Night Of The Living Dead: Reanimation

At some point, I expect George A. Romero to start suing anyone that uses Night Of The Living Dead in their movie title. But we'll get to that later.

This film is set in the Zombie Capital, Pittsburgh. Gerald Tovar, Jr. is a Pyrophobic (scared of fire) mortician. He and his brother, Harold inherit a funeral home from their dad after he dies. Dad had a deal with the government to burn toxic waste. Harold wants none of it, so he moves away. None of that was fully explained until the movie was at the 42 minute mark.

The movie opens with Junior interviewing a new beautician after his current one makes a client look like a "clown". Then, a state inspector shows up. He gets killed by a zombie.

Later, we see Junior watching a video of his crematory. He watches as a zombie rises. He then goes down into the crematory, and kills it. At this point in the movie, Harold shows up looking to borrow money from his brother. This is where we learn about Gerald being scared to cremate the bodies. Since the chemicals and bodies weren't being burned, the bodies were reanimating.

The brothers go back to the funeral home and find out the dead have risen and are trapped in the funeral home. Junior digs up dad and accidentally feeds his brother to his dad.

Junior and his employees fight off the zombies until he's the only one alive.

This movie sucked. I'll ignore the CHEESY special effects. Most low budget films get a pass on that. What I can't ignore was the way the story jumped around, and the terrible scene where the employees stopped to smoke weed with a dead guy that wasn't a zombie. Yes, you read that right. I can't ignore the political opinions. There's no room for that in a zombie film. I did like all the George A. Romero references. Which makes me wonder if he would sue for a filmmaker doing this to his movie franchise. In case you were wondering, this movie gets a well deserved 1.

Beyond The Grave

On our Facebook page we asked for recommendations. I NEVER thought a film producer would recommend a film. Especially not one of his own.  Scroll down below the review to read our interview with the film's producer, Isidoro B. Guggiana.

I'm gonna warn you now. This film is hard to follow. There are many different elements that make up this movie. Well, onto the review...

This film comes at us from the home of the 2014 World Cup, Brazil.  Beyond The Grave takes place DURING The Zombie Apocalypse. But, the main theme isn't zombies. The film follows a cop who is trying to stop a demon from killing off the remaining people on the planet. During their battles, the demon jumps from person to person each time the host body is fatally injured.  Makes me wonder if the demon could jump into a zombie, or did the demon start the Zombie Apocalypse?  The demon apparently was a cowboy in the Wild West. Each host body wears the same hat, coat, and... gas mask.

During the cop's travels chasing down The Dark Rider (the demon), he encounters a group of people doing their best to survive.  The way they banded together and took care of each other kind of reminded me of Hershel's family from The Walking Dead.  Oh, the cop also saw a few zombies from time to time. What makes this film unique zombie-wise is that eating wasn't always important to them. That part of the story, I wasn't a fan of.  There was a scene where one zombie fed another zombie that must've been too crippled to feed itself.  I thought that was pretty cool.

I would've liked to see more zombies.  It would've been cool for The Dark Rider and the cop to have to fight off zombies while fighting each other.

I think i pretty much sorted this one out. On a scale of 1 to 10, this one gets a 4. Bottom line: This one needed more zombies.

Cockneys VS Zombies

This Horror/Comedy was recommended to me by a co-worker with the warning that this one was so bad that he couldn't finish it.  The setting for this movie is East London.  Knowing that makes it tough.  I don't do well with English movies.  Half the time, I can't understand what they're saying.

A construction crew is doing a dig when two of the guys find a buried tomb.  The date on the tomb is 1666. Scary stuff.  A skeleton pops out and bites the duo.  Fast forward a little bit, we meet two of the main characters, Terry and Andy.  They're brothers, and career criminals.  One is always running his mouth and getting the two of them in trouble.  Soon, we meet their elderly grandfather.  He's in a nursing home.  The nursing home is going bankrupt and has to close.  All of the residents will be shipped "North".

Later, we meet two friends of the brothers.  Actually, one friend and one cousin.  The friend is an army vet who has a metal plate in his head.  He finds humor in smashing things like cars with his head.  They hatch a plan to rob a bank to pay the Nursing Home's debts.

Flashback to the construction site, the two infected workers are now biting everyone in sight.  The Zombie Apocalypse has begun!  Back at the bank, the group takes two hostages.

Once outside the bank, the cops that were surrounding the bank are gone.  They've been infected.  From this point, the movie follows the group as they fight zombies and make their way to rescue their grandfather.  During this time a few bad jokes were told.  There was a baby zombie kicked, and a Soccer brawl between Undead fans of West Ham United F.C. and Millwall F.C.  That was painful, and not at all funny.  Somewhere along the way Mickey, the army vet gets bitten.  After he turns, the group and the hostages attempt to shoot him in the head to kill him.  But, the metal plate prevents that.  You'll have to watch the film to find out how they kill him.

Later, the group reaches the nursing home and rescues all the residents.  They decide to flee London pretty much the same way the survivors did in the Dawn Of The Dead remake.  Grandfather gets swarmed at the end, and it looks like he's pretty much a goner.  Then, he pulls out a gun that he clearly didn't have, and escapes.

The film wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good either.  The zombies weren't scary.  But, this was the beginning of the end. They didn't have time to rot.  So, I'll over look that.  The poor attempts at comedy, especially the soccer riot hurt this one.  On a scale of 1 to 10, this one limps away with a 3.

World War Z

PART ONE:
As I write this, I have not yet seen the movie.  But, I have read the book.  I gotta say, I loved the book.  The book was VERY detailed.  The book's setting is ten years after victory is declared in the fight against the zombies.  The writer, Max Brooks tells the story of how he went around the world interviewing the most important people in the war.  There's the story of the doctor who treated Patient Zero, the bodyguard of the stars, the guy that created the "medication" to stop the infection, the humans so desperate to it in that they imitate the zombies, the Russian soldier that has given birth to multiple babies to help re-populate, the woman who has the mind of a child.  There are many awesome stories in this novel.  On a scale of 1 to 10, the book gets a very well deserved 10.

PART TWO:
As I write this section of the review, I have seen the movie starring Brad Pitt.  While it wasn't nearly as good as the book.  It was good.

The infected in the movie were more like people with rabies.  There were alot of cool scenes.  The airplane, the wall, the CDC center.  I could go on.

There were many references to the book which was a good thing.  I won't go into alot of detail about the movie.  Because, chances are, you've seen it.  I highly recommend the book. Check it out.  You won't be disappointed.

Now, down to business.  On a scale of 1 to 10, this one gets a 6.  That's being generous.  Again, the infected weren't zombies.  They had a rabies type of virus.  And, as you probably know by now, I don't like super fast zombies.  There you have it.  Our first Book\Movie Review.

The Oath

After last season's Webisodes, I was really excited to see what new character might be revealed.

You might remember that the first set of Webisodes were ALMOST linked to the soldier in the tank from season 1.  But, instead they revealed how the bicycle zombie came to be.

The second set of webisodes involved a man named Chase that was looking for his sister.  There were many rumors circling around that Chase is Lori's brother.  That may or may not be the case.  Maybe we'll find out....

Now, onto the third set of webisodes.  The Oath is centered around the last two survivors of a group that was overrun in the middle of the night.  They had trained and practiced for that. But, when it actually happened, nobody was ready.

Paul & Karina (the survivors) find a car and a gun the next morning.  This is where we learn that Paul was by broken glass during the horde's attack.  Shortly after getting in the car, Paul's condition worsens.  All Karina wants to do is drive to a hospital.  She still has hope that there's still doctors out there.

This is where I'm gonna give away a little bit of the story:  It's still early in the outbreak.  You might even say that this entire webisode series happened during a season 1 commercial break.

Anyway, Karina finally finds a place to take Paul.  She finds a doctor that stayed behind because she felt it was her duty to help everyone she could.  But, Paul takes a turn for the worse.  His vitals are almost non-existent.  The doctor decides that the only thing she can do is to remove Paul before he turns.

While Karina mourns the loss of her last friend, the doctor wheels Paul's stretcher to the hospital's cafeteria.  This is where she's put all the dead people before they have a chance to turn.  Shortly after being locked on the cafeteria with several walkers, Paul awakens strapped to his bed.

Karina tells the doctor that she doesn't want to go on.  She has nobody.  Paul was her last friend.  The doctor offers her a way out, Jack Kevorkian style.  Paul escapes the cafeteria just in time to see Karina die.  After a heated exchange with the doctor, the next scene shows Paul painting the cafeteria doors.

On a scale of 1 to 10, this, without a doubt, gets a 10.  Anything associated with this great show gets a 10.  It would have to be REALLY bad to get anything less.

King Of The Zombies

This classic from 1941 is set in 1942 (a big leap) during World War II.  Three men crash land their private plane on a small island in the Caribbean when they run out of fuel after getting lost in a storm.

Quickly, one of the three men becomes convinced that the island is infested with zombies.  Not just any zombies, but zombies that have been trained to be slaves. I'm still not sure how I feel about that part of the film.

After investigating the island, they find a house where a "doctor" is performing tests on his zombies slaves.  The doctor is trying to insert the personalities of the Nazi Army into his zombies.  The zombies eventually turn on the doctor.

This film was actually a big stepping stone for comedic actor  Mantan Moreland.  Moreland had awesome timing in the film.  He really helped with bringing the rating up.

What i didn't like about the film far outweighs what I did like.  I wasn't a big fan of the political undertones.  I really didn't care for the war scenario.  But I guess that's what made the film so popular in the first place.  Anyway, on a scale of 1 to 10 this movie gets a 5.  Four of those points belong to Mantan Moreland.  Good gracious, me! Check it out and let me know what you think.

The Zombie Apocalypse

This little movie that could was made in 2008 on a budget of about $5,000.  To me, that says alot.  It seems now you probably couldn't cover food or fuel on a movie set for five grand.  Anyway, let's get this started...

The movie opens with one man (Miller) being handcuffed and forced to kneel.  Another man rambles on about how he's waited so long to kill Miller.  Then, the man opens a door releasing their test-subjects (the zombies).

In the next scene, we meet Mark and Tom.  They're two college roomates that decide to go out one friday night.  By looking at these two, they must've either become roomies by fate, or they must have known each other for years.  One's a hard partier that could care less about studying, and the other is a hard studying, RPG game playing, medical student.

On the way to the bar, they meet a girl who was bitten by a "homeless man".  After running away from the hobo, the trio make it to the bar.  This is where they first meet Dwight Miller.  Miller's car is broke down, and he needs help.  The girl offers to help fix the car, while the guys just wanna drink.  Miller notices the girl's bite, and he kills her.  Shortly after this happens, the bar is surrounded by zombies.

The rest of the film follows Miller, Tom, Mark, & Raven (another girl they met along the way) as they try surviving the end of the world.

This movie was filled with bad acting (the bouncer in the bar takes the prize), poor special effects, and some bad comedic timing.  All that aside, I give this one a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10.  I found out after I watched this movie, that there is a prequel comic book that explains Miller's story, and the possibility that his wife started the Zombie Apocalypse. Too bad that couldn't have been added to the movie.  Maybe if they'd cut out alot of the poor attempts at comedy, they would have been able to add that in.