The Rezort (2015) Horror Zombie

The Resort (2015) - When Mars of the Stream Queens at Zombiegrrlz named this as the next film to be watch, I thought okay, its been a while since I watched a zombie flick, why not?  After the first five minutes of watching I had my answer. This is a film with a premise that is just too far fetched to suspend disbelief. It challenges the viewer to believe that every government is fucking stupid and that humankind is also.  That premise is this as we learn through news clips at the beginning of the film. It has been years since the Chromosyndrone-A virus killed and turned 2 billion people into crazed zombies. The ensuing war where the living ultimately exterminated the zombies was won after many years and sacrifice that touched everyone. Still the world's peoples and governments let some corporate big wig, Valerie Wilson (Claire Goose) keep an island full of zombies as a way to create jobs and spur the economy? You can eliminate the greatest threat that human kind ever faced, that killed a quarter of the people on the planet and instead you allow the creation on a Rezort for traumatized victims to come and shoot the mean zombies that ruined their lives. That is just too unbelievable, no one is that stupid and even if some people are the rest of us would kill them just to improve the gene pool. This is the sell the film has to do in order to get to it's zombie resort but I am sorry to say I am not convinced.
  For the sake of being able to continue this review I am purposely going to ignore the last paragraph and pretend that this movie did not try to convince me of that bonk.  Since the film is trying to tell a story and I want to talk about that also. The film mostly focuses on Melanie (Jessica De Gouw) and her boyfriend Lewis (Martin McCann), she lost her father in the war and can't seem to move on with her life. Lewis fought in the war and has his own ghosts. Melanie considers going to the Rezort may be cathartic and Lewis is supportive of that. Now there are pains taken to let us know that human attitudes were changed by the war. There was a hardening where intolerance and strict protocols to stay virus free is how people survived and bleeding hearts need not apply.  Very quickly we see Melanie and Lewis arrive and then are introduced to more characters. Red shirts as soon as you realize that this is Melanie's story. The Jurassic Park-ness of this 'player' introduction was hilarious with the boat ride to the island and the jeep ride to the resort. Other characters include Jack (Jassa Ahl uwalia) and Alphie (Lawrence Walker) two teen gamers who won the chance playing a zombie shoot them up game and will now get to do it for real. You will notice them as the annoying kids in the background for most of the movie being overly excited about everything. There is Archer (Dougray Scott) a hunting dude who has his own rifle and the attitude that shooting zombies in the head should be done until they are all gone. (The correct attitude if you ask me), The blonde woman Sade (Elen Rhys) has mysterious purposes besides her stated reason for being there. These cast members and a couple of guides head out into the park to kill zombies when things go horribly wrong.

  Early on there is also this bit about a refugee camp on on the next closest island to the Rezort and launching point for Melanie and Lewis. The moment I heard this mentioned I had the thought that the corporate big wig was replacing slaughtered zombies on the island with refugees. Guess what? Not that this plays any part in the plot. It is a throw in to show just how evil CEO Wilson really is. If you think about it at all though it is inevitable you have this island that was found after the war to be over run by the undead. It is turned into a resort where the living can come to seek vengeance by killing off those same undead. Who goes into that business where you are constantly eliminating the attraction you are selling? In Jurassic Park you had the DNA lab so if you needed more dinosaurs you created them. Well there will have to be replacement zombies, there just has to be. This logical conclusion bleeds back into the unbelievable setup of the film. 1. That the island was not firebombed when discovered and 2. That a convenient refugee camp is setup just a boat ride from the attraction. So then there is the really problematic first world third world implications. The only time we see the refugees the people we see are brown people who appear like they could be from under developed countries, and they are brown people , and you hear them speak in a language that is not English. surfice to say the Rezort was setup so first world clients with the money to pay can work through there feelings about the war. Fuck everyone else.

  Malanie is not sold on her decision but not true for others. Lewis is surprisingly quiet about shooting zombies. Having been in the war we don't necessarily what his experiences were so he could be going through some PTSD shit but at least he seems supportive to Melanie. Sade slips off during the evening to sneak onto the operations computer system and downloads some files. She is part of a group that does not believe that the Rezort should exist. She is also the reason things go horribly wrong. Alfie and Jack are just a couple dopes not taking the experience as seriously as they should. The are playing hyper teenagers and I would say will learn hard lessons but this is a survival movie and they are secondary characters so... Archer is just into his need to use his weapon, competent and self assured he will be useful when shit hits the fan. Tom Nevens (Kevin Shen) and another guy are the guides and but they are so much fodder. The plot is that unbeknownst to Sade when she stole her files she also released a virus into the computer system which keep the fences up, to keep too many zombies from becoming a herd.

The basic rules of these zombies is: 1. Bite not blood, passed through saliva 2. The Fresher they are the faster they are 3.Shoot them in the head simple rules but most of the shooting we see is that they are using automatic rifles and they are hard to aim. These are great for pumping bullets into a crowd but for stopping the dead you really need a rifle. So when the fences go down the group is not really prepared for dealing with the zombies in the meaningful way. It is Melanie's story and her story is about not being able to shoot the undead. So will we see a change in her by the end of the film? Will she learn to kill or learn that killing is not the way. To get through her journey though we need some really unlikely things to happen, in fact a lot of it makes no sense. So many things here, the fact that all locks are default open if the power is out. That even restraints on the locked up zombies are released. That there is a protocol to firebomb the island if the system crashes but the fact that all the zombies started on the island and pretty much that is where we would be if the resort is over run. Why the need to firebomb. Not that killing everyone is not a bad idea. The intent of the film is to put a clock on the film. Our group of eight in the wilderness having a night under the stars will now only have a set amount of time to reach a random spot. When the shit goes down there is little time for thinking, a lot of zombies flood the camp, the two women inexplicably run across to the other side of the camp to hide behind a tent even though they are standing by a jeep. Then they have to get to the jeep when zombies come from behind. Oh and the jeep does not start, ugh. Enough talking about the strange plotting though, they have to make it to a pickup point after the attack and so be it.

  So with Brimestone fire the island protocol going and no jeep the group sets out across to reach a pickup point on the beach. It being s survival film each part of the journey is marked by death and conflict. We lose a person trying to do this or that whenever the group runs into a group of zombies. In the end a few of them make it back to the complex where the over run control room is. There is a wonderful scene where a couple people have their relationship challenged. You can probably guess the end of the film if you at all are paying attention. I have to say I liked the Melanie storyline. You think that because she can't shoot the zombie early in the film that her story are will be to eventually decide she can use a gun. This does not happen though, throughout she is a pacifist which is impressive on a zombie filled island. Then of course is the reveal about the refugee camp that I predicted as soon as I saw it.  Overall I can't really give this film a recommendation but it was not a horrible watch. The illogical leaps of this film were just to much for me to overcome. Most of this is in the writing I think where writer Paul Gerstenberger makes a good attempt but has to fit in too many convenient happenings. He does come full circle with his message of how people's attitudes in this world have changed and how the survivor may be able to change their minds.  The Directing seems solid enough by Steve Barker but I still don't think there is enough here for me to recommend. So do as you will with that information for me the film is a bit of a miss.
  

City of the Living Dead (1980) Horror Gates of Hell

City of the Living Dead (1980) Spoilers! All through this review! I have watched a shit ton of movies in my life and have extensively explored the Italian horror genre but somehow I failed to ever see this film. So I was pleasantly surprised when I put this DVD in and saw something new to me. I thought that I had seen it but watching it was a new experience. Part of a three film Blu Ray set called "Gates of Hell Trilogy" put out by the Australian company Cinema Cult it also contains the other two Lucio Fulci Gates films The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery. Whether a problem with the DVD or my player I could not get the special features to play which is a bit disappointing. The film is a wonderful piece of cinema with a great score by Fabio Frizzi and Fulci directing it tells the story of a Gate of Hell being opened by a priest killing himself near it and how the lead characters try to shut it. Dunwich is a small New England town supposedly built on the ruins of Salem where the witch trials took place. A sick looking priest, Father Thomas (Fabrizio Jovine) walks in a cemetery. There is some strange cutting in this film going between the cemetery and a seance in New York City Mary a psychic see Father Thomas hang himself, followed by the sounds of howling and we see the dead rise from a nearby grave. Mary (Catriona MacColl) goes into convulsions seeing this and appears to die. On a gravestone in the cemetery is a saying. "The soul that pines for eternity shall out span death. You Dweller of the twilight void come Dunwich."  While the cops investigate Mary's death, we get some exposition about the book of Enoch a four thousand year old book that tells of the gate or some such thing. There Interrupted by the crying out fireball that appeared out of no where to ad some proof of the supernatural. Teresa (Adelaide Aste) predicts that horrible things are happening in a distant town.  Peter Bell (Christopher George) a reporter shows up in NYC looking for a story. He and Mary end up going to Dunwich to attempt to close the gate to Hell before All Saints Day. Confused that the dead Mary is involved well with Fulci things take turns and her turn is amazing.
   A couple grave diggers having lunch at a cemetery, reporter comes by and they chase him off. Grave of  Mary Woodhouse, Peter is still investigating her death. He watches as she is buried with these great in the coffin shots. She wails in the coffin. Peter hears her but a plane going over head blocks the noise, tension as we wait to see if he is going to go back yo the grave he does but her struggle finally saving her as she screams. The scene is great with cool shots of Mary in the coffin struggle to claw her way out cut with shots of Peter thinking he is hearing her but not sure. After the rescue book of Enoch explanation is a bit much but the shots done in Giallo style close ups of the eyes Mary explains that the Monday the night is the All Saints day and if the gates of hell that have been opened in Dunwich are not closed before then the dead will walk the earth. Peter is prophesied to be the one to do it oh that book just is quite magical. Mary and Peter start the road trip to Dunwich where they will eventual meet the locals there and bring this story to an end.
  Back to Dunwich and an eerie fog is blowing in on a howling wind. A Bob (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) in an abandoned house finds a blow up doll and what looks like a child worm covered rotting corpse. Junie's Lounge in Dunwich when the mirror just breaks all by itself, the two patrons and the bar tender examine it . Ever since Father Thomas hanged himself things have been strange. Then the wall cracks open and they hear sounds, the two patrons run off leaving the bar tender alone. They are the local spice for the town. The main characters are introduced. Sandra (Janet Agren) talking with her psychiatrist, Gerry (Carlo De Mejo), Emily (Antonella Interlenghi) comes in to see Gerry and we get some exposition about the Dunwich group, Salem witch burners are the ancestors of the town people.
With the creepy starting to happen in the town we start getting scenes that are goreliscious. Emily looking for Bob at the abandoned house, snarling sound scare him and he runs away leaving the poor girl alone.  The priest finds her and smears worm goo flesh all over her. She dies of fright her Father Mr. Robins shares that while talking to Gerry. The best set piece of gooey goodness has a couple locals, Tommy and his girl making out in their jeep. She is scared so he turns on the headlights to see the hanging priest in front of them. He appears next to the car the girls eyes start bleeding and her mouth foaming. Tommy goes from frantically trying to start the car to seeing his girls insides spill out of her mouth. Then the priest appears in the jeep and rips out Tommy's skull from behind.
  Hanging himself opened the gates of hell. Funeral for the Robin's. Ghoulish mortician is getting her ready. Mrs Holden died of fear also and we learn that Rose Calvin and Tommy Fisher from the jeep, town folk are blaming Bob who may be a pervert.

  Ghoul mortician tries to steal from the dead and has his hand mangled by the dead old lady. Emily's brother in his bedroom but something is outside the windows. He hears the moaning and the great music build the tension as he nears the shades to see his rotten corpse sister outside.
 Sandra has a gun smartest one out of the bunch apparently. The old lady from the mortuary is on Sandra's kitchen floor, Mrs Holden They are puzzled. Some social commentary about women having neurosis. More sound and the couple search around the house, when they return to the kitchen the body is gone. Panic sets in for Sandra knows dead Mrs. Holden is in the house. Logical Gerry calms her and she says " I will do whatever you say" Old lady was behind the painting but they don't see her. After the search the lights go out and a window blows in.(Did I mention the wind storm?) The glass blows into the painting and they see blood seeping out.
  There is also one death not caused by the dead, One of the locals finds Bob and thinking he is behind the deaths pushes his head into a industrial drill through the temple all the way through. It is quite the scene and we get great practical effects.
   Things start coming together once Mary and Peter arrive in Dunwich but the film doesn't really have clear main characters. Who are the hero's it seems they are Mary and Peter but we spend so much time away from them learning what's happening in the town that Gerry ans Sandra seem also to be emerging.  Gerry and Sandra arrive at a house the mortuary but no answer. Peter and Mary arrive at the graveyard, they have to find the priests grave and uncover him. Music tells us the tension should be rising and the fog. Gerry also arrives at the cemetery Mr. Logic meets the psychic. Now the four, Peter, Gerry, Sandra and Mary are assaulted by maggots blown in on the wind. Sandra Vomits as the floor is covered by them. It's a pretty amazing scene that ends with a call on the phone from little John-John,  Emily corpse killed her parents and John calls Gerry to tell him. The foursome drives over in the worst of wind storms and the girls look after John while the guys see the butchering of his parents. You don't see anything though this is an off camera murder, and we just get the reactions of the guys when they come out. It's a bit strange considering how much gore has already been in the movie
Plan is the funeral  parlor and then the cemetery to uncover he priest, Sandra takes John to Gerry's office while the other three enter the mortuary. Emily is waiting for Sandra and John-John and rips our the brains out of Sandra. This method is used repeatedly in the film, it like a hair pull but the back of the skull comes off. Pretty cool effect.  Kid runs, Kid in crisis running the dead are after him. Makes his way but the dead keep finding him. Gerry is suddenly there and confronts dead Emily by shutting his eyes. She vanishes and the crisis ends weird.
 Finally heading to the graveyard the three, Gerry, Mary and Peter arrive at night just a short time from midnight, they fail! The film sort of falls apart here a bit. Since they were supposed to close the gate before midnight but don't seem to do so the consequences for the world is the dead would rise. This is not the case though. They enter the family tomb and open his sarcophagus to find its broken out from the other side. They crawl through to check the other side. Dead Sandra is down there and they see her but suddenly she is behind Peter and rips out his brain. They killed Peter WTF! She then stares as Mary until her eyes bleed. Gerry rams a pipe through her and she dies a second time. Mary is okay now but what the fuck are they doing? Great visuals in the tomb of skeletal remains as the now pair move further towards the gates of hell,
They see the gates as the dead start to rise all around them.  The dead are coming for them! Priest guy appears and they are trapped his stare causes her eyes to bleed again. Jerry runs a cross through the priest who promptly burns and the dead are returned to the grave. Now we can call it City of the burning the dead catch magical fire. Wonderful Shame Peter didn't survive. Why the scream when the kid runs towards her to end the film? Must be from the first few scenes? I went back and watched the opening scenes but there is nothing there, So it is a mystery maybe the special features can solve. The music and gore are great in this film and even though it has some flaws this was a great film to finally watch. That last shot will bother me until I know the story behind it. This film is a bit problematic where women are screamy and emotional and the men are the calm ones telling them to get it together. The character Gerry in particular is a bit of a cad. Still the film is great and I definitely recommend this film to you all.

Year End Review (2103)

Year End Review (2013) - Another year has past and as it is for blogs we take a look back at the pleasures and pains of the time just completed. As I write this there are countless horror bloggers out there tapping away at their Best Of lists, lots of horror pod casters arguing about what should be the number one movie that came out last year. Having seen and reviewed almost every new scary film last year they are doing what we all do at times, evaluating the value of the art. Well I think I will take a different approach to the end of the year. I watched probably 75 horror, exploitation, semi porn presented as horror themed films last year and then wrote about 50 of them. Although it would not be too much a task to reread my thoughts and list the ones I liked best, it seems unnecessary with all that is already being published by others. Many of them more astute viewers than I and most of them better writers. So instead of yet another year in review for movies I have already seen and written about, I will share with you from the other input for ideas and talk to you about what I read this year.

  This year I read 9 books and also read a couple magazine regularly so here they are in no particular order.

Paracinema Magazine - "The Magazine for people who love genre movies" is how they bill themselves and they really do cover a lot of the genre world. On Facebook at...  At six issues a year each one is jam packed with interesting pieces competently written on a wide range of genre favorites. Articles on Robocop & Reagan's America, Horror parodies of the 80's, Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creature's, Ken Russell's the Devil's, Assault of the Killer Bimbos, Found Footage and Mockumentary Horror, An entire issue on Revenge Films, another on Classic Horror, A Kill Bill issue, An interview article with Kelli Maroney of "Night of the Comet" by one of my favorite writers Chris Hallock (@ChrisDIYDriveIn), Then there are things like talking about Duality in the film "The Dark Chrystal" or "Lesbian Vampires and the Failure of Heterosexuality in "Daughters of Darkness" so much good writing about the obscure and famous films I love so much. Editor Christine Makepeace, (@paraXtine) does a fine job at putting together a wide lens approach to genre film making this one of the two subscriptions I keep.

Diabolique Magazine - "Horror for the Connoisseur" Another bimonthly that is worth your time, a good old fashion glossy that focuses a bit more on classical and period piece horror but is not afraid to step across to what is hot and happening in the horror world of today. The writing is a step above most magazines and the presentation is beautiful, this is not the magazine you read and throw out but more a saved reference for when you revisit films they have covered. Props must be given to the whole team that puts this fine magazine together. Contributing writers are excellent including at times Chris Hallock and Michelle Galgana (@m_galgana). Editor Brandon Kosters uses a fine eye in picking the high quality talent that appears on the pages. The Horror Unlimited Website is the place to find individual issues as well as many other interesting things. Subscriptions as well as individual issues can be purchased at the Diabolique Magazine website.

Books

Zombies: An Illustrated History of the Undead by Jovanka Vuckovic  (@JovankaVuckovic) - This is a really nice book I like to leave on a coffee table of my TV room because anyone can and should pick it up and browse through it. It is a great image filled history of Zombies in popular culture that is easily glanced through and enjoyed. More it is a pretty good read and you should take the time to read it at least once before leaving it out as a reference when someone brings up the idea that Romero was the first  to have a "true" zombie in film. Vuckovic a writer and director of short films.  The president of She Wolf Films is a significant figure in moving women to the forefront of the horror genre. Her website at...

Bitches, Bimbos, and Virgins : Women in the Horror Film by editors Gary J. and Susan Svehla - Furthering my feminist leaning through education I was fortunate to read this great history of women's role in horror films from the earliest to the Ass kicking. But this excerpt from the introduction captures it best. "... Bitches, Bimbos and Virgins is the history of women in horror cinema, profiling their evolution from coffee-making to scientist, from seductress and victim to kick-ass heroine, and finally detailing their emergence as well drawn characters who play important roles in horror movie history- past present and future." I really enjoyed this book and spent time viewing many of the classics used as examples to get the full impact of the words.

Shock Value by Jason Zinoman (@zinoman) "How a few eccentric outsiders gave us nightmares, conquered Hollywood and invented modern horror."  Just a wonderful book of the back stories of some of the great seventies horror directors and writers who changed horror films forever. The makers of such films of Rosemary's Baby, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Carrie, Last House on the Left,  Halloween, The Exorcist and Alien are interviewed and studied with great back stories of their relationships with each other. Wes Craven, John Carpenter, Dan O'Bannon, Tobe Hooper, George Romero, David Cronenberg all contributed to the changing of horror from ghost stories and monster tales to a more visceral reality based shockfest which holds to this day. The writer is excellent and the content fascinating and well researched. Lovers of horror should all read this book. It may be because I just finished it as it was the last book I was reading when the year ended but with it fresh in my mind I can say I loved it.

The Undead and Theology edited by Kim Paffenroth (@kpaffenroth) and John W. Morehead (@JohnWMorehead) - This is example one of how Twitter drives business. Somewhere in time I started following Kim Paffenroth, "Professor of religious studies by day, horror novelist by night" and when he hocked his book one day I took a chance and bought it. Broken up into three parts, Vampires, Zombies and Other Undead, each part is a collection of essays about the subject as it connects to theology. Although I found some of the essays very interesting like W. Scott Poole The Vampire that Haunts Highgate: Theological Evil, Hammer Horror, and the Highgate Vampire Panic in Britain, 1963-1974, and editor Paffenroth's Apocalyptic Images and Prophetic Function in Zombie Films there are other like the one on the Laurell K. Hamilton books that I have no interest in reading that I just could not connect to. As an Atheist I generally have an interest in the beliefs people are holding (better to see a burning at the stake coming than to be surprised when they knock down your door) Seeing this connected to popular culture was very interesting, so this book was a good way to learn something about how believers may approach horror without having to talk to anyone about religion. Morehead has a cool webpage at The Fantastique.

Seed by Ania Ahlborn (@aniaahlborn) - Another example of how the Twitterverse effects our choices. Again I am not sure how I came to follow writer Ania Ahlborn but at some point I decided to read something she wrote. I picked up Seed and enjoyed the dark tail of Jack Winter a man running from his past until it catches up to him and threatens everyone he holds dear. Ania, not one to go soft on an ending, pushes towards an inevitable conclusion that  the reader wants to turn out okay, but is always nagged by the atmosphere of the story which says nothing good happens in the end. If there was a draw back in Seed I would say that the character Jack never takes ownership of his own power. He seems defeated by the thing is his past the entire story making the final wonderfully dark finish a fore gone conclusion. Far be it from me to pretend I know how to write a novel, but I can say how the story and its characters made me feel and Jack seemed defeated without a fight right from his first realization that his past was back. Whatever effort he was going to make seemed destined to fail. Certainly that contributes to the dread factor the book a carries but I want that real hope before the dark ending. I liked the book enough that I purchased and read a second, "The Shuddering". See her at her website

The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn (@aniaahlborn) - Fast on the heels of finishing Seed I started in on this one. A fantastical story about people going missing in the ski mountains of Colorado. Based heavily in the characters relationships of love lost and renewed and the choices that get us into uncomfortable situation The Shuddering is a monster lovers book. Highlighted with sharp descriptions of creatures that appear with the snow and feed while they can; it is a monster tale for anyone who spend time in a winter wonderland. The story centers around a brother and sister and their friends meeting at their father's mountain getaway one last time before it is sold. Strained relationship abound as people who have separated and drifted apart are mixed back together years later with unresolved feelings. Worst than that there is something(s) in the forest and they are hungry. Basing the story around the human characters Ahlborn pushes the story forward with their longing and grudges and regrets while at the same time creating an external threat that trumps all these feelings. Ania again is a master at the hard ending, besides who wants there horror books to end "happily ever after"? The plot moves well although more of an explanation of the history of the threat could have made the book more enjoyable. As in the case with Seed the threat is presented but never really explained, which I suppose is a valid approach. There is nothing worse than a character know it all trying to explain why and how something is happening. It makes me long for a bigger story though where I get to learn abut the conspiracy that must exist in these small mountain towns that loose dozens of lives every some number of years. Good book worth the price. Now if I can just get Ania to sign a copy for me.

 Dario Argento: Mediane Libri - This lovely picture book of Argento's films is short on text but makes up for in stylish presentation, behind the scenes photography, Movie posters and high gloss finish. It is basically a picture filled filmography that I impulse bought at The Coop when I wanted something to look at while I ate lunch at the Border Cafe in Harvard Square. I should probably make note of the Editor and art director Max Serio for putting this together. If you are an Argento fan as I am this is worth the $15 dollars or so that it costs.


- The New Rules of Lifting: Six Basic Moves for Maximum Muscle: By Lou Schuler (@LouSchuler) and Alwyn Cosgrove (@alwyncosgrove) - I got this with the accompanying women's version for myself and daughter in the hope we would be better at staying in shape. Now she is a Captain on the Mount Saint Mary's Women's Rugby team and lifts regularly. I on the other hand am more in the shape of round. Funny thing is I read my version of this book while she did not. Now I am not saying that I have practice the principles, I can barely force myself into the gym a few times a week before slacking off again. The one draw back I saw in this book was that to do free weights under this regime I would need a lifting buddy. Since a lot of the theory is about pushing limits and changing routines there just seems to be an assumption that there is someone there to spot. Maybe this year I will try to execute some of what I learned.

 Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson  - I love Bill Bryson from the first thing I read "A Walk in the Woods" about his idea to walk the Appalachian trail, to his informative and hilarious adventures in Australia with "In a Sunburned Country" to his "A Short History of Nearly Everything" he is a thoroughly entertaining writer with a self effacing humor I really enjoy. So when I picked up this book at a yard sale for 25 cents I was thrilled. It is about traveling around England and it is very enjoyable. Not for everyone because the exceptional descriptive detail after a while will leave your head spinning about where on the island he is. Still the historical information and low adventure stories are wonderful if every now and again you pull out a map to orient yourself to the reading. On Facebook at...

A later addendum is I forgot that I also read Dan O'Bannon's wonderful book on screenwriting.

Extinction:The G.M.O. Chronicles (2011) Horror Epidemic

Extinction:The G.M.O. Chronicles (2011) - In the beginning of this film we see a survivor or the human apocalypse, Tom Keller (Daniel Buder) as he speaks into his computer camera filling us in on the world as it stands. A genetic plant mutation experiment gone wrong has laid waste to the earth's population. It has mutated and infected humans making them in effect plant zombies of different kinds. Walkers, Runners, Climbers, Puffers, Screamers each type with there own traits but as they are introduced in the film they are further developments, evolution of the plant virus, as it tries to mutate itself into a more efficient way to spread. Ultimately this is a story of the survivors, starting with Tom and his struggle to want to survive in a world where human kind is close to wiped out and the plant mutants are developing in ways to finalize the death of all remaining people. A former special forces soldier Tom sets up camp in an old military base with tall fences and a watch tower. He wonders whether or not he should commit suicide but when he meets other people his attitude changes.
   I wanted this film to be better than it was, and really it had a neat little take on the zombie apocalypse. Problem is really a mess structurally with very little to make of a main story the film meanders through different characters. Each with new set of survivors have a set of goals but in the end it is all just a journey without a proper ending. The first act focuses on Tom and then a group he meets consisting of Lisa (Luise Bahr), her father Bill (Jerry Coyle) and her boyfriend Martin (Klaus Ebert). They all take up residence in the military base and go about life as it is. Lisa is looking at what life will be after the end. How to make the military base a home. She is written as a bit depressed and on the edge of holding it together. Martin the jealous boyfriend has an adolescent response to the more competent Tom. This plays out in a really clunky way and drives the pacing of the film to an almost halt. We also explore the secrets Bill holds, as a NSA operative. Using the satellite phone Tom has he makes contact with his government friends and learns of a bunker where they all can take shelter. At first he holds his cards close to the vest but when caught on the phone comes clean quickly. The arrival of a few more people Zara (Bina Milas), Luke (Lee Rychter), and brothers Max (Tobias Kay) and David (Christain Stock)  into the group sets the stage for the next act.
  The second part of the film is all the characters getting to know one another. Fighting with each other and the daily struggle to live in this new world filled with danger. Mostly though not tons happens except some very boring motions, The film really loses all its forward momentum that was gained in getting the world defined and the characters together.
  The third act has to do with motivating the characters into moving out of the safety of the military base. It starts with introducing new plant zombies that can climb the fences easily and move at night. Then attacks by these new zombies and the death of characters on the base force the hand of the group. They head out in two vehicles for the bunker beneath a damn nearby. We again have a character introduced with yet another new idea. Peter Bishop (Heinrich Baumgartner) is a scientist who think with the right equipment can come up with a solution for the zombies. He is instructed to meet the group at the bunker. Introduced at this time is the idea that the nuclear power plants are melting down. I said this story meanders and again we are not sure what the main story is. we are just following these people around and wondering if the scientist is now the main story and a cure or a herbicide will be invented. Still even though the film has some character development it is missing a clear protagonist, it should be Tom's struggle with the idea of being a leader. We get some background of how he failed in the military on a mission leaving him without the backbone to lead.
  Even this does not end up being the main push for the story as they get to the bunker but the people inside refuse to let them in. The learn from the radiation sickened Peter that no one is safe in this area because of the nuclear power plants. They decide to head south and again find a new place to rest. A castle with a religious minister and followers. Again the movie grinds to a halt with yet another story line. This time Zara a medical student is asked to learn everything she can from Peter about a cure prior to his death by radiation poisoning. Ugh!  Even though this down time comes in for the story line the group knows they still have to keep moving south away from civilization. The zombies again attack and the castle is over run leaving the final group of survivors, Lisa Bill, Tom, Zara, David and a couple others head off on the road. A voice over leaves the film in the "I don't know what is in front of us, but we will do it together" kind of message.
  Now I am sure there are those reading this thinking that it sounds like this film has something to offer. Let me assure you that the main thing it has for you is frustration. It just jumps from "this happens" to "Then that happens" with no clear story to follow other than these mostly boring characters are living together.The action scenes are not well done and the makeup although competent is supplemented with some horrible low budget CGI. The idea of super fast evolution of the zombie plant people is a weak idea since evolution does not work that way. The film implies that the need to spread the virus causes the mutations that create the new kinds of zombies. Problem is these changes are only geared towards getting humans and since the absence of humans to infect is not a pressure it does not make sense that the mutations would develop to seek out the uninfected. You would think the mutations would be to infect what is around the xombies not what is not. So in the end there are just too many problems to recommend this movie.

Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980) Zombie Porn

Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980) - Also entitled "Sexy Nights of the Living Dead", and in Italian "Le notti erotiche dei morti viventi" this is as much of a pornographic film as will make it onto this blog. Sometimes when you try to touch the edges of genre film you cross over and end up in a place you are so not ready for. Now granted the title of the film and the director Joe D'Amato should have given me an idea that the film would be a skin flick. I have seen some of D'Amato's more soft stuff but remarkably not seen the more hardcore films. This one really pushes the line of soft core with several penetration shots mixed in with a story of zombies. It is the strangest combination, a story where a businessman wants to build a resort on an island. He hires a boat and with his girlfriend heads to the place to check it out. Finding two inhabitants an old partially blind man and a beautiful native girl Luna (Laura Gemser) who seem a bit strange and distant. Pretty much the zombie story is without clear explanation, Luna is also a cat or a ghost or something and they use the dead of the island to protect it from dishonest people. So eventually we will have the boat captain, Larry O"Hara (George Eastman), businessman John Wilson (Mark Shannon) and girlfriend Fiona (Dirce Funari) are bound to be in peril.
Before we get into the multiple sexual acts portrayed on this film lets start with the remarkable bookends to the film. The film starts with an island insane asylum and a few characters crazy as my uncle Joe wandering around, who just happen to be our three main character. There is a late night rendezvous between a nurse and workman with stand up sex. The man is strong because I would have thrown my back out  holding that woman up like that.Followed by another patient who stands behind them masturbating while watching the two have sex. At this point we go back in time to see how these characters got to be in the mental hospital. We will later pop back to this for the closing bookend. There does not seem to be a need for the bookends but at least they break up what is a really boring story.
  So since there is a crappy bookends and a close to nonexistent zombie plot it only leave the porn to be the "meat" of the story. John Wilson starts with a couple of prostitutes who he strips down for ample shots of his prolific tongue performing cunnilingus and them taking turns performing fellatio on him. Then of course the couple money shots with John fucking one of the girls in such closeup.Then the cum shot as the second girl blows him. Like all porn movies they are really way to much in time duration but I suppose there is a ideal time for these scenes that have little to do with the actors and more to do with the audience.
  After the girls leave and John meets up with girlfriend Fiona there is more sex with her. Then there is some establishing sex for out boat captain Larry and so on. When I say so on I mean it, Larry gets with a young lady on his boat and later in one of the stranger scenes I have ever seen he is at a strip club where the dancer strips and also removes the cork from a bottle of champagne in the most unique way. At the island Larry gets to have sex with Luna in the shallow water of the bay. So really this film is a collection of sex encounters with some slow zombie scariness thrown in. The primary conflict is between the Old man and Luna, with John who they do not see as honest and don't want to build on their island. This is resolved in the film with zombies slow chasing and the such. The secondary conflict is "Will Fiona and Larry survive?" and although they run around a good deal they are in the end saved by a statue the old man gave to Larry.
  Now I watched what is called the "explicit uncut version" and really should have tried to stay away from that and instead went with the cut up version. So in the end this film was just too boring lacking any real conflict, zombies without real reason or menace. A porn movie yes, but with limited explicit material which is far from sexy. A horror movie yes but with poor horror villains and not enough story so in the end this film can not be recommended by this viewer. If you want to watch porn you can do better and if it is horror you are looking for this film is far from horror.

Psychomania (1973) Biker Zombies

Psychomania (1973) - If there is one thing that the Internet has shown me it is that there is an audience for absolutely everything. So when I was looking for obscure biker films to cover and saw this film and the very loyal following it had I had to cover it. Severin films did a very nice release of Psychomania recently and its print and extras were just what was needed for viewing. Searching down the actors for interviews, profiling the score composer and even tracking down the English folk singer who performed the one song in the film made for some real added pleasure in reviewing this film. Now I had thought I was about finish with my run of biker movies. My work as a QA engineer at a software company has been particularly busy.  I just was not finding the time to view and write about films. I have seen a few but just did not have the energy after a long day in front of a computer to spend more time typing away on a keyboard. Psychomania showed up on my door thanks to the great people at Alternative Cinema and I have to say I was excited, not at the two week delivery time but more that I had forgotten I had ordered the film. They may be a bit slower than Amazon at processing orders but the variety and scope of the films can't be beat if you like alternative cinema. They also do an entertaining podcast once a month that is worth looking up at iTunes, "The Alternative Cinema Pocast" SO lets dive again into the biker genre and maybe it will energize me enough to get to "Dear God No!" which is the film I was originally getting ready to see with this biker movie background viewing.
   There is not a traditional zombie in this film, but instead each of the bikers commits suicide and comes back as an immortal undead person gaining the added strength and invincibility. The appropriately named gang, "The Living Dead" are a rowdy bunch two women Abby (Mary Larkin) and Jane (Ann Michelle) and six men, Tom, Bertram (Roy Holder), Hatchet (Denis Gilmore), Chopped Meat (Miles Greenwood), Hinky (Rocky Taylor) and Gash (Peter Whitting) who cause trouble in small town England. Lead by Tom Latham (Nicky Henson) they are a group of apathetic youth who have no purpose other than to rile things up. They are at the age where they don't want to fit into society and through the bike gang roar through life creating risks to heighten their suburban doldrums. Now how they become the undead is most of the story.
  We see Tom's Mother (Beryl Reid) in an early scene performing a satanic ritual at a place called in the film "the seven witches"  a collection of stones in a circle like a mini Stonehenge. She is visited there by the devil (maybe) in the form of Shadwell (George Sanders) and signs a contract her little baby tom offered in as well. It is this magic that seems to be behind things. Shadwell stays on with her as her butler and Tome grows into a young man wanting for nothing. Sanders at the end of his career was a great find for Director Don Sharp. He is a veteran actor of such great films as Rebecca (1940), All About Eve (1950), Village of the Damned (1960), but his career was winding down by the time he took this role. It turned out to be his last as shortly after this final performance he was found dead in a hotel room in Barcelona Spain. He had taken five bottles of Nembutal and left a suicide note that read.  Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck. It is a strange coincidence that the primary driver in this last film was also suicide.
  Tom is definitely the disaffected youth who is acting out having never come to terms with the death of his father. His Mother through her witchcrafted deal is wealthy and not needing anything acts as a medium for purposes only known to she and Shadwell. There is a secret about the late Mr Lathan and Tom wants to know what it is. After a freaky trip in the room where he died Tom comes out of the magic of the place knowing that the secret to immortality is knowing with all your heart that you will come back. His father who was also in the magic circle was trying just this feat and must have had doubt because he never made it back. Now Tom is the worst kind of mean biker, he is a mean biker because he can be. It is not the freedom of the road he is looking for. He is just a spoiled kid looking to make his boring British life more exciting. Now with the secret of eternal life (after death) he is determined to make it happen.
  After Tom is successful at killing himself by driving off a bridge we have a hilarious scene where the gang gets permission and then buries him at the stone circle. He is propped in his riding leathers and sitting on his bike. The folk singer Harvey Andrews sings the song Riding Free as they have their quite nice ceremony. The setup of the corpse on the bike is great when he is reborn and roars from the ground on his motorbike, like a bat out of hell. When he returns his invincibility is quickly shown as he murders several people. When he comes back to his gang and convinces them to join him is his life after deah each has to come up with a way to die and know that they will come back. A good chunk of the film is the creative death scenes the riders choose. Soon the gang is truly the Living Dead and they now feel they can't be stopped and start a killing spree the police can not ignore.
  There is also an internal gang story. Abby does not want to die and is pressured repeatedly by Tom and the gang to do it. I think she knows that if her heart is not in it she will just be dead and that is not her desire. Tom pushing harder and harder as the overly controlling boyfriend gets to the point where he threatens to end her life if she does not join the gang. This scene culminates with the gang pushing a gun into her hand. At the same time...

Mrs. Latham knows the power of immortality has gone to Tom's head and he scares even her. She being older asks appropriately, Well what are you going to do now that you have what you want? His answer is all about the chaos of doing whatever he wants. She finds this just too unbearable and with Shadwell breaks her contract with the devil for her and her son. So since the film has to end we see the gang turned to stones as the Mother breaks the contract. It leaves Abby staring in amazement alive and well. Then the final shot as Shadwell arrives at Abby's location to offer a contract to her. This was a very well put together story. By no means is it great, the acting is a bit muggish and Sanders somewhat sleepwalks through his role. Still there is something to be said for the film. The cool helmet design for the biker gang, the excellent psychedelic influenced score by John Cameron. It is not hard to watch and more it has a story worth watching.
 

All Things Horror Night

  Want to see a zombie buddy movie made for about six thousand dollars? Okay normally hearing the will make the average movie goer roll there eyes and the drop their $13 on the latest romcom that features the exact character development and situations of the three hundred such movies they have see before. What I am saying is America is trained to see a small slither of commercially produced film and very seldom will waiver from their programming. Sure around Oscar time the thinking man drivel will be rolled out to be displayed with it's broken character so Philip Seymore Hoffman or can wow the public with his prowess as an actor who lives his characters. In general though they will go see the epic which remarkable also end up getting awards. They happily go an watch Daniel Day Lewis turn Lincoln into a shuffling old grandpa who can't seem to stop talking in stories. So much so that the screenwriters had to make an inside joke about it in the fucking movie. Yet the awards and millions of dollars in budgets go to these films and the people flock to see them. Ask an average movie goer to see a small independent film and level of contempt is shown because it is not in the training to even see these films. America you are missing out! Thousands of small films are released each year and most are seen by too few eyes. Luckily for horror fans in eastern Massachusetts have the wonderful horror buffs at All Things Horror Online who seek out and bring us those movies we would normally miss. They can also be contacted as most groups through their Facebook page. All Things Horror try to have a screening at the Somerville Theater the third Saturday of each month presenting shorts and usually a new horror feature from independent film makers. This is what I was out  doing Saturday night and would love to see all of you too in the future.

 We had a zombie movie the The Battery (2012) written and directed by and acted in by Jeremy Gardner who came to the event and did a Q&A after the feature was shown. The film a character driven story about two former minor league baseball players making there way through western Connecticut after the zombie apocalypse. Gardner plays Ben a former minor league catcher, a survivor and realist in an unbelievable situation. He is traveling with his former teammate and battery mate pitcher, Mickey (Adam Cronheim) not so much going anywhere but more keeping on the move to avoid being trapped in any one place. It is alluded to that at one point they had been trapped in a house in Pittsfield MA. for several months and only when completely desperate had tried a ploy to escape that luckily for them had worked. Since then they had roamed the back roads of New England making the best of the end of civilization.
  Budget limited this film severely but what you get is a solid character based film about too guys in an impossible situation. Ben is all business in the end of the world. Moving place to place, staying out of populated areas and surviving. He is Mickey's protector and does all the killing of the pair. Ben doesn't seem to mind the constant travel and kills because it needs to be done not because there is any joy in it. Mickey travels with him in a state of denial, wearing headphones he can't even bring himself to say the word zombie even though the evidence is all around him that it is indeed the fate of most people to be zombies. So for Mickey there is a pretty clear story arc. He must come out of his denial and start defending himself to be able to survive the situation if ever anything should happen to Ben. Early in the film I was reminded of parts of the film Stake Land (2010) where there is also a character who has a story arc that takes him from dependent to competent.
 Overall the film does a very good storytelling the adventures two travelers but there are some structural flaws that work against the story. Now before I get started here I want to be clear I really enjoyed the film. There are some pretty inspired ideas in it and I would watch it again. I's important to note this film was made for almost nothing and is very well executed. But feedback is a gift, and you know that sometimes the gift you get was not the gift you wanted, so onward...

  First the trivial missed opportunities, we have a character who is constantly wearing headphone and putting batteries in the player. Going against expectation this never came back put this character in harms way, well not in a significant way. I wondered what if, what if he didn't hear the zombies coming up from behind? What if he the batteries died and he suddenly had to put himself at risk to get more? What if the player stopped working altogether? In the end the player and the incredible risk of wearing headphone did not play a part in the characters outcome at the climax, I wished it did since it was such an intricate  part of his personality.
  More than that though was a really tough structural choice, somewhere just about or a bit over halfway the film sort of moves Mickey's arc along. He and Ben come to a house and Mickey wants to stay the night instead of sleeping on the road in the car. He is very insistent and Ben consents but only after reminding him that he does not want another Pittsfield situation. When Ben puts a captured zombie into the bedroom with Mickey, forcing him to make his first kill we see Mickey change. He becomes the more complete survivor and is now more on equal terms with Ben. Still he is looking for stability and hearing a women's voice on a walkie-talkie is all it takes to get him obsessing about who and where she is. The early completion of his person arc left too much time between the middle of the film and the end of the third act where his development pays off.  I think I would have liked if the arc complete a bit later, the third act where the situation calls for him to stand up and be the leader in the situation at hand.

  Also is the really incomplete mysterious voices on the airwaves. Yes they were kept a mystery so the ending could play out the way it did. An ending of I'm coming for you but one we never get to see. Nor do we learn anything about these people other than their insistence that they are not what the guys think they are. The setup of these characters, Mickey's obsession with Annie (Alana O'Brien) is never satisfactorily paid off. She ends up just being the reason Mickey has to step up. Also the reason they end up in their final scenerio which I have to say is the biggest problem for me with this film.
  All the build up of the first two acts is thwarted by the long car scene of the third act. Where we should have been building to something exciting and grand instead we have a ten minute scene of two people trapped in a car. There was some good energy and development but all of it is lost in the third act. I know that the setup is there but boy was that the hardest part of the film to watch. When all was said and done though the film holds up. Now if you are a horror fan and think you are getting a big budget film, remove that idea from your head. Because of the small independent source this is not full of special effect and really has very few zombies in it also. It really is based in the world but specifically in looking at these two men. Still The Battery is an solid film with a good story and is worth a watch. It is soon to be distributed through steaming services so keep an eye out for it.