#Alive (2020)

#Alive (2020)

Country: South Korea

Director:  Cho II-hyung

Main Stars: Yoo Ah-in, Park Shin-hye

Storyline: A virus has spread and start a plague of bleeding eyes fast moving zombies.

Review (Spoils):  

The movie is based around the survival live day by day of webcaster Moris62. As he learns of the virus, attacked by neighbors, watches the news and the chaos outside we get his play by play.  He learns besides being attacked, society does shutdown and the impacts of that when it comes to living, eating and even entertainment.

The film kicks off with a bang of news and zombie action. The opening scene with the mother and child is classic. The main character is actual enjoyable, and the film does play out well with the sudden feeling of being alone in a world of flesh eaters.  We have bleeding eyes, fast moving zombies (which I hate), bites, lots of blood on the walls, funny moments as the main character are kind of dumb ass, cool eye effects, axes, dark veined skin, drones, machetes, bloody mouths, and a little romance fun connection of survival.

Rating:  This a fun film, the main character makes this film funny and enjoyable. The zombies become kind of like a middle piece of the story in the end.  The special effects are done very well for a zombie film and like I said the character development around the zombie situation is very entertaining. If you are looking for more a horror panic zombie film this may not be your type of thing as its focuses on people relationships during a zombie riot than just the zombies, but they are there.

7/10 Beers! Yacker

Don’t Kill Me / Non mi Uccidere (2021)

Don’t Kill Me / Non mi Uccidere (2021)

Country: Italy

Director:  Andrea De Sica

Main Stars:  Alice Pagani, Rocco Fasano, Silvia Calderoni, Fabrizio Ferracane

Storyline:  A Twilight story of teens in love that happen to be flesh eating undead

Review (Spoils):  Young girl falls for junky boy, and he talks her into doing drugs with her. They are believed to be dead, and the girls parent mourn and get pissed off. She comes back to life not understanding and how but part of her wants her boyfriend back, to see her parents and of course eat flesh with revenge. Zombie Twilight it is. Even the dude looks like the n00b from Twilight.

We have way too many love flashback scenes that make no sense or reason, stupid boyfriend, some scenes where there is some chewing of necks, a throat slit, gunshots, tasers and some black eye special effects.  It was alright but not enough to stop the pain of the teen love story of this film.

Rating:  Watch Twilight as this film was almost as painful as that. Sure, there is some nice bloody biting in the neck and some body chews but man these teen parts, the music and Twilight wants is too hard to not want to flick it off.  The idea was ok, but the comparisons of the glitter vampire film is impossible to get past. The teen love story was very painful and so was the actual boyfriend who was super annoying from the first scene pretty much.  No idea what they were thinking here with this film except maybe a quick cash in on Twilight.

3/10 Beers!

Yacker

Cargo (2017)

Cargo (2017)

Country: Australia

Director:  Ben Howling, Yolanda Ramke

Main Stars:  Simone Landers, Martin Freeman, Marlee Jane McPherson-Dobbins, Lily Anne McPherson-Dobbins, Finlay Sjoberg, Susie Porter, Nova Sjoberg

Storyline:  A journey of a young couple and their baby trying to survive during a zombie virus outbreak.

Review (Spoils):  Andy and Kay are doing everything to survive and live with their daughter during the end of the world of deadly virus that turns people into zombies. As they travel on a house boat trying to stop for supplies on land and take off again things turn to the worse. The struggle of the storyline is to have baby Rosie to live and survive in a world that is total chaos of zombies. Just like any good parents you would do anything.

As a husband and father this one zombie flick did pulls at my strings and drew me in. This was a tough movie as the young couple had to make tough decisions and you could relate if you were in the situation.  I did not find that much of the character decisions was dumb or out of character of a couple or parents that made the film even better. There is no over the top gore in this film but there is some bites, blood and odd goo flesh but the zombie makeup is just awesome as a golden ooze pours out your mouth, nose and eyes like a virus.  Great idea and it looks awesome!

The only part of the film is about mid way when they start to focus too much on the young girl and her tribe. It knocks the storyline off to the side for a new version which I found took away from the intense pace that it had going in the first half. But in the end the last sequence makes it all worth the watch and glues it together.

Rating:  This film was actually pretty decent, and the character Andy was fantastic! The idea of the golden goo was a surprise, and I loved the special effects make up used for it. Gross in a good way. Like mentioned the storyline did go off the sideline for me halfway through the film and broke the pace enough for me to care less for a bit. But it did come back around near the end and the end of the journey was actually very well done and nice touch on the scent scene. If you enjoy intense survive zombie films or the Walking Dead you will enjoy this one.

7/10 Beers!

Yacker

The Girl with all the Gifts (2016)

The Girl with all the Gifts (2016)

Country: USA

Director:  Mike Carey

Main Stars:  Sennia Nanua, Fisayo Akinade, Dominique Tipper, Gemma Arterton, Glenn Close

Storyline:  During a zombie fungi plague the lab gets under attack and they must survive with a lone child who is infected.

Review (Spoils):  Young Melanie (Sennia Nanua) is being held along with other children within a locked down area in which the existing humans are experimenting on them one by one. The children have special memories but yet seem to be inflicted with a zombie disease that causes them to crave flesh by smell. As things become out of the control and more people get infected, we learn that it was a plague that came from a fungi pod plants that caused this all to happen.

The bases of the story is simple, some of the group are assholes and others are feeling sympathy for the children and the infected. As they try to survive in this new world, they get bitten one by one as they travel from area to area to get help. The plot is really that simple as we learn more about the plague and how it started and works as they move along.

The film has gore believe it or not. We have lots of bites, blood and some gory flesh. We have great zombie make up and the film is filled with kid zombies.

Rating:  I am going to lay out right here I do not like fast moving zombies never have and prob never will, but this film was not bad outside of that. The make up was good and the acting was decent. Sure, the plot was pretty light, and it can be boring in travel times across the wasteland but overall, it was not bad. The ending of the movie was also very interesting and glad the storyline will end there. This is not a bad modern zombie tales even if they are fast running zombies with a growling hunger.

6/10 Beers!

Yacker

Rise of the Zombie (2013)

Rise of the Zombie (2013)

Country: India

Director:  Luke Kenny, Devaki Singh

Main Stars:  Luke Kenny, Kirti Kulhari, Ashwin Mushran

Storyline:  A young photographer gets bit while alone out in the wild and becomes something feral

Review (Spoils): Young dink photographer Neil (Luke Kenny) comes and goes as he pleases. His girlfriend Vinny (Kirti Kulhari) gets finally fed up and leaves him. He takes off yet again in the forest somewhere isolated and alone and before you know it he gets mysteriously bit by something and things start to transform him.  Before long he is rotting and craving fresh meat and insects.

Let’s start with the good, the beautiful Kirti Kulhari was amazing and worth the watch. Another surprising good was the gore and special effects. Yes, it did have a Cabin Fever type feel but I was surprised by the transformation of the main character.

Okay now the bad which unfortunately destroyed this film, the goddamn music scenes! 50% of the time of this film I felt like I was watching cheap music videos on some TV station. All the music scenes were long and totally pointless. Each scene could have been a quick scene of the what was happening in the story. That’s it! It was beyond annoying and knocks this film right off the raider. Second downfall of the film was the flashbacks when he was struggling with what was going on in the transformation. Cheezie and much like the crap music scenes way too long and focused on it.

Rating:  Basically, this film was good gore and effects for a music video of a man who is alone and turning into a zombie in the forest. There you go I saved you some time!

3/10 Beers!

Yacker

Feral (2017)

Feral (2017)

Country: USA

Director:  Mark Young

Main Stars:  Scott Taylor-Compton, Oliva Luccardi. Lew Temple, Renee Olstead, Brock Kelly, Landry Allbright, Samantha Gangal

Storyline:  A group of young people hike into the woods are attacked by some zombie werewolf type creature.

Review (Spoils): A group of people hiking into the woods for once there are more women then men for once. We have some inter tangle love relationships of the past and some trying to be serious reflection on homosexuality. (fail). We have crazy Talbolt (Lew Temple) running through the woods getting into people’s business as some feral zombie werewolf type creatures roam the woods. After much biting and gun shots we learn Talbolt connection as the disease spreads.

This film gives us bad character connections, bad relationship connections and some bad dialogue. Along with a fail on trying to be serious on homosexuality. But this film does bring on the gore, lots of bites, gut rips, a bear trap, some cool effected on makeup, green eyes and the odd gunshot and ax.

Rating:  Take Wrong Turn and turn it into a zombie film and this is what you get. I hate fast moving zombies but to be honest I almost see this mix of werewolves and zombies, so it worked. What did not work was the cast and story line. But the gore held even though it could of used some nudity come on!

4/10 Beers!

Yacker

 

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Country: USA

Director:  Zack Synder

Main Stars:  Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Mekhi Phifer, Ty Burrell, Lindy Booth, Michael Kelly, Kevin Zegers, Jayne Eastwood, Jake Weber, Kim Poirier, Inna Korobkina

Storyline:  Survivors of the zombie outbreak trap themselves in a mall and try to survive.

 

 

Review (Spoils): Remake time yet again and this time this is with a massive classic. I personally put this one off for a long time to see as I was not crazy about the idea. We have Ana (Sarah Polley) trapped with a group of misfits within a mall as they plan to escape and live somewhere else in a world full of zombies. While they all work together on how to escape and why this is happening in the world, they also find out each other dirty laundry.  The film bases mostly on them trying to work together and stopping the spread of the zombie infection.

The film does stray away from the original script by a lot which is a good thing and they dropped most of the comedy stuff from the original. Yes, we have some unique characters and the build is not bad. The eye candy from the film is there as Sarah Polley (the hero), Lindy Booth (the silly young one that does stupid stuff) and Kim Poirier (the bubbly blonde). All three of them did a great job and I did not dislike them.  Ty Burrell did an amazing job also as you wanted to hate him, and he played the part very well.

Now to what I did not care for, the young pregnant couple was painful. Mekhi Phifer and Inna Korobkina characters were not enjoyable and not even smart in anyway and they seemed to be out of place. The acting was poor, and I cheered for the zombie baby. Bad selection on actors.  The second hurting unit of this film was fast moving zombies, I hate fucking running zombies.

We got lots of gun shots, zombies bites, a zombie baby with glowing eyes, some cool skin rot special effects, a gross fat undead woman, some chainsaws, and more zombies then you can track. The gore is not over the top as the original, but the zombie action is there.

Rating:  Going to be honest here, this film was not bad for a remake. It stayed away from the original enough to not hurt it and yet it did pay homage to it. The ladies were great, and I was glued to the screen to see how this all is going to work out for them. The movie was not bad but like I have said many times I really hate fast moving zombies and once I saw them go, I was kicked to the curve on thought.  But overall the flick was fun and entertaining for a zombie movie. Well done Sarah Polley! As a side note was Kim Poirier trying to be Sherri Moon? (it worked for me).

6/10 Beers!

Yacker

Pet Sematary (2019)

Pet Sematary (2019)

Country: USA

Director:  Kevin Kolsch, Dennis Widmyer

Main Stars:  Jason Clark, Amy Seimetz, John Lithgow, Jete Laurence, Hugo Lavoie, Lucas Lavoie, Obassa Ahmed, Alyssa Brooke Levine

Storyline:  A young family move out to the country where they learn there is a old pet cemetery that is is on old Indian burial ground and once buried there you come back to life.

Review (Spoils): Well another horror remake to hit my screen. This was I am going to be honest I was not racing to see either as the original holds some childhood memories of a classic. Strangely this film changed enough to have me interested in viewing as story that could continue if you just change the names. The young family that move to country you can connect with and relate with especially myself being a husband and father of two myself (also girl /boy).  A few things don’t go as planned as they start to live near a crazy busy dirt road (not sure why you would move there with young kids) and not far off is a forest area where people wear masks of animals and bury their dead pets. Seems like a nice place to raise a family.

This film gives us the fluffy cat named Church, a dead cat, a dead dog, a nasty head injuring, lots of blood, undead kids, ghosts, animal masks, a couple nasty stabs with a twist and a flip ending that will keep you guessing.

Rating:  This film even though a remake did not just copy the idea from scene to scene but instead used that to keep you guessing. This was nice as it kept myself glued to the screen as I personally always have a tough time with the idea of remakes. Both John Lithgow and Jason Clark were amazing as playing the leading men as the connection between the two was played well. Whole Zelda storyline unlike the original film feel flat nor did I care about it. It lacked on scare and gloom that once was but instead annoyed me to get back to the main storyline. Jete Laurence was a total surprise and she played the part very well along the end of the film and her make up was not over done and the effect worked.  But the storyline of hers did feel rushed and it took too long of time to get to. But overall it was not bad and kept me guessing and not just a word for word remake.

7/10 Beers!

Yacker

Day of the Dead: Bloodlines (2018)

Day of the Dead: Bloodlines (2018)

Country: USA

Director:  Hector Hernandez Vicens

Main Stars:  Sophie Skelton, Jonathan Schaech, Jeff Gum, Lilian Blankenship, Shari Watson, Marcus Vanco, Mark Rhino Smith

Storyline:  After a zombie outbreak a group of military personnel try to experiment and get the outbreak under control.

Review (Spoils): The film starts off as a typical B movie with zombies running around biting people a young hot woman running for her life through the streets as her top is coming loose. I was thinking to myself man this movie is going to be awesome and now I can relax. I was wrong.

Within the credits the film started to take it self serious, yes, I just said that it tried to be a good film. This hurt the film greatly before we knew it we had no idea what happened to characters, what time was in the film and what the hell happened to the running young ladies! Instead we get a zombie outbreak that infects a pervert that wanted to rape someone, and she keeps him alive to find out a cure because she knows the zombie will do what she wants like a pet. There is the whole damn movie I just saved to you 1.5 hours.

We have zombies, breasts running in the streets, nasty bites, running zombies and the one thing that drove me nuts a clear rip off the original all having a zombie chained to the way as a pet. Fuck you!!

Rating:  This film could have been great if they would have kept or kept adding the young girls the zombies to eat. But no, it had to try to be serious when it was just bad, so there is number one issue. Number two issue zombie military films are hard to do and make great unless you are Fulci or Romero. Number three issue zombie should never run stop that! Number four do not fuck with a classic!

3/10 Beers!

Yacker

Death House (2017)

Death House (2017)

Country:  USA

Director:  B. Harrison Smith

Main Stars:  Bill Mosely, Tony Todd, Nicole Cinaglia, Adrienne Barbeau, Kane Holder, Debbie Rochon, Gunnar Hansen, Dee Wallace, Lindsay Hartley, Barbara Crampton, Camille Keaton, Cortney Palm, Sid Haig, Brinke Stevens, Tiffany Shepis, Felissa Rose, Lauren Compton, Beverly Randolph, Sean Whalen, Cody Longo. Lloyd Kaufman

Storyline:  A secret prison has a power outage and all Hell breaks loose when two agents are trapped.

Review (Spoils): Not sure what everyone was thinking with this film, but it became a simple over the top gore mess. The storyline is not very detailed, and it is actually kind of jumbled. We have two agents Condy Longo and Cortney Palm trapped in a prison where a large collection of doctors (including Dee Wallace’s bad hair) has the prisoners trapped with victims that satisfy their needs. Kane Hodder is one of the main prisons badasses and as the power goes out, he starts to lead a front of prisoners.

The film does delivery the bloody goods with slashing, cutting, gun shots, intestines, some weird living zombies gore scene, cheap gas and Satan fire scene and lots of gore. The film is all over the place but we do also get a few glances of Courtney Palm topless but nothing sexy from Debbie Rochon, Felissa Rose, Lindsay Hartley or Laura Compton. (such a missed chance)

Rating:  This is a knocking dead all star cast of horror! There are more names in this film then I can even name when it comes to paying homage to horror. We have the classic villains like Bill Mosely, Tony Todd, Gunnar Hansen, Kane Holder and Sean Whalen to name a few. Over the top gore hound Lloyd Kaufman. And the horror B Queens themselves like Adrienne Barbeau, Debbie Rochon, Dee Wallace, Barbara Crampton, Camille Keaton, Brinke Stevens, Felissa Rose and Lauren Compton just to name a few! But unfortunately it could not save the film from a written mess, it just tried too hard and the finale was kind of boring and lame to the end Hansen that way.  The only thing that made the ending okay was the homage to Gunnar Hansen which was a nice little added touch which made me sad.

3/10 beers!

Yacker