DVD reviews: Zombie Twosome

Text © Robert Barry Francos/FFanzeen, 2010
Images from the Internet

Aaah! Zombies!!
Directed by Mattahew Kohnen
Level 33 Entertainment / Wasted Pictures, 2010
90 minutes, USD $16.95
Level33entertainment.com
MVDvisual.com

Zombie comedies are not new. They go back at least as far as Bob Hope’s The Ghost Breakers in 1940; but that’s voodoo kind. For the modern take, there’s, for example, Shaun of the Dead, C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D. (which had zilch to do with C.H.U.D.), and Return of the Living Dead II. And now…

Actually, this is sort of a zombified zombie tale. It was originally released in 2007 as Wasting Away, and was resurrected from the dead shelf this year as Aaah! Zombies!!. Considering the number of indie awards its won at horror film festivals, I’m surprised it isn’t better known.

Most zombie comedies are dead on arrival (sorry), but this one actually had me laughing at more than a few moments. Though there are holes here and there (including in a number of bodies), generally this is a well thought out, written, and acted film.

The basic premise is borrowed from some of the other films, such as C.H.U.D. II’s premise of trying to build the super-solider, and Return of the Living Dead II’s errant barrels of toxic waste accidently being ingested. Even with that, the level of originality here is enough to more than bolster the plot.

There’s four friends (not sure if they’re supposed to be teens or young twenties), three whom work in a bowling alley, and their ever-hungry-for-weird-food friend who hangs around with them. They all have a bit of slacker in them, in varying ranges. After managing to ingest some of the toxic green goo via a beer and soft ice cream concoction, they are off after they’re off’d.

Here’s where the originality kicks in full strength. Part of the film is in black and white (except for the green stuff), which indicates real life and how everybody else sees the typical George Romeo slow-moving, groaning creatures. But then there are the parts in color, which is how the zombies see us and each other, that is to say, normally. To them, they feel, talk, and walk normal, but others see them as drooling cadaverous beings. The image flips back and forth, with people seeing decaying corpses walking around in B&W, and they’re just living their lives while being totally incomprehensible to only themselves (and any others infected).

It’s taken a step further, which I believe is quite smart: zombies are slow and lumbering, and can’t be understood, so it is put into play that uninfected people are shot in fast-motion, indicating normal brain function instead of the slower creatures, so the zombies can’t understand them, and they can’t understand the zombies – with the exception of drunks, who can both be understood and make out what is being said, as alcohol slows the brain, or zombies who drink coffee to speed them up can communicate with the uninfected.

The zombies are strong (unlike Romero’s) if not fast, so they find themselves killing uninfecteds in self-defense, or just doing a “Lenny” and not realizing how strong they actually are. Please note that two brains get eaten, but in the least gory (though definitely yecky) ways. In fact, there really isn’t a whole lot of gore, though there is some blood (mostly on clothing).

Obviously, the goo is doing something to their brains, because they don’t really seem to get upset when a body part is disconnected, or when relatives perish; though they do seem to care about each other, which is touching.

The cast is good, filled with professional actors who seem to be doing a lot of work on television shows as regulars and guest appearances on the (Law and Order types, for example. One of the four leads is Betsy Beutler, who played Katie on Scrubs, Joanie on The Black Donnellys, and Son of Sam victim Stacy Moskowitz (someone I actually knew) in the series The Bronx is Burning. Here she plays perky very well, in a sort of cheerleader kind of way, while working the hell out of her very expressive facial muscles. Her boy-next-door-potential-boyfriend is portrayed by Michael Grant Terry, who portrayed Wendell on Bones. His goofiness comes across as charming rather than annoying, a fine line that is appreciated, and he makes a good pair with Beutler.

Julianna Robinson plays the other female lead, a more cynical, ambitious type who is hoping to get out of the local slacker scene. Having also appeared as the reporter in a bunch of McBride telefilms, she depicts snarky well, again without losing any of the character’s likeability. Her foil is embodied by Matthew Davis, who has had a successful recent career as Josh in Damages and Alaric in The Vampire Diaries. His character is the type who is usually played by the Ryan Reynolds or Jack Black type actor, being the charming adult child who rises to the occasion when needed, and uses the word "awesome" way too much. As with the rest of the foursome, he remains charming throughout, and comes across with some solid laughs. Also, he gathers the most CGI effects.

There are a couple of name character actors here that if you don’t recognize the name, you certainly would the face. His hard-edged solider who guides the two couples through what is happening to them (albeit misinformed), is a turn done well, if a little over the top, by Colby French; he was Hank on the first season of Heroes. An evil general is done to a turn by Richard Riehle. He has over 230 credits in both television and films (as of this writing, 11 are in post-production), such as Walt on Grounded For Life, along with semi-regular roles in a number of Star Trek spin-offs. Last of note, is one of my favorite underrated character actors who has a cameo, Tracy Walter, a man from New Jersey who almost always plays redneck southerners. Though he has over 150 credits, including Angel in Nash Bridges, for me some of his special work was in the “Mummy Daddy” episode of Amazing Stories, the philosopher of Repo Man (who give the best speech – about UFOs – while burning clothes), and though I thought the series was only fair, I still think of as “Frog” in Best of the West. But I’m digressing here.

Anyway, this is a straight-out funny flick, and I’m happy to recommend this for Saturday movie night. It’s got balls; bowling balls, that is, and it’s a strike!



Zombie Christ
Directed by Bill Zebub
Bill Zebub Productions, 2010
90 minutes, USD $14.95
Billzebub.com
MVDvisual.com

In part, what makes the shot-on-video Zombie Christ interesting is not just their own label of “The Most Blasphemous Story Ever Told,” but the sheer audacity and goofiness of it.

Perhaps it is because I am not a Christian that I am not riled by this, but neither am I a Death Metal fan, as obviously is the diminutive and cleverly named director Bill Zebub. His film credits include the documentaries Death Metal: Are We Watching You Die, Metal Retardation, Black Metal: The Documentary, and the fictional Metalheads: The Good, the Bad, and the Evil, Assmonster: The Making of a Horror Movie, The Worst Horror Movie Ever Made, and the equally noxiously named Jesus Christ: Serial Rapist (many of these trailers – and more – appear on this DVD as bonuses).

For the purposes of this film, Jesus is resurrected by some Druids (before the film starts) and he (I will use the smaller case “he” for this review) is looking for his descendants via Mary, who had two of his children according to this plot. The term zombie here is used more classically as the walking dead rather than the modern flesh-eating ghouls. Zombie Jesus eats the souls of the (nearly exclusively naked) women of his bloodline.

What is disturbing is the way women are victimized throughout (though men are brutalized as well, but on a lesser scale). It seems everyone is heavily inked, metaled up (even Jesus as he appears in his own lifetime has a lip ball); however, the women are quite young and beautiful (and in at least one case, stoned out of her mind), but the men are middle aged, oftentimes bald with scraggly facial hair, and well, lets just say could use to shed a few.

This is part of why I stated that there are actually some amusing aspects of this purposefully offensive release. First of all, Zombie Jesus is a skeletal puppet with some meaty bits pasted on and a crown of thorns. There is no point where the skeleton moves in a natural way (i.e., no CGI or pixilation used), and the one special effect when he “walks” on water, the blue screen (green screen?) effect is laughable and out of scale. As the skeleton uses a chicken leg to perform a sex act, or his bony finger, if one can get past the screaming misogyny and “sacrilege,” it’s pretty damn droll in its own way.

There are also some noticeable question marks for me, such as a nun in full habit (at first) who is wearing moth-shaped designed underwear, black leather heels, and sporting a Brazilian wax. Also there are other plot holes, such as the role of the hero, who is he in relation to the story, and how did he get a list of who is in the bloodline? And the ending, well, it’s just ridiculous, but no more than anything else, so if you’ve put up a large enough suspension of disbelief to reach that point, it won’t matter. I laughed at parts.

One would think this film preaches Satanism; I’m not sure what Bill Zebub actually believes, despite his nom de cinema, but the message here is certainly questioning the Judeo-Christian belief system, claiming Christianity was created by the Romans (which seems unlikely to me as they persecuted the followers so harshly, as the Church would do unto others through the years), and that the story of Jesus is actually a retelling of the Dionysus myth (this is explained in detail, step-by-step, throughout the film by the male protagonist.

Now comes the dilemma… to recommend or not. Well, while I enjoyed some aspects of it for what it was, it was a bit too much in the W.A.V.E.-style S&M cinema for me (and no sign of Tina Krause) to really say a general “go see it.” It’s all up to you, now.


[Note that this film is not to be confused with another zombie Jesus film called THE Zombie Christ]

DVD Review: “Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated”

Text © Robert Barry Francos/FFanzeen, 2010
Images from the Internet

Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated
Curated by Mike Schneider, directed by George Romero
Wild Eye, 2009
101 minutes, USD $16.95
Wildeyeleasing.com
MVDvisual.com
Notldr.com

Julie Andrews could have sung, if her tastes were more similar to mine, “music and horror and comics and White Castle / These are a few of my favorite things.” Okay, so the first and last of those are not the focus of this review, but the middle two are, with joyous abandon.

The assumption here is that if you’re reading this review, you’ve seen George Romero’s groundbreaking 1968 zombie classic, Night of the Living Dead, most likely more than once, if not more than 10. It’s familiar, comfortable, and still a pleasure with its angular neo-Germanic Expressionism, and black and white images. Remember the first time you saw it? I have a clear memory of cutting high school in the early ‘70s and going by myself to the Walker Theater in Bensonhurst (now a Mandees store). It was a double Halloween bill, but I have no memory of what the first piece of crap was, though I certainly remember the three hood wannabes behind me who kept kicking my chair between loud, open-mouth breathing (in just a couple of years they would probably be wearing polyester and medallions, and hanging out at 2001 Odyssey). By the time NOTLD was over, as the second feature, we were all sitting together.

That was the first time, but hardly the last. There have been a number of remakes, even by the same team, but none have – or can – live up to the original. But like the zombies, it keeps rising up again and again.

Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated takes a new twist on a now old concept. Previously there have been reissues of films where the dialog has been replaced by something totally different, such as Woody Allen’s spectacular What’s Up Tiger Lily?, and serials from the ‘40s being given the treatment by Firesign Theater. Well, Reanimated takes the opposite approach in two directions: first, they use the actual soundtrack and change the image, and second, this is totally respectful and not a spoof at all (though there are moments of humor, such as one zombie looking a bit like GW Bush).

Here is the concept: Mike Schneider sent out word over the ‘Net via horror Websites to artists for their input to animate the film by any means necessary. With contributions of over 150 individual pieces, he took this work and connected it to the original film. There are still images and animated sections, including line drawing, EC-style comics, Ren & Stimpy type caricatures, claymation, Barbie dolls, computer game styles (including Grand Theft Auto and SIMS), stop-motion photography, puppets, and even a few Ferbies thrown into the mix. While this sounds like a hodgepodge from hell, it actually works fantastically, possibly creating a new genre.

For the still pix, the camera rolls over them giving some sense of motion, and there is hardly a moment where your attention is drawn away (no pun intended). The contributed work is all over the map, some of it quite conceptual and abstract, while others are obviously adapted from the actual film frames (a good example of this is the multiple shots of the same frame of Bill Hinzman, the first zombie seen in the opening cemetery scene – he’s coming to get Barbara – at the car window). All these images and styles are put together like a series of museum pieces (which is why Schneider lists himself as “curator”), but in a constant flow.

This is all done for the love of the art and the film, as those who contributed were not paid to do so, but each is given full credit at the end, and often in the bonus features. Speaking of which, this release is chock full of extras, including animated shorts, great obscure trailers (for Wild Eye films), extended unused scenes, an introduction by horror host Count Gore De Vol, a panel from a horror conference with many of those involved with this project, and two very interesting commentary tracks. The first one deals with the film and this version of it in an almost philosophical bent without being anywhere pretentious (the “art” of the art, zombie cinema, etc.), and the second is how it all came to be in this film, and how the production team created the final outcome). I sat through both without being bored at all.

If Reanimated is successful, perhaps there are other public domain films that can be given this treatment. Of course, it would need to be one that has an audience that has seen it numerous times, enough to get what is going on at any particular time… which brings me to one minor quibble about this release. I would have loved an option to be able to turn on the original version of the film in a smaller window, perhaps in a corner, to compare them. But hey, what the hell, it’s a brilliant concept that is put together in a cohesive albeit jumpy way as it goes from style to style, but it is never distracting to the story.

This is a true homage to a classic piece of cinema.


Bonus video: The opening scene


Unrelated bonus video

DVD Review: “Fan of the Dead”, Dir by Nicolas Garreau

Text and live photos © Robert Barry Francos/FFanzeen
DVD cover from the Internet

Fan of the Dead
Directed, produced and written by Nicolas Garreau
Cheezy Flicks, 2008
60 minutes, USD $12.99
www.cheezyflicks.com
www.fanofthedead.com

I have no memory of where I was when I heard about the killing of Robert Kennedy or Martin Luther King, but I know exactly where I was when I first saw George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968). It was at the Walker Theater in Brooklyn, during a revival showing in the early ‘70s. Whatever the opening film was, the three tough Bensonhurst guys behind me kept kicking my chair and harassing me; but I refused to move. Then NotLD came on, and by the time it was over, we were all sitting together.

[Karl Hardman, who played Harry Cooper in the first film; he appears in this documentary (d. 2007)]

The director / producer / writer of Fan of the Dead, Nicholas Garreau, is fascinated by all things George A. Romero. We watch as he plans a three-day journey from his home in France, and chronicles his journey to the Pittsburgh area, which is to Romero as Maine is to Stephen King or Baltimore to John Waters. In those short days, he plans to seek out locations that Romero used in his films.

While the main focus of this documentary is the original Romero trilogy of NotLD, Dawn of the Dead (1978) - which Garreau calls by its European name, Zombie - and Day of the Dead (1985), he also seeks out the Night of the Living Dead remake (1999; Romero screenplay) and even one segment of Creepshow (1982). Most likely it was time constraints that kept him from searching for the locations of Martin (1977) and The Crazies (1973), not to mention lack of said zombies.

[Kyra Schon, who was little Karen Cooper in the first film (her character in on the shirt in the background); she appears in this documentary with Karl Hardman, her real father]

Garreau, whose musings to his hand-held camera are translated from French by a narrator, is a true fan-boy, and I use that term affectionately. He is both bemused by what is happening and the people that he meets, and giddy with excitement – in the words of Ed Grimley – like waking up Christmas morning and finding a whole fort, y’know.

The chapters are broken up into days, with titles of the films whose locations were visited on that day. Most of this is essentially a road trip as he travels from location to location, and his honest exhilaration is catching. His giddy look at lamp posts, elevator doors, and where houses used to stand, is catching, and you just want to say, bon pour vous. When he finds the now iconic basement from the first film (nowhere near the house indicated in the film), you, the viewer, almost want someone there to high-five.

[Marilyn Eastman was Helen Cooper, and a cameo as the zombie who eats the bug off the tree in the first film]

The centerpiece of the film is a trip to the Pittsburgh Comic Convention, where Garreau interviews some of the actors who played both major and minor roles in the trilogy, and then he goes on a tour of the mall in which the second film is set, let by one of the film’s stars, Ken Foree (who was also excellent in Stuart Gordon’s From Beyond, I would like to add). This sightseeing expedition is accompanied by some of the same actors, who narrate for the fans who signed up for the tour (hell, I would have gone). The viewer can tell how much the actors (including Foree and David Emge, two of the four main leads) are enjoying not only the attention from the fans, but getting to share their experiences (e.g., “This spot is where…”). Garreau has obviously made a good impression on them, as they acknowledge him by name more than once.

Garreau’s extensive knowledge of the series is evident as he wonders through graveyards indicating the actions of a scene by the names on the stones which appear in the film. And yes, he does say the line, “They’re coming to get you Barbara” at the appropriate spot, as I’m sure many others have. As I would.

[Make-up artist / actor / director Tom Savini]

I’m just sorry he could not use some of the footage from the films to compare then and now (especially since the first NotLD is out of copyright and readily available), so unless you’re a fan on Garreau’s level, I would recommend viewing at least the three original zombie films (68-85) before watching this. Certainly, I recognized the cemetery and mall that was central to the first two, but I’m less familiar with the third one, so the locations seemed less of a bonus to me (though I intend to re-watch Day of the Dead, and then watch this documentary again. As for the remake of NotLD, well, Romero was the screenplay writer, and it was directed by Tom Savini, so it seems a bit out there, but what do I know?

This is a love letter to George Romero’s work, and both to and for his fans.

The bonus tracks include a photo collection of the trip, and some older psychotronic trailers (such as “Horrors of the Black Museum”), snack intermission shorts, and some regional restaurant ads that were shown in theaters. All fun stuff.