7.1 RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE (2010)

Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
Dir.Paul W.S. Anderson
USA

I should admit up-front that I have a soft spot in my heart (and head) for the Resident Evil movie franchise.  I've loved all but the second film, and as you could probably guess, I really enjoyed this one, too.

But first, some history.  Paul W.S. Anderson doesn't get a lot of respect, but I've enjoyed most of his films.  Mortal Kombat is a guilty pleasure (as much for the soundtrack as for the film making), Event Horizon was interesting and scary until the end (I really need to revisit that film), AVP: Alien vs. Predator was a lot of fun (almost as much fun as Freddie vs Jason), and, of course, Resident Evil is one of my favorites.

Anderson didn't direct Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), that was Alexander Witt (his only directing credit) or Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), that was Russell Mulcahy (Highlander), but he wrote both of  them.  This latest Resident Evil film is actually the first time he's returned to a franchise as a director.

Milla Jovovich returns to play Alice, the star of the franchise (and someone I've had a crush on for fifteen years, since hearing her first album, The Divine Comedy), and is joined again by Ali Larter as Claire Redfield.  Joining the cast this time out are Boris Kodjoe as Luther West, Wentworth Miller (Prison Break) as Chris Redfield, Shawn Roberts as Umbrella Corporation head Albert Wesker, and Kim Coates (Tig from Sons of Anarchy) as creepy film producer Bennett.

A funny note about the appearance of Wentworth Miller: When his character first appears, brooding in the shadows, both Dr. Girlfriend and I thought for a second that it might be Jensen Ackles from Supernatural.  We both said it at the same time and laughed.  Then, today while looking up info about the film, it turns out that in 2007, Jensen Ackles was being considered to play Leon S. Kennedy (from the video games), however the character didn't make it into the film.  Instead, Wentworth Miller plays the new young male lead.

Interesting.

6.2 LA HORDE (2009)

La Horde (2009)
Dir. Yannick Dahan & Benjamin Rocher
France

Yes, it was a French double-feature last night, and both films were surprisingly good, even though they are very different beasts from start to finish.

La Horde tells the tale of a group of corrupt cops who, after the murder of one of their own, decide to take the law into their own hands and bring down the drug dealers responsible.  As bloodily and violently as possible.  Needless to say, things don't go as planned and they are instead captured by the Nigerian drug lord.  And then the dead rise, as they are wont to do.

This is another example of first-time feature film makers taking a swing and knocking it out of the park.  Well, that's a bit over-the-top.  It's not a home run, but it's a very nicely done film that lays good groundwork as a crime drama before jumping into the gruesome and apocalyptic zombie nightmare.

6.1 MUTANTS (2009)

Mutants (2009)
Dir. David Morlet
France

Let me start off by saying that this film isn't really a zombie film.  Like 28 Days Later before it, this is a plague film that lifts most of the conventions of the zombie genre and puts them to good use.  It's also French, so like some of the other French horror films of the past few years (specifically things like Haute Tension, Frontière(s), and, my favorite, Martyrs), it has some intense scenes of violence and gore, along with a brutally devastating existential dread along for the ride.

And even though the infected are not really traditional zombies, the basic structure of the narrative fits with this Easter Movie Marathon is all about.  It's all about the resurrection, baby.

Morlet directs a script he co-wrote along with Louis-Paul Desanges, and for a first feature-length film, this is very impressive.  The performances, particularly by Hélène de Fougerolles and Francis Renaud as Sonia and Marco are gut-wrenching.  The rest of the cast does well with their roles, but aren't really required to do much more than provide sounding boards for the exploration and development of Sonia and Marco.

In fact, once more characters are introduced, again, as with 28 Days Later, the film begins to lose its focus and its intensity.

5.1 DANCE OF THE DEAD (2008)

Dance of the Dead (2008)
Dir. Gregg Bishop
USA

Wow, is my thumb not on the pulse of contemporary horror critics.

This film has been garnering a LOT of praise across the Internet and was chosen by Sam Raimi for distribution through his Ghosthouse Underground label for Lionsgate.  Even those who haven't been that impressed still find a lot of good things to say about the film.  In fact, I've only found one or two reviews that really didn't like it after a few minutes of Googling (which, I know, is not a statistically reliable research method).

So, I'll go ahead and mention the good and then get to the bad below the break. 

Gregg Bishop shot this film on HD cameras for under a million dollars (I can't find more exact numbers) in Rome, Georgia.  The direction is solid.  Bishop has a good eye for staging a scene and the film looks like a lot more was spent on it than actually was.  Based on seeing this film, I actually do want to see his earlier film, The Other Side (2006), which he also wrote.

A brief look at the credits for this film shows that he got a lot of community support for the making of this film, which partially explains how he was able to put a huge number of zombies on the screen.  Really, the credit list for the zombie extras seems to go on for nearly as long as the feature itself.

There are a number of nice gore scenes, and all of the actors play their roles naturally and believably.

And that's where the trouble starts.

4.2 AMERICAN ZOMBIE (2007)

American Zombie (2007)
Dir. Grace Lee
USA

This is the first film of this year's marathon to successfully take on the topic of contemporary zombies with some seriousness.  It doesn't shy away from using humor, but there's a pretty serious, fairly disturbing undertone to the entire affair.  It's also the first film this year with a female writer/director Grace Lee (as well as co-writer, Rebecca Sonnenshine).  Lee graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles film program and was an experienced writer/director of short films before moving into documentary work with her biographical documentary, The Grace Lee Project (2005).

For her first feature-length non-doc film, she chooses to stay close to her comfort zone and produce a mock documentary about the Living Dead among us.  In the world of this film, zombies are real, but they come in three varieties: Feral (we're most familiar with these), Low-Functioning (practically mindless, but mostly harmless corpses used for low-level manual labor), and High-Functioning (the undead with most of their minds intact, can sometimes pass for human).   Lee plays herself in the film.

The idea for the documentary comes from John Solomon (playing himself), a cinematographer and, at least in the film, trauma footage cameraman.  He's not really taken seriously as a film maker, but thinks that by teaming up with Lee, he can finally finish a project.  And not just any project, but a great project.

Spoilers Ahead!

4.1 AAAH! ZOMBIES! (WASTING AWAY) (2007)

Aaah! Zombies! (Wasting Away) (2007)
Dir. Matthew & Sean Kohnen
USA

Matthew and Sean Kohnen have put together a very entertaining first film, and again, most of that boils down to raising enough money to actually realize their vision of a zombie comedy.  With talented actors and good equipment, they are able to make a script that at first seems like it might be just a one-note waste of time, into something really special.

I just wish they'd gone with the original name.  Wasting Away is a lot stronger than Aaah! Zombies!  The stupid name is part of why I've put off watching this film for so long.  I really wasn't expecting much with that name.

Anyway, the main story goes a little something like this:  A group of four friends are infected by a military-developed super-soldier formula that went horribly wrong.  What makes this one interesting is that our main characters, Tim (Michael Grant Terry), Cindy (Betsy Beutler), Mike (Matthew Davis), and Vanessa (Julianna Robinson), and their new comrade, Nick Steele (Colby French), are the zombies.  They just don't know it.

More below the break...

3.2 HIDE AND CREEP (2004)

Hide and Creep (2004)
Dir. Chuck Hartsell & Chance Shirley
USA

I'll be honest with you.  I went into this one expecting it to be anywhere from lame to awful.  It was advertised as "Even better than Shaun of the Dead" so I went in expecting the worst.  Because, you know, hyperbole like that doesn't do anyone any favors. 

But I am happy to say that I was completely wrong in my expectations.  This film was pretty damned entertaining.  And for a horror comedy, what more can you ask for?

Hide and Creep is a zombie comedy set in Alabama, made by Alabama film makers Chuck Hartsell and Chance Shirley, from a script by Shirley.  According to the film makers, this low-budget film came in at around $26,000, and while it is definitely low-budget, the money was very well-spent. 

So much so, in fact, that I am now dying to see their follow-up film, Interplanetary.  It's tagline is "Monsters.  Mayhem.  Mars."  For more info on that and their other projects, check out the Crewless Productions website.

But what about Hide and Creep?

Spoiler Shields Up!

3.1 EXHUMED (2003)

Exhumed (2003)
Dir. Brian Clement
Canada

Well, this is the first dud of the bunch this year, but it's not for lack of trying.  Writer/Director Brian Clement does everything right in what is probably the most adventurous film of this year's marathon.  However, the end result is a perfect example of one's eyes being bigger than one's stomach when it comes to low-budget film making.  It will still look good on his resume, though.

Exhumed tells its story in three parts.  The first is in medieval Japan, the second in 1940s America, and the third in a weird grab-bag apocalyptic future.  That, in itself, is an impressive attempt.  The stories are all linked in what is, ultimately, a time-travel narrative that, with more money, better actors, and someone who knows how to handle professional lighting, could have been amazing.

Hell, just someone on lighting duties would have made this much more enjoyable, as most of the film is underlit and at times its nearly impossible to tell what exactly was happening.  Which is too bad, because Clement obviously loves film and film making.  There are enough references to classic films in this one to write a book about, and the combining of three distinct genres into one overarching plot is a great idea.

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I think better lighting would have made me like the film.  As it is, I can't really recommend it as much more than a noble failure.

Although, just listening to the description of the film makes me want to see it remade, a la Evil Dead 2.

Spoilers ahead!

2.2 SHOCK WAVES (1977)

Shock Waves (1977)
Dir. Ken Wiederhorn
USA

I went into this one not expecting anything at all.  To be honest, I expected it to be awful.

But as the credits came up, I was reminded that Peter Cushing and John Carradine were both in the film.  So it couldn't be all bad, right?  Absolutely.

This film was co-written and directed by Ken Wiederhorn, who's credits aren't amazing, but does include Return of the Living Dead Part II (which he also wrote), which I enjoy more than anyone else I know.  He's also responsible for directing episodes of Freddy's Nightmares and 21 Jump Street. 

Along with Peter Cushing (who also played Grand Moff Tarkin in a little indie film that same year) and John Carradine (who will always be a favorite of mine for his role in Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex  * But Were Afraid To Ask), the film starred a young Brooke Adams, who would bust out the next year in Invasion of the Body Snatchers and also star in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven and Cronenberg's The Dead Zone.

That's enough of a pedigree to catch my interest.  And as it turns out, this isn't half bad.

2.1 PSYCHOMANIA (aka THE DEATH WHEELERS) (1973)

Psychomania (aka The Death Wheelers) (1973)
Dir. Don Sharp
UK

This one had a bit of a slow start, but the ultimate payoff was pretty nicely executed.

Psychomania is a zombie film without any traditional zombies.  Instead, what we've got is a story about devil worshipers and a resurrection that is more about the will than anything else.  The film was directed by Don Sharp, director of The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966), and a few Avengers (1968) episodes amongst other works.

Even though this is well beyond the time when the flesh-eating zombie had been introduced to horror culture, Psychomania is something more along the lines of traditional UK occult horror.  It's the sort of film where a guest appearance by Christopher Lee wouldn't be entirely unexpected.

The story centers on Tom Latham (Nicky Henson), the leader of the motorcycle gang The Living Dead.  Tom's mother made a deal with the devil years earlier, and although we never really get a real idea about just what that deal involved, by the end of the film we discover that Tom's fate is intricately tied to it.  But what about the zombies?

1.2 PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES (1965)

Planet of the Vampires (1965)
Dir. Mario Bava
Italy

The second half of Sunday night's double-feature was the classic, Planet of the Vampires, an Italian film based on the short story "One Night of 21 Hours" by Rafael J. Salvia.  This film was directed by the legend, Mario Bava, who is best known for the films Black Sunday (1960), Black Sabbath (1963), and one of my personal favorites, Danger: Diabolik (1968).

The film is another science fiction approach to the zombie genre, telling the story of the crews of two spaceships that have crash landed on a foreboding, unexplored planet, while attempting to investigate a mysterious repeating signal that may be a sign of intelligent life.  Oh, it's a sign all right.  The planet is inhabited by bodiless beings who can take over the bodies of the unconscious, or the dead.

And as you can probably guess, mostly they take over the dead.

So the title is a little misleading.  There are no vampires to be seen here.  It's all zombies, baby!

1.1 THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING (1965)

The Earth Dies Screaming (1965)
Dir. Terence Fisher
UK

The first film in the 2011 Easter Zombie Movie Marathon is a golden oldie from 1965.  We decided to go with a chronological order for this year's films, so as the week goes on we'll get closer and closer to the modern conception of what a zombie film is.

But for this first night, we're really dealing with a variation on the classic Voodoo zombie, only with a creepy British Sci-Fi twist.

Terence Fisher is probably best known as the man who almost single-handedly redefined modern UK horror with his run of classic Hammer Horror films, The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Horror of Dracula (1958), The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), The Mummy (1959), The Curse of the Werewolf (1960), Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), and many, many others.

In 1965 he directed The Earth Dies Screaming for Shepperton Studios in London and filmed in Surrey.

Film Review: BLACK DEATH (2010)

Black Death
Written by Dario Poloni
Directed by Christopher Smith

And our journey through the films of Christopher Smith comes to an end (for now), with his latest, Black Death.  This is a bit of a departure for Smith, as not only is it the first of his films that isn't straight horror, it's also the first time he's working from someone else's script.

As such, it doesn't demonstrate the leap in creative growth that we've seen through the course of his previous films (Creep (2004), Severance (2006), and Triangle (2009)), but it's still a sure-handed piece of work that lives up to its full potential.

For the uninitiated, Black Death is set during the late 14th Century during the height of the Bubonic Plague in England.  A young monk, Osmund (Eddie Redmayne) is struggling with his love of a young lady, Averill (Kimberley Nixon) and his duties to the monastery.  In order to save her from the spread of the disease, Osmund sends her away from the city, where she promises to wait for him in the nearby forest for a week.  If he doesn't decide to leave the monastery by then, he'll never see her again.

After praying for a sign from God to help him make his decision, Ulric (Sean Bean) arrives.  Ulric has been tasked with investigating a local village where it is rumored that the dead walk the earth and the plague has not struck, all thanks to the villagers' pact with the Devil.  As this village is very near where Averill is waiting, Osmund takes this as his sign and volunteers to lead Ulric and his motley band to the village.

Spoilers Ahead!

Film Review: TRIANGLE (2009)

Triangle (2009)
Written & Directed by Christopher Smith

I can remember seeing commercials for this movie when it was in the theaters and thought it looked like a lame "Bermuda Triangle" horror film with a masked killer involved.  As such, I promptly ignored it.

That was a mistake, because this movie is pretty amazing.

It was also before I knew who Christopher Smith was.

Smith has written and directed three films so far (follow the links to see my reviews of the first two), Creep (2004), Severance (2006), and Triangle.  He has a new film in production out on DVD in the UK as I type this (thanks Kelvin!), called Black Death, starring Sean Bean and David Warner.  According to IMDB, it's "set during the time of the first outbreak of bubonic plague in England, [where] a young monk is tasked with learning the truth about reports of people being brought back to life in a small village."  It seems to have premiered at Screamfest in October, but I haven't heard anything else about it on this side of the Atlantic.

You can bet your ass I will see that one in the theaters, if it comes to my crappy little town.

Hats off to good friend Mr. Martini for recommending this one.  His recommendation coincided with our viewing of Severance, proving once again that great minds think alike.

Spoilers Ahead!

NEW UK HORROR BONUS: CREEP (2004) Review

Creep (2004)
Written & Directed by Christopher Smith

The night is still young (sort of) and I don't feel like crawling off to bed yet, so before the NaBloPoMo sands finish running through that hourglass, I guess I can throw one more review up for the month.

This time it's a look back at the way the month started, with another New UK Horror Film.  We were so impressed with writer/director Christopher Smith's horror-in-the-woods-while-on-a-team-building-exercise film, Severance, that Dr. Girlfriend and I decided to check out his earlier film, Creep. 

It's nowhere near as polished as Severance, which is to be expected, but it's still a bit of fun.  If only a bit.

Spoilers Ahoy!

CRONENBERGIAN DUEL: SPLICE vs HUMAN CENTIPEDE

Over the past few weeks I've finally caught up with a couple of films that, from what I'd heard, each attempted to stake a claim to the cinematic void left in Cronenberg's wake as he's moved on to more mainstream fare.  Both films were released in 2009 and both do decent jobs at what they set out to accomplish.  Critical reaction has been split with mostly positive reviews of Vincenzo Natali's Splice, and mostly negative reviews of Tom Six's The Human Centipede (First Sequence).

Of course, as usual, I had pretty much the opposite reactions.

I know both of these films have already been out for more than a year, and everyone I know has already seen them, but still, for those who are as far behind as I was, Spoilers Ahead!

ENTER THE VOID (2009) Review

Enter The Void (2009)
Directed by Gaspar Noé
Written by Gaspar Noé and Lucile Hadzihalilovic

If I were to review this in one sentence, that sentence would be: "Well, I've never seen that in a film before."

Note the fact that there's no positive or negative connotation in the sentence that you could arguably walk away with.  That's probably the most telling thing about my reaction.

But first, some back story.  Apparently, Gaspar Noé has been wanting to make this film since his adolescence, and actively trying to get funding for it since the early 2000s.  However, it was deemed too expensive and at least one false start ended with producers dropping out, even though they liked the script.  It was the financial success of Noé's 2002 film, Irréversible, that changed things.

Enter the Void is a French film cast with English-speaking actors, mainly because Noé didn't want viewers distracted from the visual elements of the film with subtitles.  He has also approved the use of dubbing for releases in non-English speaking countries.

And now, Spoilers.

THE BURROWERS (2008)

The Burrowers (2008)
Directed by J.T. Petty

At the urgings of my good friend Mr. Martini (and no, that is not a drinking joke), I finally settled in and queued up writer/director J.T. Petty's western horror film, The Burrowers.

Not to be confused with The Borrowers, about the adorable tiny people who live in your walls.

Mr. Martini had been singing the praises of this film for quite some time, but I always found one reason or another to put off watching it.  I'm not sure why.  His track record is pretty good when it comes to horror films, so I really should have watched this a long time ago.

Because it was just that good.

So good, in fact, that I think all of you should watch it now, too.  Especially if you're a fan of westerns, a fan of monsters, and/or a fan of Clancy Brown.

Yes, the man who played The Kurgan, Sgt. Zim, Lex Luthor, and Mr. Krabs is in this. That should justify the viewing in its own right.  But wait!  There's more!  Starring alongside Brown, is William Mapother, who is probably most recognized these days for playing Ethan on Lost.  He's joined by another Lost vet, Doug Hutchison (who also played Loony Bin Jim in Punisher: War Zone).

NEW UK HORROR Day Seven (Finale): THE REEDS (2009)

The Reeds (2009)
Directed by Nick Cohen

Our Halloween Horror Festival winds to a close a few days late (thanks to poor planning, a lazy mail carrier, and life in general), with The Reeds, a tale of six friends (3 couples) who have rented a boat for a weekend, um, somewhere.

It's never really all that clear just where they plan on going, other than to a pub and maybe a hotel where they have rooms booked?  That vagueness is, I think, intentional and comes into play as we reach the gory end of our story.

Sort of.

As with most of the other films reviewed over the past week or so, this is very nicely shot.  In fact, except for Wild Country, every one of the films we've watched for this festival has looked great.  Even when the story left something to be desired.

Unfortunately, this is one of the films with a less than spectacular story.

For the most part, it's pretty boring and kind of what one might expect from a low-budget slasher film.  But, with that said, there was enough visual and narrative flair to keep us interested.  At first we thought we were getting a Ghost Story.  Then it seemed like it might be a Monster In The Shadows story.  Then there's a hint of Scary Teen Killers thrown in, along with a healthy dose of Crazy Old Murderer added, to boot.

My biggest complaint about the film is this, actually.  It never seems to settle on just what kind of story it wants to tell.  By the time we realize that it really is a Ghost Story, we're at the climax, and that's when Cohen and writers Chris Baker and Mark Anthony Galluzzo decide to go for broke and really start throwing ideas at us.  There's a surprise revelation that's completely out of left field, a weird torture scenario that implies some sort of supernatural curse, there are weird things going on with time and space, and before you know it, we're back at the beginning of the film.

Sort of.

The best thing about the film is the look.  The Norfolk Broads is a very moody, atmospheric setting and as the boat struggles to make its way along the winding river it becomes more and more claustrophobic.  The actors all give functional performances, even if they don't have much to work with by way of character.  They all have distinctive looks, even the creepy teens, and don't really fit the generic molds one might expect to find in the casting.

In the end, though, the film was disappointing.  There were a few good scares and gorgeous riverscapes, and one very nice surprise burst of gore, but the story wasn't great and it just seemed to be trying too hard when it was all said and done.

I'd still recommend taking a look, but I wouldn't go building an evening around it.

NEW UK HORROR Day Six: MONSTERS (2010)

With NEW UK HORROR-FEST on hold, Dr. Girlfriend and I settled in last night for a sneak peek at MONSTERS.  (Thanks, Kelvin!)

Monsters (2010)
Directed by Gareth Edwards

15,000 Dollars.  That's how much this movie cost to make.

That alone makes this a film worth watching.  If only to drive home just how much more can be done with low-budget films that we normally see.

But even with the low-budget, what we get here is a nicely-paced love story set against a backdrop of alien invasion.

For those not familiar, Monsters is the story of two people, trying to make their way back from Central America to the US, through what is now a quarantine zone making up most up Northern Mexico.  It seems that six years ago, a space probe crash landed, seeding alien life throughout the region.  Now, giant quid-like monsters roam the countryside, occasionally running rampant in Mexican cities.  Luckily, the US built a giant wall to keep them out.

Or will it?

But all of that is really background.  Setting.

The real story is about two people who slowly fall in love as they make their way through the quarantined area, in an attempt to get back to the US.

It's not a great story.  It's not much of a story at all, really.  And there's some sort of political subtext about US/Central American relations where the giant wall serves as a metaphor for an ultimately pointless attempt to keep "aliens" from entering the States.

But what it does have is heart.  The characters are natural, with a great deal of improved dialogue.  The threats are interesting.  And the monsters are gorgeous.

Yes, it's a little slow, but this is an attempt at a beautiful, thoughtful film with a very nice sci-fi setting, and in my opinion succeeds far more than last year's District 9 - which is the film I've most heard compared to this one.

District 9 was more entertaining, don't get me wrong.  But District 9 was a pretty stupid film at its core.  Monsters has a bit more intelligence to it (despite some cringe-worthy moments) and doesn't fall back on gore and slapstick to keep the audience entertained.  Here, the entertainment comes from the actual film-making, cinematography, and effects.

This is well worth a look.  More satisfying than District 9, but not as entertaining.