The Well (2014) Post Apacalypse Sci-Fi

The Well (2014) - Day 1: The Boston Science Fiction Festival kicks off with this story of a girl at the end of the world and the end of her time in a parched Oregon of the future where water is the only commodity worth your life. Kendal (Haley Lu Richardson) fights the menacing murderous water baron Carson (Jon Gries) and his minions for the possession of her last source of fresh water in her area. After he kills many of the people she loves though she also enacts  revenge on their killers. This film has a horror vibe to it mixed with a western aesthetic in a post apocalyptic setting. Kendal is the strong final girl who fights through death and constant threats to her safety to come out the other side of the story victorious in a battle that in the end will never be winnable.
 Thomas S. Hammock moves from his many credits of production designer to creating a taught film that builds tension and in the end pays off. He even brought his friends from other movies in for bit parts as we see the writing directing team of Simon Barrett (Dead Birds, You're Next) and Adam Wingard (You're Next, The Guest) appear as compound guards.
 The cinematography by Seamus Tierney who worked much in horror manages to capture that western feel with his wide vistas of the desolate landscape. While the unusual music by Craig Deleon adds to the film instead of taking away. First time Writer / Director
 We join Kendal and companion Dean (Booboo Stewart) at the end of their rope. The well the have been getting water from is drying up producing less and less water each day. Danger is all around with desperate people wandering through looking for anything to drink, whether offered or not. Then there is Carson and his gang, pumping the water out of the wells with a religious fervor. He is the "water baron" who wants it all for himself and is not hesitant to kill to remove anyone else who is pumping water out of the ground. For Kendal and dean this means hiding behind a fake wall in the attic of their desolate . It does not help that Dean is dying of kidney failure as we join the story. They have hope in a plane they found that just needs the right distributor cap and they can fly out of the region and look for wetter climates. Kendal risk her life daily to bring them water, and to search vehicles for the part she needs. Will she find it before Carson and his group find them and kill them?
  Haley Lu Richardson is so believable as a competent survivor with a heart, Certainly she kills when she has to but she is not callous or vindictive in taking life. It is a strength of the film that this actress is the lead.  The villains of this film are Carson and his lovely yet heartless daughter Brooke (Nicole Arianna Fox)  his priest and assorted guards. The choice of a religious bent on why they are stealing all the water and killing their neighbors is an interesting decision. On one hand it motivates them to do it from a moral certainty, they are the inheritors of the earth and are righteous in their crusade. Maybe for those characters they needed a cause to allow their murderous behavior so they tip their sanity slightly off center and that lets them live with their decisions. On the other hand it takes away from the immoral acts making the perpetrators slightly less accountable for their actions.
  The plot is a bit inevitable as is often the case with post apocalyptic survival movies. Reminiscent of "The Road" it is about the end of the end of civilization.  Since we know the water is running out, who the bad guys are who the good guys are and the search for the plane part we can guess that there will be a final showdown and who comes away with what she needs. Thing is this film does a nice job getting to the conclusion. Even with the few secondary characters who are only around Kendal to humanize her, Dean who she cares for and the too wise for his age Alby (Max Charles) a boy of 9 years or so surviving on his own, we know that this is really a struggle about her getting to the point where she can try to leave this wasteland. There are some nice surprises like  Barbara Campton as Grace another local farmer and Rena Owen as a wanderer looking for water. Every time the survival aspect of the film starts seeming monotonous there is a spatter of danger to liven it up. Primarily through the music this film creates a tension, hard to describe the sound scape is rich and deep but not quite industrial in its approach.
  In the end the film although character based and well drawn is just a bit too inevitable. I enjoyed the viewing but really never had any doubt where it was going.

Parasite (1982) Horror Infected

Parasite (1982) - Well this film is advertised as the first starring role for one Demi Moore as well as her first husband Freddy Moore. Freddy the musician met Demi when she was just 16 years old and even though he was already married started living with her. They were married shortly after that before her 17th birthday. When this film was made the actress was 19 years old the same year she landed the role as Jackie Templeton on General Hospital. This unfortunately is not the best of films with a story that is bland and without real threat. You always know there is little or no budget when the story is based in a small desert town. Demi plays Patricia Welles a local in the small town.
  To set up we see a scene where a mysterious man comes in on a scientist Dr. Paul Dean (Robert Glaudini) while he is working. We never see the man (until later when we learn he is Wolf the Merchant (James Davidson) but see that he does something that terrifies the bound scientist. He implants something in the man's stomach. That is all we see in the setup scene but it makes sense when we later join Dean he entering a compound called work camp 34. He is looking for a safe place to complete his work. This is not it, the sounds of a couple guys molesting a woman can be heard. Dean creeps up on them with his laser gun in hand. Guess what? its the future and he has a laser gun. After fighting with the two men he frees the woman only to have her attack him too. All of this is to give us some sense of time and place.
  It is a post apocalyptic world where a good portion of the population have a sickness that makes them violent. He ends up getting in more trouble trying to help the woman out, but all is not bad, the old man Buddy (James Cavan) brings him into his room for a rare treat of coffee and to explain to us some of the specifics of the world they live in.
 When he enters a small desert town gas has to be bought with silver, or barter. No one wants American money anymore. He is on the run and looking for a place to hide and finish his work. He takes a room in a boarding house run by Maggie (Vivian Blaine) and goes to the diner for the only food left these days, canned soup. Now the world is taking shape, but need antagonists in the form of a group of local thugs lead by Ricus (Luka Bercovici). He was an orphan raised in the work camps in the suburbs but now as a young adult refuses anything to do with  the society run by the Merchants. He and his gang of friends, Dana (Cherie Currie), Bo (Joannelle Nadine Romero), Arn (Freddy Moore), Shell (Natalie May) and Zeke (Tom Villard) drift through life taking what they can to survive. Crossing paths with Dean is trouble for all and if not for the intervention of diner owner Collins (Al Fann) and Patricia it may have ended badly for Dean.
  The primary story for Dean is a race against time. He has a creature growing in his abdomen that he keeps sedated with an injection. He has a second one in a canister (of course it gets out) to try to study in order to find a way to kill it. Adding to his pressure is Wolf, the Merchant who is trying to retrieve the creatures. It is never really clear why the Merchants were having Dean grow these creatures. They are dangerous though, if they mature they will spray spores into the air, anyone exposed to the spores will in turn grow new creature. (repeat til no humans exist). The weak premise is never fully explained and the practical part of the story does not give Dean the time to do any studying. In fact he resolves the problem of killing the creature in a simple ah-ha moment. He just decides what will work and it does the first time out. This is a real movie killer.
 The toughs let the canister creature out and poor Dana ends up a shriveled mess because of it. Its a strange film in that by the end the gang is very sympathetic. They are just misunderstood kids and had no idea what they were getting involved in. Really its a failure in the script. The toughs are really not so tough just kids with nothing to do in a no where world. We don't learn enough about how this world came to be, besides some vague references to a nuclear war. We really don't learn much about how these people came to where they are or what there motives are. This film is a bit of a mess that way. It alludes to things but through the characters we just don't get enough to care.
    Primarily Dean spends his time dealing with the gang of toughs in town and getting to know Pat. Dean is not the great scientist more of a guy used as a plot device to make the story go. We learn when he found out what the creatures were that he was growing for the Merchants that he destroyed all but the one he wishes to cure himself of and the one in the canister he will use to find the cure. Knowing the trouble he would be in he ran. So we have Wolf the Merchant hot on his tail. Pat well just is a local who happens to have a good heart. Demi is young and innocent it is her pre-boobs phase and she barely acts at all int he film. She really doesn't have any role beside helping Dean move the sad and small story forward to its conclusion.

  The film is a bland piece of vanilla with just enough to keep the viewer from turning it off. Not particularly interesting but with a few practical effects that were fun to watch.  The cast has more interesting facts than the film interesting moments. Besides being Demi Moore's first starring role, her husband Freddie was in several band in the LA area where he mostly pretended on stage to be a cat. Then there is the Cherie Currie story, who made her name in the great band the Runaways with Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Sandy West and Jackie Fox. Originally shot for 3D it has some shots that are obvious but the cut I have is strictly 2D. I may look at it simulated on my Sony Bravia to see how good they are. In the end though this is not a recommend. It really isn't even a "if you have an hour to kill". So save the time and keep looking through that discount bin for something a bit better.
Rating (2.9) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more recommended than others.

A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell (1990) - Quick Hit

A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell (1990) - This is a "quick hit" review on a very bad film. To start let me say I love the Troma Studios and some of the movies they have spewed upon the earth. Being a big fan of the Toxic Avenger, I appreciate Troma and its leader Lloyd Kaufman and past stars like Tiffany Shepis and Debbie Rochon. Unfortunately this is not one of the better films. It was ruined mostly by the limited plot. The film written and directed by Brett Piper, has Lea (Linda Corwin) possibly the last woman on the planet fighting for survival in a crazy world of claymation creatures who want to eat her and caveman bad guys with mutant friends who want to mate with her. It is a post apocalyptic world where humans are again very primitive and the creatures large and fierce. At its heart the plot is a love story between Lea and Marn (Paul Guzzi) a hunter with a heart. Getting in there way is the skull headdress wearing bad guy Clon (Alex Pirnie) who repeatedly catches the young nymphoid and eventually gets her back to his lair. He has the help of mutants called the Reptilian Goons ( on IMDB not in the film) they are his army of four or five strong and help thwart Marns attempts to save Lea. The problem is this is the entire plot, it does little develops not a character and really is just poor. There is barely any dialog so it is Lea wandering about, getting captured, getting away, and captured again. Mixed in are fights between the goons and Marn and Clon over her. Then there is the hilarious claymation effects of the dinosaur like creatures that fight each other and every now and again eat a cast member. It does follow a structure and there is a final battle where Marn and Lea reunited and escape.
Rating (1.1) 5.0 and up are recommended, in the Zombiegrrlz system Skip It!

Rammbock (2010) Horror Zombie Infection

Rammbock (2010) - My daughter and I got to see this short, 60 minute feature at a midnight showing at the AMC Loews Boston Common 19 theaters. This opportunity to see a small film that otherwise we would never see was welcome. The coming attraction for YellowBrickRoad opening June 3rd also looked good. To make up for the short run time there was a funny intro film about what to do if a zombie is in the theater. I looked for a link to it but could not find it. It was not hilarious but certainly amusing.Rammbock : Berlin Undead was a good little film. At its heart is a love story involving Michael (Michael Fuith) and Gabi (Anna Graczyk). She had recently dumped him but he was still hoping things would work out. To further this agenda he brings his copy of her apartment keys over to her place in the guise of returning them. Still the infatuated he spends time practicing the lines he will say to win her heart back. Unfortunately for him when he arrives at the open apartment she is not there. In her place is a plumber and his assistant Harper (Theo Trebs) who are working on her pipes, literally not figuratively. Worse yet is just as Michael arrives, outside a fast spreading virus is turning people into fast zombies, think infection like in 28 Days Later. The plumber crack and all suddenly becomes infected and it is all Harper and Michael can do to fight him off and close themselves in Gabi's apartment. These early scenes are pretty much the same as we have seen in other movies, like the above mentioned 28 DL, Le Horde and the excellent [Rec] and [Rec] 2. Still the scene are not without peril and much like every other movie of this type there is a need for the characters to expose themselves to even more danger than you would think necessary. Harper assists even though he knows it is a bad idea. There was a good piece early section of the film where the remaining unturned people are safe for the moment in their apartments and come to the windows to talk to each other. The layout of the building created a nice closed courtyard, which unfortunately had an open gate at the start of the film so there are lots of infected down below. The space this creates for communication is excellent and if more was done with it the film could have been that much better. Say if from one window the attacks on other apartments could be viewed. It could have been really cool but was only used briefly here. We get to meet some of the other survivors, seeing that the big guy with tattoos has already been bitten. Expecting that something was going to happen with this massive man who will turn there is a real sense of anticipation built.
Even with information on the radio and TV telling everyone to stay in Michael can't. Knowing he dropped his phone on the stairs when struggling with the plumber he has to go for it. Harper is creating weapons and all Michael can do is think about calling Gabi, he actually gives Harper a hard time for using her forks in his weapon creation. Again it is a positive that this theme of the love you can't let go of plays through the film instead of being dropped. Still in the early stages of the film the more predictable stuff is happening so of course when Michael is getting his phone it rings, attracting the infected in droves. They manage to barricade themselves in the bedroom but the rest of the apartment is lost to them and the infected know they are there.
Not to give away too much more of the story, but lets say that the strange and endearing parts about Michael's love continue and when the two guys have to break through the wall to the apartment next store they end up separated. Harper from his place figures out how to ward off the infected while Michael has a anticipated reunion. He eventually see the way out of the city but there is still some work to be done and some side stories before the final attempt to get to safety. The second half of this is fairly original and a cool little take on the theme that recently has been thoroughly explored. There is a space in this end of civilization film where lots of small stories can be told. No doubt workers in Boston and Cambridge have thought out there escape routes in detail, think duck boats. Wherever you live if this type of film is for you then you have your own scenarios in your head. This film does a decent job telling one of those stories. Could more have been developed in this one? Yes for sure but even so it is a competent entry into the genre. So some credit to be given to the filmmakers Director Marvin Kren and writer Benjamin Hessler.
Rating (6.3) 5.0 and up are recommended, in the Zombiegrrlz system Go Out and See It!

Priest (2011) Action Horror Vampire

Priest (2011) - Based very loosely on a Korean comic book created by Hyung Min-woo, Priest is a straight up action film with little depth but lots of CGI and fighting. The introduction done with comic art and voice over tells the tale of a long war between humans and vampires. Unlike the classical vampire these creatures are more like the creatures in the movie Alien. They are hive creatures with a community centered around a queen with many drones, monstrous and vicious and eyeless. They are stronger and faster than humans and it is unclear how we really won the war against them. It is true humans had the advantage of the sun, and then there are the Priests. The church, a future or alternate version of the Roman Catholic Church, recruited and trained a crack group of Vampire fighters called Priests. (or Priestesses for females). They seem to have their own set of superhuman powers. We see them jumping from great heights, moving really fact and fighting exceptionally well. It is unclear to this writer why they had these powers but maybe I missed the line of voice over that explains it away. It is the case that if you are not paying very close attention during the early part of the film some things could be unclear to you. The film is talky at the beginning to get everyone in the rules of the world but after that it is event driven. The plot points explaining the world are underdeveloped and it is a bit irritating. Why did the Church put the aliens, oops Vampires on reservations instead of killing them? I really don't understand; is there some reason these monsters were spared? I know they have some sort of hierarchy are they more intelligent than shown in the film? Why would they then allow themselves to become captures of their food source? The church after the truce disbands the priests and they have outcast lives in society. Why would you do that when your protectors are the only ones successful against the monsters? They played up the idea that because of winning the war and camping all the remaining vamps that the threat was gone. Since the priests are the heroes the church leadership felt threatened by their success and thus disbanded them. Since they had contained the vamps there was no threat there anymore. This is awful thin and I questioned it while watching the film. Also if the people knew the priest were the ones who saved them then why would they shun the priests after the war. The film makes a point to say society was not a place the priest could fit in and so they took the lowest of jobs. Is this a metaphor for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan? Oops, forgot this is an action movie there is probably no metaphor at all in it. So some years go by and the church is in control of society, in a direct rip off of the film 1984 the imagery of the a society control by a central power, in this case the church. I kept feeling that the leaders of the church were a bit odd in there approach to the priests. Here they have this controlled society all doing there confessions and prayers. Sure the priest were maybe a threat as the saviors of the wars with the vampires but there is never any detail given to what actions they took to be a threat. Just a given that they somehow could upset the order of things. We as an audience though have to see the priests as a bigger threat than the vampires. Even after reports of vampire attacks come into the church they refuse to accept that the vampires are again a threat and thus refuse to gather up their priest forces. This struck this writer as ridiculous. If the greatest threat to the society was the vampire I would think that those in charge could recognized it. They after all just a couple years earlier came close to losing it all. How could they in the face of another vampire war not see that as the greater risk. I was expecting more meet to this conflict also. It was given really short thrift and never we never fully see the motivations of the different factions. This is often a problem with action movies, they are lean with just enough information to move to the next action sequence. Not that there is no complexity to the plot, it is just that everything is very bare. In the opening we see the Priest raiding a vampire hive and the culmination of the set piece is that our main character Priest (Paul Bettany) is holding the wrist of his fellow priest but can not hold on as the vamps drag him into the dark. A trope or a cliche? I lean on the side of the cliche and expect to see the pulled away priest again. Later when the farm family is attacked and the girl Lucy (Lily Collins) is taken alive by the vampires, and the father is mortally wounded, you can bet they have some connection to our main character. We learn that the man is Priest's brother and the girl his niece, so now it is a personal story as he goes to rescue Lucy. Joining Priest in tracking the vampires is the boyfriend Hicks (Cam Gigandet) a local sheriff. Since the church does not want Priest taking this action they counter his move by sending four other priest after the men to stop them. Again to me a weak point in the script, they can't reinstate Priest but can do it for the four to stop him. If reinstating priests is such a risky thing then why was it so easy when it suited them? Priestess (Maggie Q) comes out after the Priest but instead of hunting him comes to help. Again in a one line of dialog her whole story is told and we know she loves Priest. It continues to go this way in the film, a line or two to explain something and then another action sequence. I don't want to go too much into the story which seemed poor to me. The film did the thing I least like about action flicks, big explosions and then the character standing up after being in them and shaking off the effects. No one important is even harmed by the massive destruction. Sure they have wounds but nothing like they should have received. It is why I don't like many action movies.

So the film moves to the stage where we learn what is on the line and a secret about little captured Lucy. Then the turn of who the leader of the vampires is. When the final sequence finishes you will be so ready to leave the theater. Set up for a sequel one could only wish never takes place. No really, never.

Rating (4.5) 5.0 and above are recommended, in the Zombiegrrlz system I would Rent it!

Stake Land (2010) Horror Vampire

Stake Land (2010) - Opening on a country road in Pennsylvania the voice over from our lead character Martin (Connor Paolo) sets the tone immediately. "But lets begin at the beginning, I was like every other kid. I had a family. I went to school. I didn't believe in the bogeyman, but then the world woke up to a nightmare." Kicking off how Martin's family was killed by a vampire and just how he ended up in this car driving with this man only known as Mister (Nick Damici). The scene is well done and really relays everything we are going to need to be part of this world. Dad is frantically working on hi car, trying to get it running. On the radio reports of attacks by creatures are spreading across the country. People are being told to hunker down. Mom is holding the baby and fretting about whether running is the right decision. When Martin chases the dog out in the rain you think he will see a creature but instead the attack happens back in the barn. His Mother screams and his return inside is to see his bloody Mom on the ground. Mister shows up and with Martin kill the vampire that killed his Mom and then fed on the baby. His bloody gurgling father is finished off by the stranger. Traumatic for sure for Martin. He is just a teenager and if Mister had not shown up hunting this monstrous creature his incompetence would have been his downfall. We learn that you have to kill those who have been bitten or they change. Why else kill the father in the aftermath. That the vamps are animal in nature, the monster vampire instead of the romanticized version.
Now we know what we are in for in the world where a vampire plague has spread and people are few and far between. It is a solid start for a film that really is a road survival movie at its core. Martin journeys from the scared teen to capable vampire fighter trained by the experienced hunter as they travel looking for a place where they can settle down. This place New Eden is in Canada since the vampires, cold blooded do not like the weather. It is a goal and while Mister and Martin move towards it the film captures the need for connection among humans as well as the growing up that young Martin must do.
There are some more interesting ideas also, of course the expected militant groups of survivor running there self protected communities like military camps. Surprisingly though there are also more liberal places in the world where the people struggling to survive realize that protection can come without an iron fist if people work together. It is something rarely seen in these kind of films and was welcomed. Then there is the antagonist group, the Brethren. They are a group of fanatical religious zealots that believe the vampires are doing God's work driving new followers into the cult and when God's will is done they the vamps will be taken away by God leaving the Brethren to inherit the earth. Martin and Mister save a nun, Sister (Kelly McGillis) who has been raped by a couple of these thugs. Mister kills them running afoul of the group since one of the thugs was Brethren leader Jebedia Loven's (Michael Cerveris) son. This group is captures the writer's feelings about this group perfectly when in Martin's voice we get "In desperate times, false Gods abound. People put their faith in the loudest preacher and hope they are right." When captured by this group, Mister's punishment is to have his hands bound and left for a group of vampires. Sister and Martin are to be kept as new sheep in the flock. What is great about this film is that all along all the new decisions Martin has to make are training and he becomes more complete and likely to survive. I skip scenes in this review of Mister attacking vampires so Martin can practice killing them, at first not so well. When Mister is left to the vamps Martin runs from the group, now brave enough to make such a bold decision. He makes it back to the car to find Mister who also found a way to survive. Making it back to a safe town they pick up Belle (Danielle Harris), a young pregnant singer they see in the gathering place. She joins the group and it is something I like about this movie, people in it need connection to each other. It really is human nature and Mister is a vampire hunter but also a human looking out for those who need looking out for. Soon a fourth joins there party, Willie (Sean Nelson) an ex marine who is primarily there to fill some of the back story of how the government and military eventually broke down as the plague spread.
These four travel through Brethren country together, up the back roads to the colder mountains of New York State. Here Mister gets some sweet revenge on Jebedia when they come across him manning a checkpoint. Of course this can't be the end for the main bad guy we are only two thirds the way through the movie. Leaving him cut for the vamps though is a nice payback at the time. Finally reaching the border the group can relax. When they have to leave their weapons with the people running the town I knew that something really bad was going to happen. When Belle and Martin dance at the towns party, and Mister joined in I thought "Oh Oh this is not going to end well." Then when they see Sister and the group is complete I knew the bad was just around the corner.
The attack is awesome and I will not get into it here but it was surprising and really a cool thing to do. Our group gets out of it and heads for the hills going high to the cold country. When the car dies they are on foot, an older Sister, a pregnant Belle and the three guys. They seem safe from vampires but it is taking its toll on them. Even as they grow closer struggling together they are getting weaker and Belle is quite pregnant. Martin in the ever present V.O. says "Away from people I stopped thinking about the past and my family, I've found a new one." Since that was a bright and positive sentiment something bad has to happen. They come down from the hills because it is also too cold for them. They camp in this large traffic jam of abandoned cars that had been heading to the now really close Canadian border.
After another very good tense attack scene we have our survivors hold up in an old bus. Mister senses something amiss but can not put his finger on it. When another member of the group vanishes we get the big turn in the story. It is nicely done and although veteran horror film fans could figure it out I bet a fair number of people out there won't. Building to a climax as the last three remaining in the group get so close to safety only to have to fight yet another battle. When the final group of three are hold up at roadside diner, after the climax we see the journey's end for Martin as he is a proven survivor and vampire killer. The happy ending is well done and expected.
What I liked about this film is that it never lost track of whose story it was. At its heart it was always about Mister and Martin and it held true to the relationship. Although the voice over always in the voice of Martin showed that he was the main character from the beginning. Still the story of Mister played a very complementary role inter connecting with Martin but never drowning his story out. It was well done. I do wish though that more character development was done with interactive scenes instead of using the V.O. so much. Way too much we are told about the connections of characters instead of them showing us the connections they are developing. Some of the characters are less developed and thus obviously expendable. Overall this is a wonderful entry into the genre, instead of big loud and super action filled it is quiet scary, a study of people. A bit on the predictable in what must happen, with some characters obvious feed for vampires but also some surprises. The music was a real mood setter and I am not always sure it is the mood I wanted in the movie, some really melancholy tunes more appropriate for a dreamy summer road movie than a survival one. I think that they were going for a haunted mood but I wanted a bit more tension. The vampire presentation was just excellent and monstrous, the feel of the vampire attacks was closer to the 28 Days Later feel but less frantic, so positives there. Writer/Director Jim Mickle does a nice job with what he has and he with co-writer Damici have created a worthy film for lovers of horror that I think general audience could also enjoy.
Rating (6.7) 5.0 and up are recommended, in the Zombiegrrlz system Go and see it!

Vanishing on 7th Street (2010) Horror

Vanishing on 7th Street (2010) - When the film opens with movie projectionist Paul (John Leguizamo) reading a book on the Roanoke Colony, an early settlement in the "New World" where the entire group vanished and all the returning boat crew found was the word "Croatoan" carved in a tree, I knew what this film was about, of course one would have to be pretty dense, NOT knowing with a name like "Vanishing on 7th Street". Paul is in the film room when the lights go out, luckily for him he is wearing his handy head lamp, an essential tool for his job. Still he finds it strange and he goes to check it out, leaving the film room. Well an awful lot of people seemed to have left there clothes all over the place, yep that's right like Night of the Comet there are empty clothes all around, minus the red dust of the eighties flick. Paul naturally is freaked out as he walks around the connected mall. There is a security guy with a flashlight and the two get together. The film wastes not time setting its parameters, with the security guy hearing something off in the darkness, he goes to check it out, but when his flashlight goes out, dark shadows surround him and poof in an instant his empty clothes fall to the floor. Needless to say Paul is totally weirded out by this. So already we know, people who are still around had lights that did not go out in the initial black out and that if you loose your light you are going to vanish taken by shadows.

The next scenes are well done discovery scenes with the main characters being introduced and defined. They are scary enough, building a good amount of dread. Rosemary (Thandie Newton) works in a hospital and has lost her 9 month old child, she has a great operating room scene even though it makes no sense that the patient would be there but not the doctors. Then there is Luke (Hayden Christensen) a news reporter who wakes from a night of candlelight to find the world deserted. At one point he sees the little girl, Briana (Taylor Groothuis) running around on her own that we see a few times during the film. Luke eventually makes his way to the one lit up building in town as does Rosemary. When Luke arrives at the bar a 12 year old boy named James (Jacob Latimore) he is less than trusting but eventually we get things worked out and the three are all at the bar. The building has power only because it has a generator that James's Mom had rigged to the building panel. Thing is that whatever is going on it is draining away the power from everything, batteries, the sluggish running generator, car batteries, so at some point all the lights will go out. Now at this point the little girl is not in the group, she never does and we only see her running off every now and again. She is surviving on her own and although we never get her back story we see her again. Paul wakes in the street after a knock on the head, don't really remember seeing how that happened, but he makes his way to a solar powered bus stop that is still lit up. He has a pretty good concussion and lays there calling for help. This is when the group in the bar decide they have to go get him thus making our group complete.

The rest of the film is about how the group survives, after some exposition about the Roanoke Colony by Paul we get the counter of End of Days by Rosemary. What if every now and again the world reboots, starts over and this is the end of the old world? Well that would not be what happened on Roanoke but it at least fits into the whole End of Days thing. The ideas don't totally fit what we see happening but these are people stressed with the threat of disappearing themselves. We see when they are near the dark, the shadow people waiting to get them. They are throwing out ideas about what is going on so it doesn't have to totally match. We know that on top of energy sources failing the days are getting short a few as two hours of light when everyone is in the bar. There are flashbacks to fill in some of the details of how the people here survived and to add a bit more information about the dark but they felt a bit out of place. We do learn that this is not a local phenomena though that at least in Chicago it is happening too. The group starts to think that getting out of the city might be a good idea since it is just a matter of time until the lights go out. Now why they think that it is any different anywhere else is a mystery. Still the drive to survive is strong in humans so they come up with a plan. It involves pushing a pickup that has a weak but working battery a few blocks to the bar where they will then use the generator to jump start it and drive to "freedom".

When the truck is obtained the story really goes off the rails with the final two driving away but then one of them has to wander off to find a lost love one. The final person drives the truck poorly away only to see the word Croatoan on the side of a bridge I had to laugh out loud. Then the finish is so disappointing.

I really enjoyed the film for the most part, the atmosphere was creepy and the ideas okay. The idea of how these people would survive was solid each figuring out how to keep lights on around them. Why survive was discussed in the film as it needed to be. If this was the end of the world and God wanted humans to end, although he picked a 'mysterious' way of ending it who are we as humans to fight it? Free will I guess trumps all. Since the end of days theory does not really fit, but the idea of just a mass disappearance doesn't fit well either, I think I will go with the idea that this was some sort of alien invasion. Feel free to comment with your feelings on this one when you finally get to see it. I watched it on Same day as theaters on the Comcast On Demand so it may not get a big release.

Rating (5.2) 5.0 and up are recommended in the Zombiegrrlz system, Rent it!

The Last Sentinel (2007) - Science Fiction

The Last Sentinel (2007) - Aging martial artist, actor Don 'The Dragon' Wilson is Tallis a genetically engineered soldier who is the sole survivor in a war with, well with clone soldiers who have turn against their human creators and exterminated most of them. You would wonder why humans would make a second super soldier after the first ones turned against them, but this script doesn't. For the sake of simplicity lets call the clones terminators, no wait, Cylons. The Cylons for some reason have a weak spot in this post apocalyptic world. They have a mainframe computer that, if broken will make them all stop working. Tallis and his fellow soldiers try to defeat this place in the opening scenes, but when they were all slaughtered.

Tallia managed to escape the defeat and is now off the grid reading books and looking out the window when he sees the Cylons kill a bunch of humans. One human Katee Sackoff survives, because she was not seen when thrown out of the vehicle, lets call her Starbuck. Tallis collects Starbuck and nurses her back to health. Then there is this strange bonding set of scenes where Tallis trains Starbuck to fight a bit better. It really made a point to show them becoming a team, working out and planning. They attack the same highly guarded mainframe that an entire troop of super soldiers could not get into. It goes poorly and they need to leave but, not before getting something they needed for the plan. If it seems I am a little vague on this part it is because my interest started getting distracted by more interesting things like my cat sleeping on the sofa. Whenever they fight any of the clones there just are things that don't sit well.

1. No one can shoot for shit, the Cylons, Starbuck, Tallis all shoot thousands of rounds but hit very little. Even though they are always standing in the open just 10-20 yards apart, with machine guns.

2. There are always between 5 and 12 Cylons, always and against two they can't ever hit them. Then there is the fact that the Cylons are all different heights, they can't really be clones if they are different.

3. After spending a good chunk of the movie on the Starbuck, Tallis relationship she disappears from the film in another failed attack and is not seen again until after the films climax. WTF!

So it is up to the Dragon to bring down the Cylons and he goes to do the job. Lets remember that a troop couldn't do, he and Starbuck couldn't do it, but alone I am sure he will succeed. grrrrr. Then without any explanation, any back story the script written poorly by stuntman, writer, director Jesse V. Johnson introduces a new breed of Cylon clone. We know they are different, better if you will because they instead of black plastic suits have red plastic suits and when Tallis is successful with the virus, the black Cylons stop working but the red ones come after him. Double grrrrrr...

Spoiler: You can not really spoil this pretty poor film. There is a final clone vs dragon fight and then Katee comes back and we get an ending. The problem is we don't care at this point, this film had a scattered plot and poor execution and forethought to the logic of what they were doing. Let me add one more thought here. Whoever thought that the stupid talking guns was a good idea was wrong.

Rating (3.2) 5.0 and up are recommended In the Zombiegrrlz system I would say SKIP IT!

Last of the Living (2008) - Horror Zombie

Last of the Living (2008) - Writer Director, Producer, Best Boy, hell just about everything in this low budget New Zealand zombie flick was done by Logan McMillan. Its existence is because this guy had a vision and worked really hard to make it happen. It is a story about three guys, Morgan (Morgan Williams), Ash (Ashleigh Southam) and Johnny (Robert Faith) after the world has ended in a zombie apocalypse, as we all know it eventually will. They are just surviving, gathering food, killing zombies for fun and generally not getting on in a world without purpose. It would have probably stayed that way but for the chance that they ran across a guy (Mark Hadlow) and his daughter Steph (Emily Paddon-Brown). These two have a cure for the zombie virus, but in the meeting the three morons break the last vile and Dad is bitten by zombies. So the three must go with Steph to a hospital to make a new sample. I was about ready to give up on this film before this. It was very Small scale low budget with stationary footage that took place for no particular reason. Little in the way of character development had been done and to this point the plot was nonexistent. So now we had a plot but the execution was just awful. The one foreshadowed event was Johnny's berserker fighting move and it was pretty lame too.

They get to the hospital but before the sample is finished being spun the power goes out in the building. This sets up two things, Morgan and Ash heading down to the cellar to get a generator going and Johnny and Steph upstairs, while all the security locked doors come open and the zombies get in. They finish and fight their way out while Morgan and Ash resolve some pent up feelings in some of the most poorly constructed dialog I have seen in a movie. Still they all make it outside and only Johnny is bitten so onward to the berserker so the other three can escape. They head to the airport with Steph now bitten. They have to get to Stewart Island before she changes into a zombie. Suddenly also there are new zombies with red eyes who are fast and chasing them. Whatever, this movie was bad... an example they get to the plane and get in the air and the two guys go in back and take a nap. Yes with the pilot bitten and sure to turn into a red eyed zombie and they nap. Still they manage to get her out of the plane and then Ash manages to land it. Then the worst is that the whole story is for not as in the end they all fail even though they make it to the Island. WTF!!!

The movie is just pointless and hard to watch. All the camera work is reduced fields of sight like there was just one camera and a tripod or handheld. The plot goes nowhere fast and then when it gets a purpose the character interaction does not fit the situations. They introduce a new zombie type for plot convenience with no explanation. None of the characters is more than a outline and then the ending is a downer. So besides the credit a independent film maker gets for getting a project done, Last of the living gets a poor score here.

Rating (2.6) 5.0 and higher are recommended, in the Zombiegrrlz rating system I would say Skip It!

The Book of Eli (2010) Post Apocalyptic Thriller

The Book of Eli (2010) - The Hughes brothers (Albert and Allen) direct this religious story about the world after a great war has thrown it into ruin. Taking place in the United States we see Carnegie (Gary Oldman) a ruthless gang leader searching for a bible. He believes the words to move himself to be a great leader is hidden in the book. He is older and remembers the words and knows how people are moved by them. So he sends out his illiterate gang searching for any books they can find hoping to gain the last copy. We also learn why there are not any left. After the great war many people blamed the bible for causing it and sought to burn them from existence. Probably a good move on humanities part. Of course this is a bit of a ridiculous story point because really, in this retardedly overly religious country there is no way that would ever happen. But a plot point is a plot point and next we meet Eli (Denzel Washington) travelling west he stops in Carnegie's town for trade and water. After some bad ass fighting when he is messed with by some thugs, he ends up on the wrong side of Carnegie, but Carnegie seeing something about this guy tries instead of direct hostility to bribe him with the lovely Solara (Mila Kunis). She learns through her night in his room that he indeed has the book that is so sought after. Before he can get it though Eli and Solara get away and hit the road. The rest of the film is now the search for Eli on the desert roads heading west towards San Francisco. So we have the setup that is played out. You know since I don't think I will recommend this There WILL BE A SPOILER COMING!!!!

After Eli is caught and the book taken from him things finish with him continuing westward with Solara while Carnegie gets back to the town he runs. Surprised that when he gets the lock on the book to open, it is all in Braille. The only one that can read it is Solara's mother Claudia (Jennifer Beal) and since Carnegie is such a dick she is not inclined. Back on the West coast Eli reaches Alcatraz prison and find there is a group there collecting and protecting old world knowledge. So now we see the truth about Eli, he is blind. Wait what? No he isn't he walk straight and purposefully down so many roads, he shot guys from rooftops with a handgun from 500 yards. He single handed fought 15 guys in a bar and killed them all without breaking a sweat. How could it be?

Well in paying attention to the film you see how he had an unbreakable faith that he was on a mission from God, and like Eli of the bible this one comes to bring back the word of God. He has memorized the King James version of the good book and he never needed it to deliver the words. His mission was to bring religion back into the world and before his death he does just that. So many things where his non reaction to danger looked like faith could be seen in light of his blindness revelation as handicap. Still I do not think they sold this very well in the film. Too many times he was too sure footed, too agile and just too damn competent to be blind. So it must have been a combination of faith and luck and good hearing? grrrrrr...

I really believe that the Hughes brothers were making a movie about the importance of religion, the light in the darkness to them. They think they were saying that the freedom that come with religion is as important as the control, that Carnegie wanted to wield through it. I think that real message may be that religion will untimately cause conflict becasue it is always an interpretation. What about the other religions of the world? This country is a salad bowl of beliefs yet here it seems the only words that mean anything are Christian? What happened to the other beliefs, were all holy books burned? Would Carnegie settled for a Koran? Oh well it was a nice try.
Rating (4.7) 5.0 and up are recommended, in the Zombiegrrlz system Skip It!

Phoenix the Warrior (1988) - Action

Phoenix the Warrior (1988) - The copy of this I have is titled "She Wolves of the Wasteland" waste being the significant word fragment here. This late eighties post apocalyptic adventure is about a world that is lacking men, in fact other than two characters the entire cast is women, with big eighties hair and a severe lack of appropriate clothing. It is a world where one woman, the Reverend Mother (Shiela Howard) runs a desert shanty town of gun toting leotard draped warriors. She is a wheelchair bound hag with wires and tubes sprouting from her head set on controlling the last sperm in the world and building her perfect world. When one of her experiments escapes, the pregnant Keela (Peggy McIntaggart) she is hunted by the Reverend Mother's team lead by Cobalt (Persis Khambatta). Helped by travelling warrior Phoenix (Kathleen Kinmont) Keela escapes. This starts a strange jumping through time adventure where the viewer is repeatedly subject to scenes of women walking across the desert, interspersed with them being found and the worst choreographed fight scenes I have seen in a long time. They escape the first time by finding a cave in the desert that leads to an oasis where women warriors bath topless in a waterfall. They are identified by the white paint masks across there eyes. Suddenly it is nine months later and Keela is giving birth. Then the bad girls find them and so we are not confused they have red paint on their faces, a battle ensues and only Phoenix and Keela and the baby boy escape. Suddenly it is five years later and the women decide to try to get to some island, so more walking across the desert. They are again found and the dune buggies are sent out to get them. They hide in a shack, and wow there is a man there, he escaped from the Reverend Mother years before. Soon more silly fighting takes place, Phoenix is captured while the other three escape. Phoenix becomes a gladiator while her friends set out to rescue her. They do and this time there are driving across the desert scenes since they steal a car. They head to the wastelands where they are caught by some deformed mutant people who worship the TV Guide. The men are sent back to the Reverend Mother while Phoenix and Keela are left as sacrifices to the Guide. The women escape with the help of another former gladiator who just happens to be tracking them. Then the three women head back to save the boy child and man. There is the inevitable battle between Cobalt and Phoenix, Keela confronts the Reverend Mother to save her child, and we learn that all the people of this time are actually the children of the Mother. She is rebuilding humankind, why we are not sure, and why she chose the desert, or to be militant are questions we just can't answer here. In the end though, Keela wins and the Mother is no more. There are now two very lucky men in the world, End Credits.

Rating (3.2)

Logan's Run (1976) - Sci-Fi Marathon

Logan's Run (1976) - Logan (Michael York) is a "Sandman" in a futuristic society where people live in Domes and life is forcibly ended at 30 years old. Sandmen hunt those people who attempt to run instead of committing the accepted suicide in the "Carosel". Logan is given the assignment of becoming a runner in hopes he can find and eliminate the "Sanctuary" successful runners have created. With a rebel, Jessica (Jenny Agutter) Logan runs and is chased and there is much of that and eventually makes his way out of the dome and into the outside world. Seeing that the world had healed since the events that required the domes, Logan returns to tell the society people no longer need to die at 30 and can leave the domes.
What I liked: I liked Farrah Fawcett, first acting badly and then dying. I loved this movie...as a kid.
What didn't work: Oh this film was slow and just has not aged well. From the poor miniatures of the dome cities to the robot "Box" the effects are just awful. There is no humor and little suspense. Really didn't like it that much.
Rating (4.8)

Chrysalis (2008) Sci-Fi marathon

Chrysalis (2008) - In a future earth the government is collapsing as the environment has gotten so bad nothing grows. A group of scientists work to modify plants to grow in the new world. On of them, Smith (Glen Vaughan) falls sick and a Chrysalis forms over his body. As he is transformed scientist argue over should he be killed with Hartley (John Klemantaski) saying he should because you do not know what he is being transformed into. Rockwell (Darren Kendrick) saying they should let him develop and possibly the evolution that saves the human race.
What I liked: It ended
What didn't work: Everything! It was a story in a small space, it had poor acting, it sucked eggs and did not really have very good arguments either way. Just boring and plodding all the way through.
Rating (0.9)