Friday, June 28, 2013

Ultimate Zombie Feast, Volume 2 (2012)

I hate the cover of this DVD. If it wasn't for previously seeing the cover of volume 1, and being curious about Paris By Night of the Living Dead (after seeing a trailer a few years ago), I would have bypassed this based on cover art.

This is a collection of zombie short films. The films run anywhere from a few minutes to around forty minutes in length.  Overall I enjoyed this compilation. Supposedly they are all award winning films, which is great as over an hour of poorly done home made zombie movies would be horrible to sit through.  Here's a run down:

Zombie Harvest (2003) UK
A scientist is hunted by the military after going AWOL and ends up on a farm where he has a run in with a cow.  Things don't work out well for the scientist, the military, the farmer or the cow.  This comedy was hit or miss.  The 911 call over the end credits was pretty funny, as well as the cow repeatedly kicking the scientist.  Otherwise the humor fell flat.

The Skin of Your Teeth (2009) USA
A group of friends hole up in a small farm house in the middle of a field. There is a green house and a huge barn also on the property. Two of the men have just arrived and advise the others to stay away from the cities as the conditions are worse there. The occasional zombie staggers by, but they are worried that more will show up.

This looks like it was done on a video camera with no post production.  The cinematography is not as good as most of the other films. The ending bugs  me.  It seems like they could have planned better.  There's a huge barn, so why not make a safe room in there? Is there a loft that you could only reach by ladder? Then you could pull it up so the zombies couldn't reach you. Also why do the zombie dead need to be hidden under a tarp?

Zomblies (2010) UK
A group of soldiers are lost outside The Wall and have requested help as they are being attacked by zombies. A rescue team is sent to find them, while a doctor inside the facility has her own reasons for sending help, which doesn't include being concerned with getting them home safe. While I wasn't that fond of this one, it is well done and looks nice.

ZombieWestern: It Came From the West (2007) Denmark
A zombie puppet short film? Yes, and these are some ugly puppets, but not scary.  Also was it just my dvd, or is the sound supposed to be synced about ten seconds ahead of the action? It wasn't that way on any other of the films, so I'm not sure if that was something to do with spaghetti westerns and their dubbing or a problem.

Indians bring the dead back to life after being terrorized by the Dark Butcher. When a zombie goes into the saloon, he runs into Virgil, who is a disappointment to his father and is being teased by some cowboys.  Virgil ends up with a gun and the zombie defense begins. I love the title sequence with the zombie silhouettes and white marble eyes.  Good idea, but I wasn't that interested, which I'm sure was partly due to the sound being off.

Paris By Night of the Living Dead (2009)  France
A couple is besieged by zombies at their wedding ceremony.  The newlyweds run outside and find they need to fight for their lives during a zombie invasion.  The dialogue is in French, but once the zombies arrive, there is only a line or two more.  So even if you don't speak the language, it's obvious that they've taken their vows which include till death do us part. The film looks great and the cinematography is nicely done.

Savages (2008) India
The box says this is the first zombie film from India. I have no idea if that's true. Shot with a hand held camera, a group of friends celebrating one guys birthday decide to go to an abandoned village that was previously used for a secret government research project.  As young people do, they ignore the warning of the cab driver, the Biohazard sign on the entrance, and the Poison warning sign further down the path. They decide to stay the night at a home where a lantern is burning but no one is around.  That night Raj is bitten by something and gets ill. Later a stranger warns them there is danger and that they need to leave their friend as he is just going to get worse.  But again, the warning is ignored. You know this isn't going to go well.  There's not a lot of zombies or action in this film, but it was okay. This is the longest film on the dvd.

Dead Hungry (2009) UK
Nicely done comedy about a hungry zombie looking for brains.  He's sort of a sad sack who can't get anything right. Even the other zombies push him around.  The cinematography is well done and the humor works well.

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