Undead

A fun night in, good because of its extra features on DVD as well, Don't turn the movie off after the feature, you get a sense of what it is like to make a film on a shoe string and make it look like a mainstream feature- a sad state of affairs to have to do. But hey blame bloody HOLLYWOOD, two fingers up at them me thinks these guys could very well say. The blokes on this must have worked so hard to get this to screen and Kudos to them for getting the positives they got for all the hell they clearly went through to get it there. A polished film which will not disappoint for a night in.Such a laugh and b rilliant detail in specail make up and special effects.

Another great splatter horror film from the Southern Hemisphere! It is so rare these days to set eyes upon a film that is not subjected to the boring, rehashed, commercially-hungry, modern American sub-genre of horror movies such as Cabin Fever and a host of recent slasher movies that try, beyond hope, to scare or shock the viewer by throwing as much blood and fast camera movement ("Boo, are you scared?") at the screen, with little to no success. Undead finally gets back to the roots of true splatter horror in a way that would make Jackson and Raimi proud and is a superb treat to the mature viewer who has grown up with these classics and is not simply into gratuitous pure shock-value.

Undead is "cheesy" and off-the-cuff. It pays hommage to a number of cult classics out there such as Romero's Trilogy of the Dead (the isolated farmhouse from NotLD, "Let's shop!" from Dawn and the police powerplay from Day), Raimi's Evil Dead ("Join us!"), Jackson's Braindead (the shovel in the bank manager's head) and Bad Taste (the alien contingent and appearance).

Do not expect great acting (though I am sure these actors are more than capable of doing so) or a totally original script (though the ending was actually quite unusual and surprised me), for this is not what this film is about. It is about having a fun 2 hours and, in my opinion, rewarding the fans of cult classic splatter horror (and hopefully introducing a number of younger individuals to this fantastic genre).

Not a great film, but a fun (non-American, something that is so rare these days) film!

Rene (Felicity Mason), the town beauty queen of Berkley, Austrailia, wants desperately to get out. But as her and her boyfriend are driving out of town, meteorites fall from the sky turning various town-folk into rampaging zombies. When Rene's boyfriend gets changed, she watches as a mysterious stranger (whom we later learn is the town 'crazy') dispatches the now zombiefied BF. She decides to hole up in the isolated farmhouse of said 'kook'. It's soon up to her, the guy, a husband, his pregnant wife, and two cops to survive long enough to figure what the hell is going on.

This Aussie film, while hopelessly derivative and ripping-off a great many great genre movies, is still a lot of fun. It looks far better than it's budget would imply and gore-hounds will be satisfied. That being said, the acting isn't the greatest and the movie pretty much loses steam towards the end when it veers decidedly off-course. But it's still very enjoyable for fans of the genre.

My Grade: B-

I'm Australian, so i know what a bad movie is. this surprisingly enough isn't one. They only thing missing from this movie to keep it from touching the stars (so to speak) is originality. it has everything else, its funny and violent, and even thru bad acting you can see a great vision. but for me this movie was so good that i can hardly believe it was made by a couple of aussies. Aussie horror has not always been met with open arms by the horror fraternity but hopefully this will erase some of the embarrassment of the horrible horror we have produced.

on top of that this movie has aliens comfortable with being naked, i didn't see that in signs.

It seems to be the latest fad - movies directed by duos (brothers usually). You've got the Pang Brothers who brought us the magnificent The Eye, the Wachowski's for the Matrix trilogy, and the Coen Brothers to mention the biggies. Now add to that list the Spierig Brothers - these guys are going to be big, believe me. And if their film, Undead is any indication, they won't be unknown for too long.

I was fortunate enough to see a copy of this film on the weekend, and I must admit, I went into it not being a huge fan of the zombie genre, but I have come out a total fan!!!

The thing that stood out the most to me about this film, was the CG effects. They are simply flawless!! I cannot compliment the team behind them enough. You would be hard up to find effects of this ilk in any film produced outside of Hollywood. I think the effects alone raise the film above schlock and unbearable to watch to something that screams mass-release!!! There is definitely a market out there for this film, and I am so glad that it is being released to major markets shortly.

The comedy in the film was timely, the horror and effects were appropriate, and the acting was, was... Australian!!!! My only criticism was some of the music score - it went a bit over the top with the comical undertones in places where I thought it could have been stronger with its intensity. It's really a small criticism in the scheme of things as I thought the movie as whole was an impressive addition to the Speirig Brothers CV's.