Last of the Living - review

2009 (New Zealand)

2009 High Fliers DVD R(2)

Contains mild spoilers. 

I've always found it rather ironic that the zombie film medium itself is so keen to follow the herd with derivative narratives, repetitious cinematography and a hardcore audience always the first up in arms at the first sign of deviation. And I was all ready to chastise Logan McMillan's low budget zombie buddy movie, with its constant inconsistencies, rather impoverished zombie action and general amateur look and feel to the proverbial zombie mass grave. Three rather juvenile, irreverent and one-dimensional characters, an apocalyptic nightmare of working electricity, stocked super-markets and rather sad looking undead all too eager to be dispatched in highly contrived ways, and a story that seemed to be more about the bants than any substance; I really thought we were in for yet another well-intentioned but faltering effort. I should have had faith though, as with a little patience to get through the rather forgettable first fifteen or so minutes, and then forgive it the occasional continuity or coherent dalliance and there's both a quite a tight, complete and entertaining zombie story and a sincere and endearing tale of friendship to be had.

It's six months since the apocalypse took the lives of what looks like all but the scant few, and five since lifelong friends Morgan (Morgan Williams) and Ash (Ashleigh Southam) stumbled across rock wannabe Johnny (Robert Faith) and let him join their frat-boy way of living. They may be all alone, and they may all be desperate for female company, but the total and entire destruction of humanity has generally been a good thing though, allowing time off from accountancy and work, to drink beer, eat chips and play video games without redress. Six months in too and it seems the zombie threat is now pretty trivial with the undead more a ponderous nuisance that an actual danger; and it would have to take something considerable to shake the boys from their inertia

Steff's (Emily Paddon-Brown) violent introduction is the moment Last of the Living springs to life. The lads characters and their relationships are believable and considered but they're shallow and they wear real quick. It's the introduction of a young, feisty, intelligent and good looking girl with a call to arms to save the world not only gives the boys, the viewer, and if the rest of the film is indicative, all involved in the films production, the kick and focus they need. The laboured, lethargic action, is soon replaced with up tempo, and more importantly meaningful zombie woop-assing; the banter with the dynamic drastically ripped apart has deeper resonance, and even the humour seems less forced. The result is a highly polished zombie movie with an assuredness and though the story; really just a to b to c might sound light on paper, less can be more, and here it's more than enough to satisfy, and its also pitched perfect to let the characters and their friendships develop.

If we remind ourselves that it's pre The Walking Dead and a time amazing amateur zombie make-up designers weren't ten a penny, and we remind ourselves the production crew are a small group of friends and the zombies are more than likely local passers-by, then we might just about excuse an aspect of the movie that's far from perfect. Never convincing in looks or behaviour, the undead of Last of the Living almost provide an amateur goofiness undermining without trying, and though I think McMillan ultimately realised with more emphasis on the zombies as a presence in the background to drive the characters rather than the focus of jokes they were never fully convincing. As for the dead themselves? They're quite the generic Romero zombie; dead and on the surface so laboriously slow that I couldn't work out for the life of me how they'd pulled off such a categorical genocide. Towards the end though we see that they're only slow because they're six months dead, and fresh and hungry they're more 28 Days Later and it all made sense.

Far more ambitious and successful than its budget should have allowed, Last of the Living once going, provides a tight, fun and authentic character driven viewing delight. Whilst the action often suffers with less than ideal looking and choreographed zombies and the ambitious outdoor cinematography often felt unnaturally sparse, McMillan ultimately works to the film and budget's strengths; friendship and ennui in post-apocalyptic New Zealand, with resounding success. A feature that feels more than the sum of its parts, no less due in part to utterly engaging musical sound track that echoes the story brilliantly, Last of the Living is testament to amateur film making. Sure it's a slow burn and saddled with an inevitable budgetary hangover, but ultimately I'll recall it favourably for its ambition and courage to be different - 7/10.

Steven@WTD.

I Survived a Zombie Holocaust - review

2014 (New Zealand)

2016 Matchbox Films DVD R(2)

Contains mild spoilers.

After recently lampooning Cooties for offering little to an ever increasingly crowded genre, I feel a little two faced liking director and writer Guy Pigden's equally crowd pleasing zom-rom-com as much as I did. Just as farcical, slap-stick, easy to watch and dare I say whimsical, on the surface there's little, save Cootie's bigger budget and recognisable stars, to be able to call one out. Though perhaps, there's the rub; Cootie's was a deliberate cash-in; a contrived commercial venture that ticked all the right boxes because someone literally had a list of boxes that needed to be ticked. I Survived a Zombie Holocaust, in future referred to as I Survived, feels like it ticked the boxes naturally; purely by virtue of having a well-conceived and relatively simple script and vision, and the ability and enthusiasm of actors and a production crew to see it through. Nothing is forced and while the jokes, for the genre, are just as obvious and the farce tinted homage plays out just as predictably, there's a delightful authenticity and self-awareness, and you feel more you're invited in, than cajoled along.

I Survived is what I've started to refer to as a post-zombie zombie film. What I mean by that, is there's no pretence that zombies aren't a known thing, that The Walking Dead phenomenon didn't happened, and even the remotest of New Guinea tribesmen don't know the best way to deal with a shuffling corpse is a spear through the head. For most zombie films this doesn't equate to reduction in tension or build up; but rather a getting to straight to it, once anticipation makes way for survival, saving us all from ten minutes of rather awkward and contrived action re-establishing all the ground rules. Not only does I Survive wear this post-zombie t-shirt, but it's ballsy, or confident enough to actually try and go one step further. You see, there's no pretence; not only is their world our world; their zombie reality and heritage our zombie reality and heritage, but the film relies on all this for the narrative to make any sense at all. 

Wesley Pennington (Harley Neville), fresh from film school, has arrived on set as a junior runner for the zombie b-movie 'Tonight They Come'. Quickly brought into line as the shoot's dogsbody; he's also unwittingly one of the first to realise that parallel to the watered down zombie schlock being filmed, there's a very real undead threat, literally just around the corner. It's a fun, intelligenty thought out and original premise which serves to simultaneously give licence for shots at both b-movie films and b-movie film makers. SMP (Andrew Laing) the director cum dictator of Tonight They Come leads the rather formulaic and exaggerated production crew, with a sociopathic zeal through forty odd minutes of surprisingly entertaining and witty parody until zombies meet zombie extras and it's every bit all the running, screaming, carnage and death we've come to love.

Setting itself up the way it does, I Survived is almost a self-aware parody of a post-zombie film, and probably now I'm thinking about it, a hard film to pull off without coming across derogatory and insulting. I'm probably over complicating it all, save to say, I Survived isn't demeaning or dumbed down, and that's the point. It's clearly the work of people who get it; people who love the genre and have something genuine and original to say. Zombie rom-coms, are a great phenomenon but dangerously close to over-saturation, but Pigden et al. know it; and as said, it's this self-awareness that, elevates it from the crowd. Even though I Survived is every bit a a member of the genre and guilty in huge respects of all the things its parodying, it somehow works precisely because it itself is in on the joke. It's refreshing, honest and playful yet respectful; it's the comedian that gets away with all the offensive material because first and foremost he's the butt of every joke.

I've also seen comparisons made with Peter Jackson's eighties over-the-top slaughterfest Dead Alive (Braindead); what with Wesley's demeanour similar to Lionel's, the copious gore, and the same New Zealand badge of honour, but I think it would be doing both a disservice. Jackson's splatter masterpiece was a unique cinematic experience; audaciously stupid and excessive all for the sheer hell of it. Pigden's I Survive forges its own path, and whilst abundant in bad-taste and zombie-excess, it's less about gore-shock and one-liners and more about fitting in coherently with zombie-lore and providing its own subtler narrative. If anything, playing with the post-zombie experience the way it does its closest in style and substance to perhaps Mimesis, but with an added laughter track and a lot more innards.

I Survived a Zombie Holocaust took a risk and in my opinion it paid off. It is yet another modern rom-com but it works precisely because it knows it, and is happy to play along. With some genuinely funny moments, some stupid jokes, a witty, unpredictable script and perfectly pitched performances that played along it ticks all the right boxes for a fun zombie night in. Sure it's not without fault; I'd have preferred it if the real zombie threat had arrived a good ten or twenty minutes earlier, and I'd have liked them to have even pushed the b-movie parody just that little bit harder; but over-all I felt they got it pretty much spot on. Perhaps it also worked for me because unlike for most zom-rom-coms I feel as a hardcore zombie film fan I am this time the target audience; appreciative of the genre call-backs, the clever and satirical side swipes at not just the b-movie film making but b-movie zombie films themselves and the rich and dark humour. I often accuse zom-rom-coms of dumbing down so as to branch out and attract a wider audience and whilst I Survive can't shake this off in its entirety, the fact that it appears to know it, and play with this with such confidence and success is commendable - 7/10.

Steven@WTD.

Black Sheep - review

2006 (New Zealand)

2008 Icon Home Entertainment Blu-ray R(B/2)

Contains mild spoilers.

What do you get when you cross a large sheep farm, a crazed genetic engineer and a collection of exaggerated characters all converging right when things kick off? You get director / writer Jonathon King's barmy little b-movie rom-com Black Sheep. And to cut to the chase it's good. It's well written with strong acting and production and does everything you'd expect for a silly horror story played straight. Yet, and here's the rub, for a film about crazed mutant killer sheep it also perhaps plays it a little on the safe side.

There's Angus Oldfield (Peter Feeney), owner of the largest sheep farm in New Zealand. There's his younger brother Henry (Nathan Meister) who's returned home to settle accounts and sell his share of the farm. There's a pair of animal rights activists, a sheep handler, a housekeeper and, that's right, a genetic lab run by Dr. Rush (Tandi Wright) who's been playing god with both sheep and Angus' DNA. It's b-movie territory, so the characters are given plenty of licence to ham it up. Yet despite plenty of ammo to really joke around with, such as Henry's Ovinaphobia (the best term for the irrational fear of sheep I could find) there were times I felt the dialogue and story was holding back; that there was a fear to really let go. It's not all the time, and kudos should really be given to the accomplished script, the great performances and successful dry humour, but, and I never really thought I'd ever say this, perhaps it could have benefited from been a bit more Troma.

In time honoured b-movie tradition, quite how and for that matter why Dr. Rush was given the time, resources and authority to conduct her experiments is neither hide nor hair. What does matter is when combined with the incompetence of the animal rights brigade some toxic waste is spilled and before you can recite Mary Had A Little Lamb the whole flock has turned from fluffy white clouds to ferocious homicidal little shits hell bent on turning the green and pleasant countryside a distinct shade of red. So are they zombies and is this a zombie film? A difficult one to answer and depends entirely on which side of the zombie debate you stand. If one can handle animals as zombies then there's an argument that the insatiable hunger for human flesh they're newly consumed with would count them in. There's also a small scene in the lab with a sheep clearly deceased but still moving which is a tick for the reanimated side of things. If anything though, and especially what with all the, if rather stupid, sheep-human mutating, that this is perhaps more of a were- film albeit were-sheep than wolf. Anyway, there's sheep, they've turned into ravenous killing machines via a toxic spill and there's blood, gore, carnage, and plenty of death; and a certain ambiguity, so I'll let it sit. Also I did let Zombeavers and Poultrygeist on, and I am going for the whole zombie zoo.

I've read King stood up at the Belgian Horror Festival, he said he didn't want too much CGI to ruin his film and Black Sheep is all the better for it. Animatronics were handled by Weta Workshop, who had previously taken care of BrainDead (Dead Alive) and went on to handle Lord of The Rings, are as you'd expect top notch, if still, and delightfully so, a little hokey. And the oodles of splatter and gore, which King certainly doesn't shy away from are gruesome and handled with all the bad taste one would want.

Perhaps a little cliché, perhaps a little restrained and simple, Black Sheep is still the riotous ride, full of charm, character and dark, bloody fun. It's also exactly what you'd expect from a film about zombie sheep, which is both a good thing, and yet perhaps bad thing. Still; Excessive gore? Check. Bad sheep jokes? Check. An audaciously implausible story full of laughably b-movie ideas and black humour? Check. A perfect friends and beer film? Check. 6/10? Check.

Steven@WTD.

Dead Alive (Braindead) - review

1992 (New Zealand)

2011 Lionsgate Blu-ray R(All)

Contains spoilers.

Dead Alive, or Braindead as it's known outside the US is the brainchild of Peter Jackson and comes with, now I've seen it, a quite justifiable reputation of being one of the goriest films ever made. I've had a few days mull it over now too, and I'm happy to add: daftest, most ludicrous and outrageously brilliant to this.

It's the 1950's and the film starts with explorer Stewart (Bill Ralston) and his team trying to retrieve a Sumatran Rat-Monkey from Skull Island, very much against the wishes of the indigenous tribes' folk. During the desperate chase out of the country he gets bit and well aware of the danger this puts them all in, his companions take it on themselves to swiftly cut off the offending bitten appendages which ultimately includes his head. Jackson fully embraces the brutality and comedy of the scene with hacks, slashes and a lot of blood on show; if we didn't know what we were getting into we do now.

Anxious socially inept Lionel Cosgrove played brilliantly by star of the show Timothy Balme lives in the prominent house on the hill with his cantankerous totally domineering old mother (Elizabeth Moody). When Lionel attracts the attentions of local shopkeeper's daughter, Paquita (Diana Peñalver), who believes him to be the man of her destiny (as proclaimed by her fortune telling old granny), his disapproving mother take it on herself to follow them on their date to Wellington Zoo where said revolting rabid hairless vicious rat-monkey has been freshly put out for display.

While spying on the young couple the old dear gets attacked and bitten by the monkey but gets free crushing it's head under her boot. As the bite festers she deteriorates quickly and before you know it she's a hideous undead zombie and a sign of things to come. Lionel, the ever doting son, manages to suppress her with the constant administering of veterinary sedative but his efforts are futile and she escapes, kills a few townsfolk, gets hit by a tram and is buried with a funeral. Still believing he can keep things under wraps Lionel is set upon by some local ruffians whilst attempting to dig her up before the last sedative runs out; before we know it she's popped out the grave and the ruffians and the local priest, alerted to the commotion are all dead or undead too.

I normally try and critique how the films creatures fit into zombie myth and canon but I'm going to take a pass this time. The zombies can be sedated, they'll eat food just as much as people, sometimes their separated body parts, including their intestines can reanimate to the point of seeming to have awareness, they can have sex and babies; I could go on and there's not much rhyme and reason to any of it. But that's the point, each new obscenely shocking over the top sequence merely acts to drive laughs and disturb the viewer. Everything about this film is ludicrously over the top; the characterisation, the acting, the narrative, the special effects and puppetry, the music and sound effects, even the directing and production. It constantly ramps up, each scene trumping the one that came before for gore, blood and imagination. It's juvenile, vulgar and deviant; it's like they stuck a white board up in at a drunken frat party asking people to write down their most shocking ideas then decided to include them all.

It all works though. Each scene meticulously slots into place expanding upon what has come before. The narrative never gets lost behind the daftness and you genuinely find yourself wondering what they'll come up with next, and you're never disappointed. It's brilliantly crafted cinema with believable fantastically acted characters and it oozes atmosphere. I bought the US Blu-ray import and despite having a region A only on the sleeve and disc I can confirm it is region free. There aren't any extras on the disc which was disappointing but the picture and sound are clean and for an 80s b-movie it looks great.

With Lionel fighting a losing battle to keep the increasing number of zombies, now including a hilarious zombie baby, under wraps while simultaneously trying to maintain his relationship with Paquita, his obnoxious and self-serving uncle Les (Ian Watkin) uncovers what Lionel has been up to and blackmails him into handing over the house. When Les's friends take it upon themselves to celebrate his good fortune and arrive to party before Lionel can dispose of the zombies in the basement Jackson puts everything in place for probably the goriest, sickest and over the top cinematic finale ever.

Dead Alive knows what its trying to do and goes for it. It holds no punches, nothing is off the table despite how vulgar, obscene or crazy. It doesn't matter if it doesn't make sense or contradicts something else that has happened before; if it works and gets a laugh, it's in. Dead Alive holds the notion that very idea of zombies is absurd anyway; so why not run with this as far as you can. What Jackson has achieved is a remarkable piece of cinema full of imagination and energy; full of memorable scenes and ideas and it's a joy to watch. It is the goriest film I think I've ever seen and I'm not sure I'd show this to my mother but for all this, its lack of seriousness means that it's never really that intense and you'll remember it more for its laughs than the carnage. It's a true farce and I loved it, 8/10.

Steven@WTD.