Wyrmwood

The result of a four-year, self-funded shoot, Wyrmwood looks and feels like a classic ozploitation film, complete with badass zombies, a colorful cast, government baddies, and a kick-ass brother-sister duo in Barry and Brooke.  Both immune to the Zombie Infestation, the siblings take wildly different paths to find each other, acquiring friends and special skills on the way.

I can't wait for the sequel.

Wyrmwood

2014, 92 minutes, directed by Kiah Roache-Turner

The Hive

If you like zombie survival and Memento go see this film, but seriously try to learn as little else as possible going in.  You won't be disappointed.

The Hive

2014, 89 minutes, directed by David Yarovesky

"I love you Katie."

Død Snø 2 (Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead)

The Nazis have risen from the dead, killed your friends, taken your girl, taken your arm, and left you blamed for their crimes.  To make matter worse, the local doctors have sewn a zombie arm onto your stump, and it keeps killing people.

Who can you turn to when the Nazis advance on town?  Your Allies, of course - an American Zombie Squad and your own horde of undead Soviet soldiers.  It's time to kick some Nazi zombie ass.

Død Snø 2 (Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead)
2014, 100 minutes, directed by Tommy Wirkola

They filmed the Norwegian-language scenes twice, so the North American release will be in English.  Fantastic Fest showed the subtitled international release.

Rise of the Zombies

I really thought this made-for-tv zombie film was going somewhere.  There were lots of scientists, making real progress learning about the disease, and maybe they'd even explore bringing the zombies back from the dead.  Maybe they were even aiming for some sort of God-motive for retribution and salvation.

But no, they just wanted to kill off all those scientists, and leave the few survivors in limbo as the story ends with limited solutions to the apocalypse.  This wasn't worth staying awake to see the end.

Rise of the Zombies
2012, 89 minutes, directed by Nick Lyon

I missed the start of the film.  Maybe it was awesome.  What I saw was Danny Trejo, on the cover the DVD, die less than a minute after I turned this on.  I guess they couldn't afford him after that.

V/H/S/2

Having acquired a heap of knowledge and a pile of leftover tapes from their first outing, this second installment of the V/H/S horror line feels more polished and... boring... than the first.  Sure, everything tied together better in a central theme: private detectives are asked to look for a college student who's been missing for a few days.  At his house, they find lots of static-y monitors and piles of VHS tapes.

This time, it all feels more predictable in its narration.  There's a story with ghosts, one with zombies, one with occult, and one with aliens.  It's all nice and tidy.  And that's what makes it boring.

V/H/S/2
2013, 95 minutes, directed by Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard, Eduardo Sanchez, Gregg Hale, Timo Tjahjanto, Gareth Huw Evans, and Jason Eisener

The Paramount was already running an hour late after their first film.  I stayed in line for Evil Dead for two hours, but when the film was supposed to have started and the previous screening was still letting out, I bailed for dinner and a sure spot at this midnight film.  Knowing now that some people made it (barely) to both thanks to V/H/S/2 also being inexplicably delayed, and knowing that I didn't care much for the midnight film, makes me angrier at the Paramount and SXSW for being unable to keep their schedules even remotely on time.

Warm Bodies

Well yeah, it's cheesy.

Zombie with an inner monologue meets cute girl, eats her boyfriend's brain to absorb his memories, and learns to love again.

But the inner monologue is pretty funny - at least for the target PG-13 crowd.  And it works.  Pretty well, even.

Warm Bodies
2013, 98 minutes, directed by Jonathan Levine

Doomsday Book

This film is actually a series of three shorts, created together as a single motion picture, all focused on (as you may guess) doomsday scenarios - from a Korean perspective.  The first - Brave New World - is a straight-up zombie scenario as told via patient zero.  For the second short - Heavenly Creature - the definition of "doomsday" is stretched to include singularity, as a UR International robot awakens as Buddha.  Finally the third film - Happy Birthday - takes a new look at asteroid apocalypse in the modern age.

I won't call the film epic or particularly enthralling, but if you like the Future States shorts or similar looks at future probability - and are willing to tolerate a little silliness on the side - then this film provides more footage for you.

Doomsday Book
2012, 115 minutes, directed by Jee-woon Kim and Pil-Sung Yim

Cockneys vs Zombies

With the exception of one short film, this festival has suffered from an extreme lack of zombies. I rectified the situation in a midnight screening of... Cockneys vs. Zombies.

Alan Ford (Brick Top from Snatch) owns this film as the grandfather, a WWII veteran and general badass.  And there are a few new tricks to a zombie film - zombies chasing a guy with a walker, a zombie with an iron plate in his head - but overall it's pretty run-of-the-mill except for Ford's performance.  The planner for the festival who introduced the film said that every third film they screened was a zombie flick, and every third film they saw sucked.  I can see this as the best of a lot of dredge, sure, but overall the genre is getting spent.

Cockneys vs Zombies
2012, 88 minutes, directed by Matthias Hoene 

[REC]³ Génesis

 When you're whole premise - demonic zombie infestation film with shakey cam - becomes a cliché, what should you do?  For Paco Plaza, the answer is kick it out, literally in this case, and fortunately not that long into the film.  This leaves the third installment of the [REC] franchise (Quarantine per the U.S. remake) with a very different feel than the first two.  It, too, has lost the claustrophobic charm of its predecessors, set this time in the spacious buildings and grounds of a reception hall.  It's her wedding day, and nothing is going to keep the bride from her groom.  This isn't a demonic zombie film.  It's a love story.  With demonic zombies.

[REC]³ Génesis
2012, 80 minutes, directed by Paco Plaza


Scott, people don't ask questions during your Q&A for a reason.  First off, you ask 60% of the questions yourself.  Then when you cajole a question from the audience, you take the gist of it, come up with a different question of your own, and "restate" it to the director so he'll answer your version.  And you interrupted the director while he was talking to put words in his mouth!  Twice!

The Cabin in the Woods

Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon don't want anyone to talk about this film.  It's hard not too because it was fucking awesome.  You think you have it figured out?  Oh no you don't; check out this.

What happens when five young college students set off for a weekend alone in the woods?  Mayhem of course.  If you would ever watch a horror comedy, make sure you watch this one.

"This came from a place of love.  Joss and I just love horror movies." - director Drew Goddard at the world premiere Q&A on opening night of SXSW 2012.

The Cabin in the Woods
2012, 105 minutes, directed by Drew Goddard




"No, no, no.  It's not an angry raping tree.  It's an angry molesting tree." - Drew

Juan de los Muertos (Juan of the Dead)

Finally, a film that was just what I expected.  Sure, it was designed for the Fantastic Fest crowd - the director used what slow, limited internet access he could to read film sites like Ain't It Cool News.  And sure, it was pretty predictable.  But that's okay.  That's what I expect from a zombie film.  A Cuban take refreshes the genre again.

Juan de los Muertos (Juan of the Dead)
2011, 100 minutes, directed by Alejandro Brugués

"I took many scenes from real life, and just put zombies in it." - Alejandro.

Director Alejandro Brugués of Juan de los Muertos.  My sister-in-law also calls him "hot".

 .

Pandorum

This movie is pretty predictable but sufficiently fun.  They balance the action necessary to secure funding with some decently challenging cerebral sci fi, all set in the most famous of locales, the deep-space freighter.

Pandorum
2009, 108 minutes, directed by Christian Alvart

Resident Evil: Afterlife

This fourth installment in the Resident Evil film franchise suffers from a few flaws I've seen crop up in the series, namely the Too Many Heroes syndrome and Kill the Extras condition.  The fast-paced action just served to hasten many a demise - the group of characters was hardly introduced when they started getting picked off, leaving only the obvious heroes to the end.  And combining Alice (even her new mere mortal version) with other heroes makes some scenes almost comical.  How long can they extend killing one guy so that all three heroes get a few shots at him?  Finally, a cliffhanger ending on a film like this always disappoints.  There's no reason for it; people still attached to the series will watch the next one regardless, so it's just a point of frustration when watching the film on its own.

Maybe I'm just disappointed that the series has turned into a zombie splatter fest instead of the survival horror of the first film.  I suppose Alien must begat Aliens, etc.  But I hoped they could do better.

Resident Evil: Afterlife
2010, 97 minutes, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson

Resident Evil: Extinction

Use the Force Alice.  But damnit.  Don't introduce a large cast of characters then kill them all right away.  The pacing of the film is quick, but yet again all I feel is "transition film".  The large cast is introduced, given cursory discovery, the summarily executed, and we're left with a small core no bigger than previous films.  It seems like a waste when more time could have been spent developing the characters that were going to live.

Besides that, my other complaint was with the cinematography.  Why does every close-up shot of Alice appear to be airbrushed?  In one scene as the camera cuts out and back in, the make-up goes one, the make-up comes off.  Repeat repeat.  It's very disconcerting and completely unnecessary.  Milla Jovovich is very pretty with and because of her flaws and all.  There's no need to so crudely hide them.

The next film will be available on Netflix soon.  We'll see where this goes.

Resident Evil: Extinction
2007, 95 minutes, directed by Russel Mulcahy

Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Meh.  All I could think was "transition film".  The introduced Sienna Guillory as Jill, complete with kick-ass action and a custom outfit (presumably from the games), only to have her quickly take the back seat to a more-awesome more-ass-kicking Milla Jovovich as Alice.  I can only assume this was to ensure that, were Ms. Jovovish to bail on the series, the next sequel could retain some semblance of continuity.

Stay tuned; the next sequel is coming up in my Netflix queue.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse
2004, 98 minutes, directed by Alexander Witt

Resident Evil

Having no history with the game series, I don't mind any discontinuities or breaks from lore that might disturb long-time fans.  Furthermore, I can tolerate the budget allocation typical of survival horror.  What I dislike, though, is poor casting - with several characters just plain wrong for their role - and Michelle Rodriguez cast solely for her ability to roll her eyes up into her head.

Still, the rest of the series awaits...

Resident Evil
2002, 101 minutes, directed by Paul Anderson

28 Weeks Later

I really wanted to like this.  The first film was a notably different take on zombies, and I thought a sequel could further explore the premise.

Instead the writers decided to use heavy-handed oafs from the U.S. military to do stereotypical, stupid, blundering U.S. military things, while the protagonists are slowly picked off one by one.  What a waste.

28 Weeks Later
2007, 99 minutes, directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

Zombieland

I avoided this during Fantastic Fest, choosing instead to see the secret screening that turned out to be the forgettable RoboGeisha.  This one turned out to be a great, campy, fun zombie-killed show, which I'm sure played well at the Paramount.  They could have cut out the random cameo bit entirely though, sadly.  You know what I mean.

When you can't nuke it from orbit, double tap to be sure.

Zombieland
2009, 88 minutes, directed by Ruben Fleischer

Alas, I didn't feel well enough earlier today to be sure I'd want to go out tonight, and when I did the drafthouse had sold out.  Why does this theater think that people seeing Zombieland want to see  a special behind-the-scenes preview of Did You Hear About the Morgans?  Hello market?

[REC] 2

Having seen the first installment just last week, I was frightened to think of the many ways that the writers/directors of this film could screw it up in a sequel. But I have to say that I am almost entirely satisfied with the premise, the mechanics, and the twists it takes to continue telling the same tale. Although it picks up five minutes after the conclusion of [REC], with the same first-person camera work, the film has a very different feel while being part of a small, happy family. I do just wish this second installment had the decisive conclusion of the first so it didn't feel quite as made-for-sequel ready.

[REC] 2
2009, 85 minutes, directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza

The Revenant

I was so looking forward to this one as a new take on the undead outbreak. What happens when you find yourself a newly-minted walking dead, with full mental capabilities, but no idea what you are or what you can and cannot do? It starts great, continues strong, then just takes a turn down a path I don't favor and fades away.

The Revenant
2009, 118 minutes, directed by D. Kerry Prior