Plaga zombie (1997) (V)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Directors:

Pablo Parés
Hernán Sáez

Writers:

Berta Muñiz (writer)
Pablo Parés (writer)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

La venganza Alienigena ha comenzado!

Plot Keywords:

Zombie

Cast

Berta Muñiz	...	John West
Pablo Parés	...	Bill Johnson
Hernán Sáez	...	Max Giggs
Walter Cornás	...	Mike Taylor
Paulo Soria	...	Zombie, FBI, Punk, etc.
Gabriel Grieco	...	Richard Gecko
Diego Parés	...	Willie Boxer
Martín Lepera	...	Albert el pizzero
Esteban Podetti	...	James Dana
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Pablo Fayó	...	David Fox

Runtime:

69 min

Country:

Argentina

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Company:

Farsa Producciones

Trivia:

This movie was made with less than $120, the make up was done with cake frosting and other things the directors found.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Plaga zombie: Zona mutante (2001) (V)

Very well done low budget zombie movie

Low budget zombie films are very hit and miss; with the vast majority of being the latter. They don't require much thought to put together, can often be made with a very limited budget and are (presumably) very fun to film; and this means that there are a lot of very amateur examples; and after having seen a bunch of these amateur examples, its done a lot to put me off the genre. When I heard that this film was made in Argentina for a few hundred dollars, I really did fear the worst. But actually, to my greatest surprise, this is actually a very good attempt at the genre! The main influence was obviously Peter Jackson's Braindead, and indeed there are a few nods to it; although the story is just your average zombie stuff and the film clearly takes influence from across the genre. We focus on a house where a few friends, including a doctor, a mathematician and a wrestler, have to band together in order to survive when a strange disease starts turning their other friends into the living dead.

It's obvious that the filmmakers valued their special effects very highly, and indeed the second half of the film is basically just an excuse to show plenty of splatter. The effects themselves are not particularly convincing; but they are very impressive considering what the filmmakers had to work with. There are plenty of them too and the blood flows freely and often, which is nice. The first half of the movie is slightly more character and story based and the build up is actually quite good as the characters are established. It has to be said that the film goes downhill once we get towards the ending because then it's basically just a Braindead-style bloodbath. The film takes a humorous approach to the zombies, which was previously seen in films like Video Dead and (again) Braindead and to be honest I find that a bit of a turn off; but with a film with such a low budget as this, you can't really blame them for adding comedic elements. The ending is fairly decent and while this is not exactly classic horror; it's decent for an hour's entertainment and should appeal to zombie fans.