Archive for the ‘Zombies’ Category

« Newer Entries
Older Entries »
h1

Opstandelsen – a review

June 2, 2011

Opstandelsen (or Resurrection, if you’re not fluent in Danish) is an indie zombie short(ish, around 50 minutes) directed by Casper Haugegaard. It presents a lovely vignette: during a funeral, zombies happen. Four people, all family, survive by hiding under the church and then spend the rest of the film trying to make it out alive. The main dramatic tension is between two brothers, one of them the straight-up one and the other a drug addict.

The movie left me with mixed, but mostly positive feelings. It’s very compact and well-focused. Even so, the movie does suffer a bit from balancing issues. In a movie like this, featuring a very small cast with in-story blood ties, I would’ve liked to see more character interaction and dialogue. There was some, and what was there was good. I liked the actors (Mads Althoff and Jonas Bjørn Andersen) portraying the two brothers. They had nice chemistry between them and managed to convey the relationship of two different brothers well. This stuff leaves you wanting more, so I was a bit disappointed with the decision to replace a lot of that with running around dark corridors in a panic. Which brings me to my next point.

A large part of Opstandelsen is spent shaky-cam running in the dark. This is very Blair Witch Project-y, which is a double-edged sword. On one hand it does get a bit confusing at times, and there is a bit too much of it, which might put people off. On the other it does manage to make the movie feel very personal. The cramped, dark corridors are scary and there is a genuine sense of urgency, panic and even claustrophobia. I might be wrong, but I guess that this was partly a budget thing as well – a dark setting doesn’t require very much propping or makeup after all. Still, I think the movie excels in the parts not spent running around. When you have good actors, you’d do well to get as much mileage out of them as possible.

Another little disappointment for me was the minimal attention given to the actual zombie attack on the funeral crowd. The few flashes seen are excellent, and the church itself is a wonderful setting. Again, this adds to the personal feeling of the movie as the viewer pretty much sees what the characters see. Still, every now and then this viewer would’ve liked to see some more.

The zombies themselves are nicely put together, and there is some good makeup present. There is a bit of variation in the quality though – some of the gore sequences are absolutely breathtakingly disgusting and visceral, while at times some of the characters just look like some fake theatre blood has been thrown on them. The gore does deserve a special mention. The combination of makeup and sickening sound effects makes for truly awful (in a good sense) death and devouring scenes. Make no mistake about it, Opstandelsen is brutal.

The cinematography left me a little perplexed. Other parts of the movie look like they’ve been shot in video while others look like film. Video tends to contribute to a cheap, soap opera look, but works surprisingly well in Opstandelsen. Still I was left wondering, why the difference in styles? There doesn’t seem to be any major discernible reason, and the contrast eats a bit of the movie’s coherence.

There’s a lot of critique above, so it might be surprising that I actually liked Opstandelsen a quite a lot. The main reason might just be that the whole setting and look of the thing is very Scandinavian. The familiar look contributes to a feeling of personal attachment, which is very good in any horror movie. Despite the low-budget look I found myself intensely drawn to the film for its duration – which by the way is pretty much spot on. A few minutes of corridor running could’ve been cut, but I still liked the film’s pacing.

Overall verdict: An intense zombie short film, which suffers from some of the usual low-budget problems but manages to make itself work nevertheless. Opstandelsen is far from perfect, but still an excellent way to spend fifty minutes of your life. Something is definitely rotten in the state of Denmark. Luckily, it’s not this movie.

You can get the film on dvd from CDON.com, for example.

Posted in Movie reviews, Movies, Zombies | Leave a Comment »

h1

Toxic Lullaby – a review

May 27, 2011

Toxic Lullaby (directed by Ralf Kemper) is a German indie zombie TV-flick with an interesting premise: a girl goes on a massive drug trip, and when she wakes up, she has no idea who or where she is. Oh, and the world is in shambles. Hooking up with a bunch of mysterious survivors, the girl needs to find out what exactly has happened and what is going on. A nice premise, no? Unfortunately, the execution is lacking.

I can’t remember how many times I’ve said it, but the focal point of a zombie movie are its characters. Toxic Lullaby has lots and lots of those. Sadly, they’re all left at the “cardboard cut-out” level, basically just names and faces. That is TL’s biggest failing. Throughout the film not one of the characters is even a bit likeable, mainly because there’s nothing to like. Actually, there’s not even much to dislike.  In a zombie/survival movie this is a huge miss, since you usually want your viewers to bond with the survivors. Instead, what we have here is just a bunch of people running around. This is strike one for Toxic Lullaby.

The film goes for a very trippy feel, kind of like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas without the humour and in German. This is actually done quite well, as there is a genuine feeling of disorientation and trippyness. The downside is that it’s very hard to connect with the movie, as it seems to lack coherence. There are the unknown people mentioned above, and they’re doing things in unkown places for unknown reasons and motives. Sure, this is what it would feel like for the main character. For the viewer, however, it gets very frustrating after a while: “Who are these guys? Who are those guys? They came here because…? Now why did he just do that?” This lack of coherence makes Toxic Lullaby somewhat taxing to watch, and accounts for strike two for the film.

Of course in any zombie movie review, attention must be given to the zombies themselves. In Toxic Lullaby they’re called sleepers, as they’re mostly inactive during daytime. The zombies are pretty basic, just people in quick makeup akin to Romero’s first two films. The sleepers pop up every now and then, when they attack and usually kill someone. This is sadly done in fairly lazy action scenes with not much intensity. And of course, the characters killed are the non-characters mentioned above, so their killing isn’t much cause for drama. Also, the zombies seem to be almost like an afterthought. The movie mainly focuses on a broken-down society, with the sleepers simply adding a bit of a random element to it. As with the characters and the plot, the zombies lack focus. Why are they there? How big of a threat are they, actually? Because of this lack of focus, even the sleepers’ shining moment of mass destruction doesn’t convey the feelings it should. Zombies – strike three for Toxic Lullaby.

After all this honest and somewhat brutal critique, I must point out that the film isn’t without its merits. I actually liked the whole post-apocalyptic imagery and the locations that went with it such as abandoned buildings. The ending actually makes the movie make a lot more sense. The trippyness works, if you’re into style like that. It was pretty nice for me. The cinematography was nice, with a good contrast between the post- and pre-apocalyptic worlds. The acting wasn’t too bad, even if it wasn’t anything special either. Certainly decent for a low-budget feature!

Overall verdict: Toxic Lullaby is an ambitious project sadly let down by a lack of focus. With no real characters to relate to and no places or situations to recognize, the viewer is left feeling detached – something you don’t want to happen if you’re making a zombie film. Even with low production values, the film looks nice enough. With a better script Toxic Lullaby could’ve been very good. As it stands, however, I can  suggest seeing it only for its curiosity value.

Toxic Lullaby is available on dvd from Amazon.de as well as other sites.

Posted in Movie reviews, Movies, Zombies | 1 Comment »

h1

Frankenstein’s Army

May 14, 2011

Do you still remember Worst Case Scenario? It was the super eerie trailer for a movie that never was, where creepy zombie-like nazis waded out from the ocean surf. Here’s the video, in case you haven’t seen it:

As I said, it never came to be. There are good news now, however. The film-maker’s new project, focusing on nazis creating super soldiers out of dead corpses is apparently on its way. See the full blurb here.

MPI Media Group, LA-based XYZ Films and Pellicola of Amsterdam have entered into a coproduction deal to produce Richard Raaphorst’s FRANKENSTEIN’S ARMY. The production-distribution deal was negotiated by Greg Newman, Executive Vice President of MPI Media Group, parent company of Dark Sky Films, Nate Bolotin of XYZ and Daniel Koefoed of Pellicola. MPI Media Group is financing the production while MPI and XYZ are co-representing international sales rights. Shooting is to begin in the spring in Prague and Amsterdam and will be completed by late fall.

Raaphorst’s Worst Case Scenario stands as one of the great horror films that never was. The Nazi-zombie project whipped up a massive international following thanks to two early promo reels. But due to financing and production difficulties, the project was abandoned in 2009. Now, director Raaphorst will bring his visionary design skills to this new horror movie, to be distributed by MPI/Dark Sky Films in North America.

There are two teaser clips, nicely blending authentic footage with directed stuff. They work great, as you can see below.

Nice, nicey nice! I don’t know what it is about undead nazis. They just get me every time.

Posted in Movies, News, Zombies | Leave a Comment »

h1

Dead State – a dream come true?

May 6, 2011

Some time ago, at a RPG session me and my friends discussed our dream computer games – in other words, if we could have someone design us a computer game, what would it be like? Unsurprisingly my dream game featured zombies. I framed it as a Jagged Alliance/X-COM style game set in a zombie apocalypse, featuring base and team management, turn-based combat and some RPG elements. Unfortunately, while this is a wet dream for me, no-one would ever do a game like that.

Then I ran into Dead State.

Instead of rewriting everything on their site, let me just quote:

Dead State is a compelling, high-tension RPG set at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse – a deadly illness is rampaging through the world, turning those infected into the walking dead. As society is beginning to fall apart, the player must organize a scant handful of allies, working on fortifying a shelter, scouting for food and supplies, making uncertain alliances with others, and attempting to hold together a group as humanity teeters on the brink of extinction. And although the zombies lurk as an ever present threat, the biggest obstacle to the player may just be other humans with the same goal: survival at any cost.

-Strategic turn-based gameplay: combines single-player character control with streamlined ally AI management, allowing for innovative party control

-Lush graphics: expansive maps and detailed character models brought to life through the power of Torque 3D

-Unique perspective: Combination of classic isometric perspective and field of view based on character line-of-sight allows for a tense and exciting game experience

-Open-ended gameplay: Large explorable world and non-linear storyline allow players to explore the landscape of Dead State freely, and encounter new challenges each time they play

-Engaging story and characters: Story and characters written by veteran game developer Brian Mitsoda (Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines) – features realistic and compelling dialogue and expertly-woven story elements

-Compelling player choice: Players not judged by a linear morality scale, but asked to make difficult and challenging decisions to keep themselves and their fellow survivors alive

-Complex and reactive character AI: Allies react realistically in combat situations, human enemies employ variable tactics against other character, zombies follow frightening mobbing behavior

-Innovative mechanics: Noise mechanic affects how zombies track prey by sound, resource management within player shelter allows for streamlined upgrades and organization of ally tasks

Sure, design promises are design promises, and it remains to be seen how they actually work. If they manage to pull it off, we’re looking at THE PC game for zombie enthusiasts. The game should sport a decent plot, judging from Mitsoda’s Vampire: the Masquerade game which was pretty ace. The pictures below should give some idea of what the game will look like. Click to enlarge to huge versions.

Here’s a PC Gamer article to further whet your appetite.

Posted in News, Video games, Zombies | 2 Comments »

h1

Talk about upcoming zombie goodness

May 1, 2011

It’s time for another instalment of Upcoming zombie goodness. I’m starting to run out of titles for posts like this pretty soon, should’ve just numbered them. Anyhoo, onwards we go!

Incidente is an Argentinian zombie flick coming out in 2011. Borrowing heavily from the likes of Rec and The Blair Witch project, it is a tale of supernatural horror, sporting demons that “wear humans like clothes”. Here’s the synopsis, which I’m sure you’ll find quite familiar:

A Special Division police member finds videotape in the form of an unfinished documentary featuring material of a very dark and strange nature.

Years ago in the Nacan’s Factory, an employee killed 16 workers and finally himself. Investigating police could find no logical explanation for the events, and the case was filed as “Incident” (a designation that police use for cases with no solution, offering no reasonable explanation).

Today cameraman Christian and journalist Romina, along with a crime specialist and a priest, will enter the building to document what really happened that day.

This is the tape of what they discovered.


While it’s not winning any points for originality, the trailer still looks very nice, and Incidente might just be a nice little addition to the genre. As always, it’s great to see another country joining in the whole zombie movie thing.

Meteletsa – Winter of the Dead

Speaking of international zombie productions, Meteletsa is the first feature length Russian zombie film. Here’s the blurb from the movie’s Facebook page:

Russian Winter is a terrible thing…… especially if it arrives in mid-July.

“Along the street a snowstorm sweeps, behind the snowstorm … something ghastly creeps!”

Konstantin – a Moscow journalist, hides from the onslaught with the daughter of a local tycoon in a hardware store. Captain Igor Knyazev kranks up the only working tank, whilst his lover, Dasha is running away from her angry husband, who has learned of the pair’s betrayal, and wants revenge, regardless of the weather …
Faced with horrifyingly gripping news material, a dedicated cameraman, Vlad, captures the strange events on video as priest Father Michael gets out his trusty axe …

Out amidst the icy storm, something raises its hideous head – a Russian zombie – senseless and merciless!


The film shows decent production values albeit with a fairly hefty reliance on CGI. There’s a lot of promise here, I think. I’ve always been fond of hearing spoken Russian, so the film gets thumbs up from me.

Posted in Movie trailers, Movies, News, Zombies | 3 Comments »

h1

Stone’s War – finally?

April 11, 2011

Regular readers know how much I’ve lamented Finland’s poor track record when it comes to zombie films. Quite frankly there are none to speak of. There was one, called Stone’s War (or War of the Dead) which seemed promising. It featured a frontline Finnish cast with some talented young actors, as well as WW2 zombies, which may or may not be of the nazi variety. This was in 2009. Time went by, and the occasional piece of news drifted in. News of production difficulties, financers backing away from the project and so on. The film seemed forever lost in that dreadful, dreadful place – post-production hell.

It seems the movie might be coming out after all. This from 24Framespersecond.net:

After five long years of production and legal problems, the word is that Marko Mäkilaakso’s World War II action/zombie flick, now once again known as War of the Dead – formerly ‘Stone’s War,’ and formerly before that (stay with us here) know as ‘War of the Dead’ – has finished post production, and will be looking for a release this year. Better late than never eh.

Synopsis: Captain Martin Stone is leading a finely-trained, elite platoon of American and Finnish soldiers as they attack an enemy bunker. Underestimating their enemy’s strength, they are quickly beaten back into the forest. As they try to regroup, they are suddenly attacked by the same soldiers they had just killed a few minutes earlier. Forced to flee deeper into Russian territory, they discover one of war’s most terrifying secrets and realize they have woken up a far more deadly enemy.

Now, I dont’ care if the movie turns out to be rubbish and the plot is silly. For an actual zombie movie to be made here, in Europe’s trendiest backwater, is joy enough in itself. There’s a trailer below, although I suggest you turn off the sounds – someone’s been clever enough to add the music from Requiem for a dream, which you must’ve heard about six million times in trailers already. I know I’m pretty sick of it.

Here’s to hoping that the movie finally happens.

Update May 29th 2011 – DotL reader Tony reports the following:

The director Marko Mäkilaakso has confirmed in Facebook that the movie is now completed and ready to be delivered to all distributors. Release dates for each territory is yet still unconfirmed.

Thank for the heads up, Tony!

Posted in Movie trailers, Movies, News, Zombies | 6 Comments »

h1

Play Dead

April 6, 2011

Every now and then, and all too rarely,  a movie comes along that looks at the zombie apocalypse scenario from a new point of view. In a genre that’s known for endlessly reproducing much of the same tropes and plotlines, a breath of fresh air is welcome. This tends to happen more often in short films, where the financial investment isn’t so big so as to force the film makers to avoid risks. A good example of this is I love Sarah Jane, which shows the whole thing from the point of view of children. And now along comes Play Dead.

The movie takes a whole new perspective on the undead catastrophe: that of pet dogs. Initially this sounds silly and cheesy, but give it a second thought. Dog (and other pet) movies tend to touch people on a different level than those dealing with only humans. Pets in movies often elicit much stronger emotional responses in movies than human characters. Remember Jones the cat in Alien? Who cares about the crew, when there’s the chance of the cat getting killed? What about the poor sled dogs in The Thing? The dog in the Dawn of the Dead remake? The horse in The Walking Dead? Tell me you haven’t watched those movies and felt more sorry for the animals than the human actors. What about movies like Homeward bound, Turner and Hooch, or other similar tear jerkers? Pets in movies are a much overlooked aspect, often replaced by children who are much more annoying.

The responses to the concept of Play Dead have reflected this. “Who would make such a movie?” “If there are dogs killed, I’m never going to see this.” “This kind of stuff is why I hated I Am Legend!” and so forth. To me it’s a whole another story. While I’ve become something of a dog person lately, I’m always looking for a zombie movie that would really touch me. Far too often you can’t relate to the protagonists, as they’re either too heroic or simply tiresome. Animals? Much easier to relate to, since there’s no dialogue nor bad acting. Play Dead might just be the first zombie flick ever to possibly make me squeeze out a few tears.

The producers are looking for funding for their project. They’re still a few hundred USD short, so I call upon the readers of DotL to lend them a hand. I pitched in $10, which entitles me to a pre-screening copy and additional goodies. You can donate to the project via Kickstarter, where you can also get more information on the film. Do donate, if only for the sake of supporting film makers brave enough to try something new with the genre. Oh, incidentally the movie looks excellent too. Don’t take my word for it, see the trailer below.

Posted in Movie trailers, Movies, News, Zombies | 7 Comments »

h1

It’s zombie goodness and it’s upcoming

March 30, 2011

Two completely different kinds of movie presented in this post.

Dark Souls is a Norwegian horror film. While not perhaps a traditional take on the zombie film, there are nevertheless familiar elements there for it to find its way here. Here’s the synopsis:

A young girl, Johanna, is attacked and seemingly murdered. Her father receives a phone call from the police pronouncing her dead as he sees her walk in the front door of their house. Strange things begin to happen to Johanna, she is disorientated and becomes pale and unresponsive. Similar attacks begin to happen and Johanna’s father takes it on himself to find out the truth. He embarks on a dark thrill ride of lost memories, conspiracy and zombie-like symptoms. Finding the mysterious darkness within is the source of the bizarre world he has uncovered.

Being Finnish, I like Scandinavian movies a whole lot. The familiar-looking locations bring that feeling of “this could happen to me” which makes horror movies twice as effective. Dark Souls looks impressive, and I’ll definitely need to check it out.

See the movie’s official site for more information.

The next movie is a whole another story. Bong of the Dead apparently carries the torch passed on by Braindead (or Dead Alive, as it’s known to some). Silly humour, blood and guts, low budget are the key concepts here. I’m not usually much of a fan of films like this, but somehow the trailer managed to win me over. It’s also a testament to the tools available to budding film makers these days, as it looks pretty nice considering its $5000 budget. The synopsis is just..yeah.

Edwin and Tommy are two stoner buddies who are lone survivors of a mass zombie outbreak caused by meteorites. One day they discover a great zombie fertilizer that helps grow super potent pot. The problem is since the government has cleared out many of the major cities, there are no longer any zombies where they live. In order for them to get more zombies for fertilizer, they must go on a road trip to the “Danger Zone” where they hope to find and gather as many zombies as possible for their brains. Along the way they get captured by an evil flamboyantly gay Zombie named Alex who has a plot to organize an army of the undead in order to take over the world. Once they escape his clutches, they team up with Leah Kroaker, another lone survivor who has spent the past year of her life since the outbreak tinkering and building things on her farm. She joins the boys and builds the ultimate zombie killing machine in order to help them on their quest.

And here’s the trailer, pretty much matching the synopsis:

Find out more at www.bongofthedead.com.

Posted in Movie trailers, Movies, News, Zombies | 4 Comments »

h1

Yet another batch of upcoming zombie goodness

March 12, 2011

Time for another look at what’s cooking in the world of zombie cinema!

I’m going to kick it off with a trailer for Quarantine 2. I admit that I haven’t seen the first one. I didn’t really have an urge to, having seen [REC] so many times. [REC] 2 was a bit of a disappointment, and I’m happy to see Quarantine 2 not following the re-make path. All in all the setup looks pretty interesting, although why oh why do they have to recycle a lot of the stuff from the first film? Even the trailer gave me a strong déjà vu vibe.

Next up is Humans vs Zombies (which they for good knows what reason insist on writing HUMANSVSZOMBIES, whereas I have my dignity). Apparently Humans vs Zombies is a moderated game of tag played at universities, and it seems to be gaining popularity – read more here. The game seems to have spawned a live action movie as well, which looks surprisingly promising judging from the first teaser. Some more information can be found at the movie’s official site.

Good zombie comedies are few and far between. As are Israeli zombie movies. What fun it was, then, to discover Poisoned, an Israeli zombie comedy. The movie seems to be the story of a lovestruck young man in the IDF during a zombie catastrophe. This movie seems great, plain and simple. And yes, I repeat: ISRAELI ZOMBIE COMEDY. That’s reason alone to see it. Not to mention the male lead character, who seems like an excellent anti-hero type.

That’s a pretty nice trio of films to wait for, don’t you think?

Posted in Movie trailers, Movies, News, Zombies | 3 Comments »

h1

Theories of International Politics and Zombies – a review

March 8, 2011

Imagine a world ruled by creatures with limited brainpower, bent on the eradication of the human race via rampant consumption. Now imagine what would happen, if this world faced a zombie catastrophe. This is a scenario presented by Daniel W. Drezner in his book Theories of International Politics and Zombies (referred to as TIPZ from now on).

Zombies are all the rage now, or rather have been for the last ten years or so. The years have seen all sorts of books. Some have been blatant attempts to cash in on the zombie craze, while others have actually offered an interesting take on the subject. It is with true joy that I include TIPZ in the latter category. Why? Well, that’s what this review’s all about, isn’t it?

I love zombie books that deal with the question of zombies with a degree of seriousness. Actually, I’ve even reviewed one or two. While TIPZ has its fair share of humour, it still presents us with the very very interesting question of how international politics would cope with a zombie uprising. Or insurgency, as these things tend to be called nowadays. I don’t think there’s one zombie enthusiast who hasn’t toyed with the idea of how the world would actually react. It’s right up there with “what would you do if it really happened?” I’m glad someone finally grabbed the bull by the horns and put it in writing.

That someone is Daniel W. Drezner. As well as a blogger for the Foreign Policy magazine, he’s a professor of international politics as well as a published author on the subject. As such, he knows where he’s coming from in terms of politics. What about zombies then? To my surprise he nails this part as well. The book references a whole lot of zombie pop culture, including some very current outings such as Left 4 Dead. This most certainly warrants a tip of the hat, as a lot of authors of zombie books basically equate zombies with someone green going “braaaaaaaaainssss” – and don’t get me started on that.

Drezner knows how to write. That’s quite important when publishing a book. His text flows nicely, it’s informative and easy to read even if you know nothing about international politics. A true academic, he provides referenes for pretty much everything he claims, giving the book a lot of credibility. There’s a fair bit of humour and wit, and the part about neo-conservatives had me in stitches. It’s also not too difficult to see from which side of the political field the author hails from.

The book is very much what the title suggests. It examines how different political ideologies and the people who adhere to them would likely deal with a zombie catastrophe. There are no glaring inconsistencies as far as I can tell, although there are a few comedy exaggerations. It presents fairly logical scenarios that are easy to swallow.

No book is perfect, of course. With all its merits, TIPZ has one major thing going against it. The book is a measly 114 small pages, leaving out the notes, references and acknowledgements. The book is an extension of the author’s article Night of the Living Wonks, and if you’ve read that you know a lot of the book’s content as well. This leads to the book feeling a bit rushed. Not rushed in the sense that it’s poorly written, but in the sense that a lot of very interesting points are just briefly touched on. This book could’ve easily been twice as long and it would still have been able to hold the reader’s interest. As it stands, it’s almost like a teaser. Another thing that some might consider a flaw is that Drezner occasionally moves too far into the humour territory, slightly detracting from the informational content of the book in my view. This is a horses for courses thing, however, and I know a lot of people won’t mind that at all.

Overall verdict: If my biggest gripe about a book is that it left me wanting more, I believe you can easily catch my overall feelings about it. This is a very nice book. It provides the always important food for thought, as well as some genuine laughs. It’s a quick read, too. If the subject interests you at all, do get TIPZ. You won’t regret it.

Prices for the book vary a lot. At the time of writing it’s 13 EUR at the Book Depository, but half that price (6,70 EUR) at Amazon.com. 13 EUR is a pretty hefty price for a small, short paperback, so do a bit of comparison before ordering. I got mine as a reviewer’s copy, which is just cool.

Posted in Book reviews, Books, Zombies | 2 Comments »

« Newer Entries
Older Entries »