Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante (Mutant Zone) - review

2001 (Argentina)

2005 Fangoria Int'l included on Plaga Zombie: Mutant Zone Double Pack DVD R(1)

Contains mild spoilers.

I was rather smitten with director, writer and co-star Pablo Parés and Hernán Sáez's 1997 extremely low budget zombie original. Energetic, vibrant, imaginative Plaga Zombie, transl. Zombie Plague, overflowed with everything you'd want in in an excessive bad taste non-serious zombie spectacular, and I felt Parés and Sáez should be damned proud of their first full film. With double the budget ($3000), and with all the issues they had (it took them 4 years from starting the project to get it out with all involved saying it took its toll), could they have done it again, retaining the same frenetic pace, obvious enthusiasm and authentic delight that spilled out and into those lucky enough to watch something, shall we say, less mainstream first time round? I'll cut to the chase; yes they bloody could and it was worth the pain.

Mutant Zone not only picks the story, what there was of it, up right where things were left, but also the excessive riotous tour-de-force and non stop barrage of the most putrid, gory, juvenile, imaginative and silly zombie killing ever put on screen. Nothing has changed; nothing has calmed down. It's still prosthetic madness with models and masks, buckets of fake blood; guts and spines, limbs and heads all audaciously ripped, pulled and hewn apart at every turn. As with all good Dead Alive (BrainDead) splatter comedies it's disgusting, it's dark, but it's also so excessive, so over the top it, it all becomes a spectacle; a hyper-real parody you feel your allowed to join in with. Each more and more audaciously silly kill is the joke that keeps on giving; and this is something I feel outsiders to the genre often overlook, but one Parés and Sáez have perfected; and I don't think at any point in the film I actually stopped smiling.

What of the story? Mutant Zone doesn't take itself too, or I should say, at all seriously. There's a small daft opening bit of narrative where we learn aliens are actually behind the whole thing. That they've done a deal to experiment in one small area so as to not take over the entire world,.and our heroes from the previous film, Bill (Parés), the giant cowboy ex-wrestler John West (Berta Muñiz) and Max (Sáez) find themselves unfortunate loose threads in the conspiracy. What it means is they've been summarily thrown back into to the now quarantined town without weapons or any idea as to what's really going on, there's a lot of zombies out to get them and before the hour and half are through there will be a lot running, a lot of killing and a lot of fun, if little deep or contemplative narrative.

What stops Mutant Zone from being the one trick pony, and what ultimately keeps it from outstaying it's welcome, despite, if being critical, that it is and on paper it shouldn't, is the constant imagination. For a film that is fundamentally one long chase broken up now and again with the odd skirmish, that there isn't a single trite or obvious story decision, line of dialogue, or angle  of shot is breath-taking. Each and every extravagant, and ridiculous fight, or each moment between, is out to trick and surprise you and it's a delightful ride to sit back and enjoy being on. For Parés and Sáez nothing too is off the table, too off-the wall, or even subtle or surreal; and yet it all fits, the film is cohesive with a singular identity.

It's the same trick with the zombies. Black, white, green and blue, Plaga zombies can be any hue, any level of decay, any level of mutation and any level one of many observable behavioural patterns or any combination between. Yet they're all brought together by the same undeniable level of zany fun and comic-book look and feel where perhaps having a budget where one couldn't dictate all and every minutia actually helped. It's like the traditional zombie idiom of distinct and unique individuals becoming a homogenised one is non-applicable. Here the undead each have clear and discrete character and dare I say personality which even lends itself to how they're ultimately and individually dispatched. Later we also discover they're not perhaps as one-sidedly cannibalistic as we thought, as social aspects are offered and explored. It all makes for quite the rich tapestry and quite the out the box thinking perhaps allowed when youth and inexperience take nothing off the table.

I could wax-lyrically about Mutant Zone all day. Perhaps one the best comedy splatter zombie films ever made there is so much honesty, verve and passion on play one can't help but be swept up in it all. Parés, Muñiz and Sáez also almost make the film a buddy one with on screen relationships that feel authentic and tangible, with a depth and warmth that permeates even the coldest of hearts. So could they deliver a sequel? Could they. Plaga Zone: Mutant Zone is Plaga Zombie unleashed oozing increased confidence, greater ambition and given the means to demonstrate with a larger sandbox, more time and more resources to play with. An absolute delight from start to finish you owe it to yourself to get on-board especially with a third instalment, Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante: Revolución Tóxica, and even fourth American Invasion, sitting in the wings - 9/10.

Steven@WTD.

Plaga Zombie - review

1997 (Argentina)

2005 Fangoria Int'l included on Plaga Zombie: Mutant Zone Double Pack DVD R(1)

Contains mild spoilers.

Plaga Zombie, translated, Zombie Plague, is a quite frankly atrocious, amateurish, over-the-top Dead Alive (Braindead) want-to-be made by some punk-ass Argentinian kids who look like they just wanted to hang out with their mates and see how far they could push the boundaries of taste and decency. It also goes to show what can be achieved with passion, ingenuity and unquestionable ability as, for a film that purports to have been made for just $120, it's audaciously breathtaking, vibrant and quite brilliant, putting to shame a lot of films with hundred times the budget.

Directed by Pablo Parés and Hernán Sáez Plaga Zombie is a goof-ball horror comedy of the highest order. Aliens beginning their attack on humanity are possessing and abducting people, inserting parasitical hosts then dropping them back off to die, reanimate and kill anyone they come across. Mike (Walter Cornás) is the first to turn and with his room mate Bill (also Pablo Parés) a medical student trying to diagnose his rapid onset of exploding pustules and sores the two are joined by John West (Berta Muñiz) a currently out of work amateur wrestler and his ex-partner, and manager Willie Boxer (Diego Parés) who is showing the same symptoms. Plaga Zombie doesn't like to amble so the two soon turn and the carnage, killing and extensive gratuitous vomit, blood and gore start to flow.

The best way to describe the bizarre alien parasitically possessed zombies of Plaga Zombies is to take the traditional 80s Romero shuffling walking dead, throw all hues of garish multi-coloured paints over them and have them act with all the playful sadistic mischievousness of the Gremlins from the film of their namesake. They're like a pack of rabid bloodthirsty m&ms; there's blue ones, green ones, red and yellow ones, their look and feel is cheap, chintzy, artificial and in excess they're violently sickening. Whether they're playing poker, phoning for pizza, or vomiting in a victims mouths they're very much the vehicle for the next original sick joke or wantonly gratuitous exploitation. They're appearance and behaviour perfectly mirrors the absurdity and excesses of the story, the development of the characters and the acting.

There isn't much to say about the story. It's goofy, daft and speeds along at a truly break-neck pace. Willie and Mike are joined by a motley assortment of additional alien zombie critters who take over his little suburban house and it becomes very much an us vs. them madcap battle of survival. John West rediscovers his spandex wearing wrestling heritage, Bill deduces they're dead and a good way to dispatch the host is with acid, which he conveniently just happens to the necessary ingredients for, and they decide to tackle a zombie horde that seems very much happy to just goof about and have the fight come to them. Cue lots of blood, lots of gore and lots of highly original, and audaciously over the top zombie dispatching including the obligatory chainsaw (actually it looked like a hedge trimmer) and lawn mower. Like I said, it's taken its inspiration from Dead Alive and Evil Dead is more than happy to turn the dial to 11 and leave it there for long sequences of the most ludicrous, slapstick, farcical gore and carnage and they're willing to try anything if it looks sufficiently gruesome and can get a laugh.

For $120 everyone should involved with costumes, effects and makeup should be given a gold star. The nature of the feature, and a frankly very poor film quality, allows the Parés and Sáez a certain leeway but the effects, gore and prosthetics are more than competent, oozing with bizarre undead alien style, and always with just the right side of hyper-realistic in the best tradition of the genre. The soundtrack could be lifted straight from Dead Alive but it worked there and I'll cut the guy some slack.

Like Peter Jackson, Parés and Sáez have a real eye for making the excessive and obscene farcical and fun so that the audience feels in on the joke and not sickened by sadistic indulgence. Full of imagination and energy Plaga Zombie is a delight to watch, the action carries the story and acting but does so with gusto and flare and for such a small budget, and obviously filmed with what equipment they could get their hands on, the result are coherent and Parés and Sáez, for new directors capture the daftness with style, skill and many moments of inventive flair. Plaga Zombie is not going to win any awards but look past the poor film capture there's a zany classic for those that want more over the top horror comedy and more films that understand what it means to use truly excessive quantities of blood. I've come away genuinely wanting to see what these guys could do with slightly more money; which is fortunate as my disc came with their second foray, Plaga Zombie: Mutant Zone, recommended, 7/10.

Steven@WTD.