? That makes no frigging sense! And Mena Suvari has this backstory in the movie that never gets explained. It keeps getting mentioned, but there's never any payoff.

My opinion of the film has gotten worse since then.
Sigh. Look, I could write a multi-page rant on this, and I probably will. But the scary thing? It's not the worst zombie film I've ever seen. Not even close. Heck, it's not even the worst film with "Day of the Dead" in the title. (I'm looking at you, "sequel.")  But it's not a Romero film. It's not a sequel to the Dawn remake. It's just a zombie film. It's not as good as, say, Flight of the Living Dead, but it's better than House of the Dead or Zombies Gone Wild.

[Rude]

Rude, unlike RD I have seen a plethora of low grade zombie films. Day of the Dead 08 is still well below the "ain't half bad" mark.  I'll point to my 2008 review

That's pretty funny, because this is the very first sentence from your review:

Well, after all of the build up of "OMG! DO NOT WANT!" from the internet, it's not that bad.

I don't know... but "it's not that bad" doesn't sound well below the "ain't half bad" mark to me. Maybe i'm missing some of the subtle semantics there or something! 

Listen guys, i don't care if you liked it or not. You don't have to agree with me or anything! I'm like, ten movies deep into a zombie movie marathon... and i just kinda' enjoyed it at the time. Go watch it again*, write your own review and post it here... in fact, i'd be more than happy to post your reviews on the Zombie-Thon blog as well!

Grab a zombie movie and join in the fun!

-Rude
www.zombiethon.wordpress.com

*Although i recommend you watch stuff like Grave Mistake, The Dead Next Door and maybe Redneck Zombies first. You might just find a new appreciation for Day Of The Dead!

[Compound]

That's pretty funny, because this is the very first sentence from your review:

Well, after all of the build up of "OMG! DO NOT WANT!" from the internet, it's not that bad.

I don't know... but "it's not that bad" doesn't sound well below the "ain't half bad" mark to me. Maybe i'm missing some of the subtle semantics there or something! 

Yeah, you're missing this line:

My opinion of the film has gotten worse since then.

I tried to do an iRiff of this since that if wrote the review, and watched it another half dozen times before tossing it out as "not worth the time to finish." The more I saw it, the worse my opinion of it got.

As for reviews, honestly? I did zombie films last year. I've watched them fairly often in the months since then. I rewatched the Resident Evil films two weeks ago. I saw a zombie film a few days ago. (And yeah, I'll post that review here at some point.) But this October, for scary films I put a bunch of vampire films in my queue instead.  I just don't want to go through another 20 or 30 zombie films this year. Besides, I'd like to have a breather from zombies while I wait for Walking Dead.

[SJP]

I don't know...I kind of want to see Grave Mistake now.  That guy's face at the 0:34 mark is priceless.  Granted, I do have a new respect for the "Made with Video" movie, since Heavy Mental, despite being a low budget piece of crap and not about zombies, was a lot better than I thought it would be.  That doesn't mean I've lost my mind and think that it's actually GOOD, but it's definitely fun to watch.

And I didn't care much for Day of the Dead, but I did laugh when I saw Pat Kilbane as the head zombie running down the hallway.  Been off MadTV for years and he still can't shake the fact that he has the world's silliest run this side of Monty Python.

To be honest, I've seen quite a few zombie movies, most of them off-beat Italian schlockfests (or "Spa-dead-i Westerns," as I've just made up but probably has been used somewhere before), and I think the only one I thought was sheer, unadulterated, not-worth-watching-a-second-time crap was The House by the Cemetery.  Fulci's well known for movies that make no sense, but I think even this one he was struggling to explain himself.  I do remember that the quote at the end of it is apparently not real, or attributed to the wrong person or something.  I did like "The Beyond," though, if only because the hospital scenes actually do look like something Fulci had a nightmare about and put up on screen.

[Rude]

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SJP, that guy is actually playing a retarded person. He does a goofy voice like that nerd from Family Guy, and surprisingly it's one of the least offensive decisions they made in that movie!

BTW Compound, i wasn't missing that line... i was just making a joke! But you're sick of zombies, that's great... good for you. Go post in the Vampire-Thon thread, man. I'm just trying to have a fun time watching and reviewing a few zombie movies here, okay. If you feel like joining in later, that would be awesome. But if not, then that's fine too. Whatever.

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Return Of The Living Dead 3

Return Of The Living Dead 3 was the last time the series ever made it to the theaters. It's also the first film to veer away from the comedic elements that defined the series. Instead, we've got something of a traditional 90s teen horror film.

Actually, this movie feels more like something from the 80s for some reason. It would probably fit in pretty well with some of the Nightmare On Elm Street sequels. But that's not exactly a compliment. Of course, back in the day i remember actually enjoying those films. And i still enjoy Return Of The Living Dead 3 today. Continue Reading...

-Rude
www.zombiethon.wordpress.com