Corpse Killer (1994) (VG)

User Rating:

4.1/10   

Director:

John Lafia

Writer:

Ken Melville (screenplay)

Genre:

Action | Horror

Plot:

An elite special forces soldier, who parachutes onto a remote tropical island for a special mission...

Plot Keywords:

Zombie | Full Motion Video | Video Game

Cast

Vincent Schiavelli	...	Dr. Hellman (voice)
Jeremiah Birkett	...	Winston (voice)
Bridget Butler	...	Julie (voice) (as Bridgett Butler)
John Cassini	...	Magliano (voice)
Gary Anthony Sturgis	...	Fleming (voice)
Erin Bobo	...	Duffy (voice)
Bill Moseley	...	Captain (voice) (as Bill Mosley)
Charles Kahlenberg	...	General (voice)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:M | USA:M

Filming Locations:

West Indies

Company:

Digital Pictures

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Digital Pictures: Behind the Scenes 1994 (1994) (V)

Zombie Foo-Pah!

Corpse Killer was one of the many cheesy FMV games of it's day and if you've never played it chances are you won't now. Digital Pictures, the company that made it is now defunct as are the original video game systems it was released for (3DO, Sega CD, 32X). If you had the chance to play it's likely you sit in one of two camps. Either you hated it or you grooved to it's story reminiscent of a b-grade movie in a guilty pleasure sort of way.

I admit to having a soft spot for these games back in their day and Corpse Killer is amongst my collection with it's hokey zombie story that actually makes the game work... barely. Like all FMV-fests the interest lies in the video and Corpse Killer has some good stuff in that regard just beware the pretty monotonous gameplay segments. Character actor Vincent Schiavelli headlines as Dr. Hellman, the crazy villain of the game. Who is playing it just right or way over the top depending how you look at it and in any case is just great. Meanwhile the rest of the cast is pretty much what you expect out of something like this although kudos go out to Jeremiah Birkett in the tongue-in-cheek cliché role of the the Jamaican Voodoo expert/sidekick/guide. Much like elements of the story, he presents just enough seriousness and just enough silliness to balance the whole thing from becoming too serious or too silly for it's own good.

On the technical side of things, the actual gameplay segments are composed of filmed miniature sets for the background scenery and "green screen" zombies for the enemies. They are merely passable and it doesn't help that there isn't more variety to them. Repeatedly shooting zombies can only be fun for so long and one hour into this game you've seen everything you're going to see on the gameplay front. So why you'd want to play this game should be obvious by now - tune in for the FMV, suffer through the rest.