Greetings, all. Ambush Bug here with another AICN HORROR: ZOMBIES & SHARKS column. A rough batch of films this week, but there are a few diamonds in this week’s batch.
Before we dive in, I wanted to remind folks about Flashback Weekend which is going on all weekend in Rosemont, just north of Chicago, Illinois. I’ll be there on Saturday tooling about and checking out the booths and panels. It’s a very cool horror convention that’s a must for any self-respecting horror fanatic. This weekend there’s a screening of STARRY EYES hosted by Pat Healy, a RE-ANIMATOR reunion and screening, a HALLOWEEN 1-6 reunion followed by a drive-in presentation of the original HALLOWEEN on a giant inflatable screen, as well as appearances by scores of horror stars, creators, concerts, costumes, and contests galore. Find out all the poop about Flashback Weekend here and I hope to see you there!On with the horror reviews!
(Click title to go directly to the feature)
LAKE PLACID VS ANACONDA (2015)
TOOLBOX MURDERS 2 (2013)
APPETITES (2015)
BURYING THE EX (2014)
THE LAST SURVIVORS (2014)
INNER DEMONS(2014)
INTO THE GRIZZLY MAZE (2014)
WYRMWOOD: ROAD OF THE DEAD (2014)
And finally…Mike Relm’s FIELD DAY!
New this week on DVD and digital download from Sony Pictures!LAKE PLACID VS ANACONDA (2015)
Directed by A.B. StoneWritten by Berkeley Anderson
Starring Corin Nemec, Yancy Butler, Robert Englund, Stephen Billington, Skye Lourie, Oliver Walker, Ali Eagle, Annabel Wright, Laura Dale, Georgina Philipps, Nigel Barber, Heather Gilbert, Jenny May Darcy, Kalina Stoimenova, Carolina Bratanova
Find out more about this film on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Maybe I’m getting soft in my old age, but I didn’t hate LAKE PLACID VS ANACONDA as much as I thought I would. It’s not a good movie by far, but for some reason it held my attention the whole way through, which is more than I can say about the last few entries in each of this mash-up’s original series.
Smooshing two concepts together with about as much finesse as a cement enema is LAKE PLACID VS ANACONDA, which begins with a merc team quite easily capturing one of the giant crocodiles that have plagued Lake Placid for five films and bringing it to a mobile science trailer where it is crossbred with a giant anaconda from wherever the hell the ANACONDA films are set. Right off the bat, there’s a problem as it is way too easy for these two monster animals which will prove to be such a nuisance and terror for the rest of the film to be captured. If they are that easy to nab, then why the hell have the previous protagonists had such a hard time with the giant bastards? So while it serves the story in a structural way, it really does damage the character to have it all be so easy for these two beasts to be put into the same place.Of course, the experiment goes sideways and both the giant croc and the big-ass snake get loose just when a group of sorority gals go to an adjoining lake for a dip. One by one the bleach blondes get eaten, save for a game warden’s daughter and a few random gals to die five minutes apart for the rest of the film until there are none left. Meanwhile, the game warden (played PARKER LEWIS CAN’T LOSE’s Corin Nemic ) teams up with the LAKE PLACID tough girl sheriff from the last few movies, Yancy Butler, in order to find the croc, the snake, and the game warden’s daughter (they don’t seem as worried about the sorority girls, but really, they deserve to die). There is some convoluted tie in with the Blood Orchid which factors into the ANACONDA films as a key to immortality or some such bunk as the cross-breed of the new species activates the immortality serum, but really this is a film for folks who get a thrill from seeing one person after another getting eaten by either a snake or a crocodile.
And I guess I’m one of those people as I found the film to be developmentally delayed fun. There’s just something about seeing people squirm around on the ground getting eaten by a badly rendered CG snake and croc that held my attention. Paired with the CG beasties, the horrible computer-generated blood spatter makes it damn near remedial in terms of quality of gore and graphics. But for some reason, the film maintains a carefree wit about it as if it knows the whole thing is stupid and they don’t care who knows it.Dumb plot, convoluted way of combining two film series, tedious dialog, crayola CG, and phoned-in performances continue to add up to a film I should hate on all levels, but at this point with the SyFy and Asylum productions, I just can’t muster the energy to hate them and have kind of just accepted them as bad movies as I feel the makers have accepted this fact too. So go in with a low bar of expectations and expect LAKE PLACID VS ANACONDA to limbo right under it, but as long as you don’t think or care for quality, you might just be entertained.
New this week on BluRay/DVD from The Shout Factory!TOOLBOX MURDERS 2 (2013)
aka COFFIN BABY, COFFIN BABY - TOOLBOX KILLER IS BACKDirected by Dean Jones
Written by Josh Edwards, Dean Jones
Starring Bruce Dern, Brian Krause, Clifton Powell, Chauntal Lewis, Ethan Phillips, Ron Chaney, Isabelle Fretheim, Kyle Morris, Edgar Allan Poe IV, Allison Kyler, Whitney Anderson, Starr Jones, Chance Harlem Jr., Holmes Lindsay IV & Christopher Doyle as Coffin Baby!
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Having only seen the original TOOLBOX MURDERS many years ago, I have not seen the modern remake which this film is the sequel of. I don’t know if I would like the film a little more had I seen the new redux, but I think I might have understood it a little more. Or maybe not, as from a storytelling perspective TOOLBOX MURDERS 2 is a tough one to nail down.
At the beginning of the film, a young woman is abducted and put in a cage in a dank and dingy warehouse. Across from her is a table, a TV monitor, and a wall full of tools that would make Schneider from ONE DAY AT A TIME plotz. Out from the shadows emerges “Coffin Baby”, a scarred serial murderer I guess was doing the murders with tools in the first film. Throughout the film, the murderer tortures the woman’s mind and body to the point of insanity making her eat human meat, sleep with corpses, and even lose a limb or two. Does the woman have it in her to endure this torture or will she finally snap?Though it wants to sell itself as a stalk n’ slash, TOOLBOX MURDERS 2 is quite simply torture porn with a jail cell substituting for a chair for the female protagonist to be chained to. The film ties things together with cops desperately racing to track the abducted woman down and a little bit of history prior to her abduction, but the bulk of this film focuses on the murderer torturing, beating, and mind-fucking a screaming woman. To entertain me, a film has to try a little harder than that. Yes, there are some inventive kills and tortures. There are a few effective scenes of the woman losing her mind and talking with corpses, but it all feels like it is trying to latch onto the tail end of the torture porn trend which ended quite a few years ago and, quite honestly, didn’t impress me when it was at its peak.
On top of that, the murderer didn’t murder one person with a toolbox, and that’s fucking disappointing……
In all seriousness, I just wasn’t impressed with this film. I have no idea how the killer became the way he did and how he is able to purchase all of these tools and video equipment with his face as fucked up as it is. While at some angles the visage of the murderer is chilling, it really is rather immovable and plays more like a Halloween mask than giving the illusion of an actual face, so it loses its level of effectiveness with every time he appears.
Again, maybe I’m missing something. Maybe TOOLBOX MURDERS 1 was a masterpiece and answered all of the questions I had with the who, what, where, when, and why should I give a shit? Some of that should have at least been recapped in the sequel. So while I can’t say how it will play to those who saw the original, as a standalone film, TOOLBOX MURDERS 2 just doesn’t work.
New this week on DVD from RLJ Entertainment!APPETITES (2015)
Directed by Cameron CaseyWritten by Darren Bevill (screenplay & story), Brennan Freemantle (story)
Starring Lauren Parkinson, Bret Roberts, Chris Cleveland, James Duval, Travis Eberhard, Bonnie Rotten, John Grohl, Scott Barrows, Carolina Campbell, Malice McMunn, Jake Allyn, Erin Callahan, Brian McGuire, David Harper
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
I really don’t know how to take APPETITES. It’s a wonky and uneven piece of action horror that had me laughing one minute and shaking my head in shame the next. It really feels like the film is trying to say something in a distinct voice, but ends up being just short of cool.
The film opens with a hillbilly spitting on his porch and watching two deer fuck in his backyard. Finding this mildly arousing, he ventures into the basement of his home to rape his daughter Daisy, but his mentally handicapped son Bubba has had enough of the torture and kills him. Ever since then Daisy (Lauren Parkinson) and Bubba (Scott Barrows) have lived on their own, stalking, killing, and eating random folks to get by on their hundred acre piece of land in the middle of nowhere. Attempting to have somewhat of a normal life, Daisy also goes into town to waitress at a dive bar where she dreams of having a happy life with someone who can love her. Cue the drifter named John Doe (Bret Roberts), a singing cowboy who likes to sleep with women and then murder them just when they let down their guard. While they both fight the urge, Daisy and John are attracted to one another, but are oblivious to the other’s murderous pastimes. But secrets can only stay secret for so long, and the more they find out about one another the closer they get and the closer they are to finding out the truth about one another. Can two crazy-nuts psycho maniacs fall in love and live happily ever after?At times, this is a sweet little violent love story about two unlikely people finding and falling in love with one another. While filmmaker Cameron Casey establishes their murderous ways early, there’s something undeniably likable about Parkinson and Roberts that makes you want them to work things out. Of course the odds are stacked against them, and there’s some fun in seeing John want to hang up his spurs and settle with Daisy, who doesn’t know the meaning of the word settle down and is giving him a tough time landing any of his go-to tactics in winning the hearts of the ladies. Still, there’s a bit of hollowness here as Daisy asks if John would be with her if she wasn’t hot. A smarter film would have turned the tides and had John ask Daisy if she would talk with him if he didn’t have six pack abs and a full head of Fabio hair. This isn’t a smarter film.
No, that charm exuding from Parkinson and Roberts only goes so far, and the film kind of falls apart the more you spend with the two. The film really doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be, as the sex scenes are filmed like outtakes from Skinemax fare and the gore seems to be as unimportant as the story here as things meander a bit too much, giving people a lot of lines that are trying to pass as cool, but just don’t get there. There’s a Tarantino vibe throughout, especially NATURAL BORN KILLERS, but APPETITES pales in comparison. The whole thing reads as if the attention was paid mostly to style rather than anything substantial, so while there are some fun scenes with John Doe serenading a corpse apologizing for killing her and Daisy working out in her crossbow-loaded obstacle course, anything resonant is kind of glossed over.The film is flashy and good for a few laughs. Parkinson and Roberts are passable actors, but obviously hired for what they look like out of their clothes. I didn’t hate APPETITES; I was just disappointed, as I feel one more rewrite and some depth here would have made for a far more entertaining film. As a bonus, or maybe a detriment, there’s a blooper reel over the credits. It’s been a while since I’ve seen anything like this in horror, so this final little detail did make me laugh a bit. As is, it’s quirky, offbeat, and raunchy at times, so if you’re looking for something that looks good but leaves you with an empty feeling by the end, APPETITES should do the trick.
New this week on DVD/BluRay and itunes from RLJ/Image Entertainment!BURYING THE EX (2014)
Directed by Joe DanteWritten by Alan Trezza
Starring Anton Yelchin, Ashley Greene, Alexandra Daddario, Oliver Cooper, Ozioma Akagha, Gabrielle Christian, Archie Hahn, Stephanie Koenig, Wyndoline Landry, Katie Roberts, Mindy Robinson, Dick Miller
Find out more about this film on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Some strong performances by some really talented stars save BURYING THE EX from being a run of the mill zom-com.
Anton Yelchin plays Max, a guy after my own heart who lives and breathes horror. He works in a horror shop and, though he hates the owner, dreams of having his own shop some day. His blogger girlfriend Evelyn (the TWILIGHT series’ Ashley Greene) sees Max as a fixer upper, and she will stop at nothing to keep Max living green and under her thumb (there’s a on opportunity for a green thumb quip here, but I just didn’t have the heart to go there). By happenstance (which often occurs in these romantic-style movies) Max and Evelyn happen into the ice cream store owned by Olivia (the scrum-dilly-icious Alexandra Daddario – two scoops, please!) and the shared interest in horror and obscure nerdery causes Olivia and Max to immediately hit it off and only makes the glaring differences between Max and Evelyn all the more evident to him. But when Max decides to break things off with Evelyn in a public place, she is mowed down by a bus. Little do they know one of the trinkets in Max’s store is not a movie prop, but an actual mystical item which grants wishes. This item is in proximity when Evelyn makes Max promise to love her forever no matter what, and faster than you can say plot contrivance, Evelyn rises from the dead just as Max begins to shove the guilt aside and think he can have a new relationship with Olivia. Whew! Got all that?What transpires are your typical sitcom antics, as Max tries to hide the fact that his ex-girlfriend is back from the dead from Olivia and attempts to hide his new girlfriend from Evelyn. This involves much hiding, goofy plans, and hijinkery. Too bad that much of this stuff was done before and better in every episode of I LOVE LUCY or even THREE’S COMPANY, as everything pretty much plays out without an ounce of surprise or real flair. Because the tone of the film is so light, it’s hard to watch the instances when someone actually dies or the actual feelings of these chess pieces are taken into consideration because of the wonky cat and mouse theme that’s prevalent throughout the film. The result is pretty uneven and often quite messy.
What isn’t messy are the performances. Yelchin’s Max is likable, and he plays the character light and fun. You can’t help but root for him (as he showed in the equally flawed ODD THOMAS film, reviewed here) and though the story is contrived, he does his best to make his performance likable. Alexandra Daddario is the real treat here. Sure she plays every horror fans’ dream girl, but the quiet moments between her and Yelchin where they are getting to know each other are some of the best of the movie. Again, on top of her beauty, she is utterly likable and easy to root for here. Greene as Evelyn is also pretty great, as her role is more challenging since you are supposed to hate her. Her determination to have Max and the fact that she is oblivious to the faults in their relationship are really conveyed well here. Her comic timing as she begins to fall apart and succumb to her zombie needs are impeccable as well. All in all, this is a strong piece of work in the acting department.But this is your typical zom-com. There are some fun moments of gore and some one-liners worth a titter or two. This is nothing here we haven’t already seen with the entertaining but hollow WARM BODIES (reviewed here) and last year’s more interesting LIFE AFTER BETH (reviewed here). And while there are some fun Joe Dante-isms at play here such as the Dick Miller cameo as a grumpy cop and the multiple TVs and posters in the background of various old timey movies, this definitely doesn’t feel like Dante giving it his all. But the actors in BURYING THE EX are, despite the lackluster script, and if you’re looking for something worthwhile in this film it’s Yelchin, Daddario, and Greene. These three save this film from being forgettable and while I’m sure all three of them are bound for bigger and better films, here’s hoping Dante can get that twinkle again that has permeated so many of his films through the years with his next project. This one just doesn’t have it.
New this week on BluRay/DVD from Dark Sky Films!THE LAST SURVIVORS (2014)
Directed by Tom HammockWritten by Jacob Forman & Thomas S. Hammock
Starring Haley Lu Richardson, Booboo Stewart, Max Charles, Nicole Fox, Michael Welch, Jon Gries, Michael Massee, Rena Owen, Leo Lee, Barbara Crampton, Michael McCartney, Jacqueline Emerson
Find out more about this film on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
So many post-apocalyptic tales have been made since it’s pretty easy to stake out a desert shoot, find some abandoned buildings, and cover your actors in dirt. I’m not saying a desert shoot is less difficult, but I guess it’s a statement on how the world is today that there are so many barren, desolate, and run down places that make it perfect to shoot as if society has collapsed. Because of the abundant amount of fall of civilization cinema is out there, it takes something pretty special to distinguish itself from the rest. THE LAST SURVIVORS is one of those special post-apocalyptic films.
After the fall of the world, the sun has dried up all of the water, leaving the survivors desperate for any form of water. There are those who try to harvest their own water from hidden wells and those who scavenge and steal the water from those who are trying to keep these wells secret. The center of attention for this particular story is a well guarded by a young woman named Kendal (Haley Lu Richardson), Dean, an invalid (Booboo Stewart, who was seen recently in X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURES PAST as Warpath), and a young boy named Alby (Max Charles). Siphoning and rationing their supplies and water, the three have survived these harsh conditions, but find the roaming barbaric nomads getting ever closer to discovering their well. This gang is led by NAPOLEON DYNAMITE’s John Gries as Carson and his red-haired daughter Brooke (the beautiful Nicole Fox), and their methods are deadly and ruthless. ONCE WERE WARRIORS’ Rena Owen, RE-ANIMATOR’s Barbara Crampton, THE CROW’s Michael Massee, and TWILIGHT’s Michael Welch all show up in smaller yet crucial roles and show how well cast this small film really is.
Apart from the strong cast, THE LAST SURVIVORS sets up the basic conflict capably as well. Making man’s greatest necessity so hard to find and setting the tale in the middle of a sandy wasteland will make you reach for a drink a few times while watching this film. Writer/director Tom Hammock and writer Jacob Forman take full advantage of the environment, allowing the camera to pan across the sparse overgrowth of desert plants and dusty coverings of just about everything else. This is a beautiful-looking film despite the barren surroundings, and Hammock’s camera soaks it all in and allows the viewer to be enveloped by the sharp winds and arid temperatures.The action in the film is top notch as well. Nothing superhuman happens. Kendal is a spunky girl but a fallible hero, and no one seems safe from being wiped out by either the elements or the nomads. The strong performances from the cast only intensify the danger, and newcomer Haley Lu Richardson is bound for bigger and better things as she is able to carry this film capably on her slender shoulders. THE LAST SURVIVORS is not a high octane, in your face end-of-the-worlder like THE ROAD WARRIOR, but it offers up a more serene yet no less brutal look at the times after society falls.
New this week on DVD from IFC Midnight!INNER DEMONS (2014)
Directed by Seth GrossmanWritten by Glenn Gers
Starring Lara Vosburgh, Morgan McClellan, Kate Whitney, Brian Flaherty, Colleen McGrann, Christopher Parker, Ashley Sutton, Susan Ateh, Richard Wilkinson, Sewell Whitney, John Cragen, Adrian Gaeta
Find out more about this film on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Textbook and tired exorcist clichés and some simply boneheaded plot decisions bog down INNER DEMONS.
Using the format of the mockumentary, INNER DEMONS follows a fictional intervention show focusing on what looks to be a typical case of drug use and a loving family who won’t give up on their daughter. Carson (Lara Vosburgh) was a typical girl next door until she was sent to boarding school, and then suddenly she fell into the world of drugs and addiction. Her family reaches out for help to an intervention television show as a last ditch effort to save her. But when Carson agrees to go to rehab and get clean, it is uncovered that she uses drugs to help her deal with demonic forces threatening to take over her body and soul.The concept is a winner. I like the idea of using drugs to drown out demonic possession. It reminds me of the way people self medicate themselves to drown out pervasive thoughts or, in extreme cases, drown out voices often associated with schizophrenia. I also think the filmmakers did a decent job of recreating the mockumentary format. While many of the actors look like actors and were not as convincing as, say, something like the amazing LAKE MUNGO or to a lesser extent BEHIND THE MASK, the way it was all cut together makes it all feel pretty convincing and is produced as if it were a real intervention show.
What really made me roll my eyes was the unnecessary subplot of one of the cameramen, Jason (Morgan McClellan), falling for Carson and really screwing up the entire works. First and foremost, the relationship between Carson and Jason isn’t fleshed out to the point of being believable as nothing really happens to show why the two would be attracted to one another. Sure you could say that this is the demon influencing things, but that’s a far stretch and feels more like a late in the game explanation rather than actual intent. When Jason finally gets tossed off the show because of his unethical behavior it seems like it happens way too late in the game, as any real reality show would have tossed him off immediately for getting too involved. The fact that Jason continues to stalk Carson is more annoying than anything (mainly because the relationship isn’t believable), but the part that made me slap my head so hard it caved it in was when all of a sudden, because he read a book about exorcism, Jason is now qualified to give an actual exorcism. So instead of an actual priest, which there was one cast in this film, the dunderheaded cameraman with a crush suddenly has the power of Christ compelling Carson to ditch the demon, which I found to be beyond inane.Some shoddy CG mixed in with some security cam footage and some typical possession riffs we’ve seen over and over again make this entire film collapse in on itself by the end of the film. While the premise showed promise, the focus on forcing a love interest and giving him something crucial to do in the final act just makes this laughable by the time you are supposed to be on the seat’s edge. Somewhere in INNER DEMONS there’s a nugget of a good idea, but after that is established, this film falls back on Hollywood trappings and the same old same old when it comes to exorcism flicks.
New this week on BluRay/DVD from Sony Pictures!INTO THE GRIZZLY MAZE (2014)
aka RED MACHINE, ENDANGERED, GRIZZLYDirected by David Hackl
Written by Guy Moshe (screenplay), J.R. Reher (screenplay & story)
Starring James Marsden, Piper Perabo, Billy Bob Thornton, Thomas Jane, Scott Glenn, Michaela McManus, Adam Beach, Luisa D'Oliveira, Sarah Desjardins, Patrick Sabongui, Reese Alexander, Seth Isaac Johnson, Kelly Curran, Sean O. Roberts, & Bart the Bear as the Killer Bear!
Find out more about this film on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
I saw the trailer for this film months ago and couldn’t wait to finally watch it. Like zombies and sharks (which is the subtitle of this very column), bears are one of the few things in this world that really scare me on a primal level. Like sharks, they are unstoppable eating and mauling machines. But unlike sharks, bears habitate on dry land, and while I can avoid running into a shark by staying out of the water, I spend 99.9% of my normal day on dry land, so I don’t think my fear that somehow, somewhere, there is a chance I might run into a bear that will eat my face off is unrealistic. Bear phobia aside, I love being scared, so I couldn’t wait when this one made its way to the top of my pile for review.
After a stint in jail, Rowan (James Mardsen) makes his way back home to Alaska to pay homage to his father’s death by bear attack and enter a zone called the Grizzly Maze, which is the site where Roman and his brother Beckett (Thomas Jane) lost their father to a hungry bear when they were kids. But as Rowan gets on his brother’s nerves for returning, a giant killer bear is terrorizing the edges of the forest, chomping down on anything and anyone who dares enters the woods. After a few loggers and a few poachers are torn to shreds, Rowan and Beckett head out to find Beckett’s lost deaf girlfriend (Piper Parabo) and hopefully avoid becoming a fresh pile of bear squat. Meanwhile, this is the bear hunter Douglass (Billy Bob Thornton) has been waiting to bag all his life. Now, in the heart of bear country, all of them must take on a man-eating bear bigger than anyone has ever seen.Ever since GRIZZLY MAN touted the Grizzly Maze in its harrowing tale, I always thought setting a movie in the middle of it would be the bear equivalent to JAWS. Unfortunately, none of that potential is really used in this film as basically this is a remake of the film GRIZZLY with big stars and not a lot of big ideas. The cast makes things fun, specifically the deadpan performance by Billy Bob Thornton, but it really doesn’t help that the whole script just feels uninspired and formulaic. It’s basically a rescue story with Piper Parabo’s character playing the damsel that both brothers in their own way have to go out and rescue. Along the way, they find bodies and have a few run ins with the bear leading to a big confrontation at the beach which is unnecessarily bombastic and fiery, but kind of cool nevertheless.
One thing is for certain, Bart the Bear is pretty amazing. Not the original Bart the Bear from films such as THE EDGE and THE BEAR, this appears to be Bart’s son and he is a most impressive monster. While the film does rely on some pretty great CG bears for the close contact swiping and leaping through fire, the rest of the time Bart is used really well. As a fan of both Bart Sr. and Jr. it’s cool to see both the animal acting and the CG done well here.There are a few gory bits. One key character gets his face practically swiped off and has a dangling ear as a result of it which was one of the highlight gore scenes of the film, but for the most part the thrills are at a minimum as things occur as expected too many times in INTO THE GRIZZLY MAZE. Here’s hoping someone comes along and makes a truly great bear movie. Earlier in the year, BACK COUNTRY’s singular bear attack scene turned out to be the closest thing to awesome we’ve gotten recently, but INTO THE GRIZZLE MAZE just doesn’t cut it.
New this week on BluRay/DVD from IFC Midnight/The Shout Factory!WYRMWOOD: ROAD OF THE DEAD (2014)
Directed by Kiah Roache-TurnerWritten by Kiah Roache-Turner & Tristan Roache-Turner
Starring Jay Gallagher, Bianca Bradey, Leon Burchill, Luke McKenzie, Yure Covich, Catherine Terracini, Keith Agius, Meganne West, Berryn Schwerdt, Cain Thompson, Beth Aubrey, Sheridan Harbridge, Damian Dyke
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Rarely do I see a movie which is entertaining from the very beginning up until the very end, but I saw just that with WYRMWOOD, a new zombie film from Australia. But before you scroll past thinking this is just another run of the mill zombie film, give me a minute to convince you that this if you think you’ve seen it all in terms of zombie films, this film is bound and determined to prove you wrong.
There is not a second of WYRMWOOD that isn’t in your face and running on all cylinders. Jutting from one catastrophic incident to another, the film follows a handful of survivors that haven’t fallen victim to a sudden outbreak of zombie fever after a meteor shower. The hows and whys explaining the cause of this outbreak are left vague. All we know is that there are zombies, and there are only a few survivors fighting their asses off to survive.Unlike most zombie films, which either follow the Romero Way or the newer Zack Snyder fast zombies way, WYRMWOOD feels more like the Spierig Brothers’ UNDEAD, which offered up an unpredictable and boldly different take on zombies. Minor details are added to the mythos. The zombies’ blood is combustible and can be used as fuel, but this only occurs by day as they shamble slowly at night. One of the characters develops the power to control zombies’ actions telepathically. These new details make this film feel bold and new, making it more likely to surprise and less likely to become bored.
But the true highlight of WYRMWOOD is that it hits the ground running and never, ever stops for a breath until the end. Filmmakers Kiah Roache-Turner & Tristan Roache-Turner keep the action fresh and creative with one imaginative scene after another that you’ve never seen in any film before, let alone any zombie film.WYRMWOOD is the type of film that could inject new life into the zombie genre. It’s bold and ballsy. The film tears down the road like a runaway truck off of the ROAD WARRIOR set without brakes or respect for road signs. And while zombie purists might flinch at the embellishments the Roache-Turners made to the zombie mythos, this film may prove those who rip on the zombie genre for being stuck on repeat for the last ten years that there’s some blood in the old genre still. Full of action that’ll make your heart flip and gore that’ll do the same to your stomach, WYRMWOOD is the next great thing in zombies.
And finally…here’s a cool shortie focusing on the initial outbreak of a zombie apocalypse done in sloooooooooo-mooooooooooo! This one is directed by Mike Relm and is an impressive little bit of cinema. Check out FIELD DAY!
See ya next week, folks!
Ambush Bug is Mark L. Miller, original @$$Hole/wordslinger/writer of wrongs/reviewer/interviewer/editor of AICN COMICS for over 13 years & AICN HORROR for 4. Follow Ambush Bug on the Twitters @Mark_L_Miller.Be sure to tell your comic shop to support his new comic PIROUETTE (trade released in May Diamond order code FEB15 1090 for only $9.99!) from Black Mask Studios!
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