Apocalypse of the Dead

Director: Milan Konjevic & Milan Todorovic

Screenplay: Vukota Brajovic, Milan Konjevic & Milan Todorovic

Producers: Milan Todorovic, Vukota Brajovic, Loris Curci, Zeljko Mitrovic

Starring: Ken Foree, Kristina Klebe, Emilio Roso, Miodrag Krstovic, Vukota Brajovic

Year: 2009

Country: Serbia/Italy/Spain

BBFC Certification: 18

Duration: 96 min

Apocalypse of the Dead (AKA Zone of the Dead) is a low budget Serbian zombie B-movie due a UK DVD release in March. Featuring a lead performance by Ken Foree, star of Dawn of the Dead and featuring a plot combining Night of the Living Dead with Assault on Precinct 13, Apocalypse of the Dead is clearly made by fans of the horror and exploitation genres. So the question is can these first time directors channel their fan-love into something close to it's influences?

Well the short answer is no. Apocalypse of the Dead shuffles (and runs) down a well-trodden path of zombie-movie clichés. The premise is that an experimental gas which can bring dead cells back to life is being transported across Serbia. Things go wrong of course and the gas container is accidentally blown open unleashing a zombie plague across the city of Pancevo. Our protagonists are chiefly a group of Interpol agents transporting a dangerous prisoner to Belgrade who end up having to work together to fight off the hordes of the undead surrounding them. Along the way they meet some teenagers coming home from a wild party, an old English professor and a psychotic bible-quoting skinhead with a never-ending arsenal of weaponry at his disposal.

That last sentence probably perked the interest of action and horror fans, but unfortunately the skinhead is criminally underused, only really pulling out all the stops at the end of the film. Plus, although he provides the film's most fun moments, he's also one of the weakest actors, struggling to deliver his pretentious dialogue with any conviction. The performances in general are a real sore point in this film. Now I usually don't care too much about the acting in zombie movies, but here it's really quite painful. The main cast members aren't the worst I've seen, they fit in with the B-movie vibe (Foree has some nice moments), but most of the supporting cast are Serbian actors forced to speak English all the time (even to each other), probably in an effort to make the film more appealing to an international audience. It means that anyone not in a starring role is either badly dubbed or stumbles through a language that is clearly not their mother tongue. Why they didn't just subtitle all of the Serbians and keep the main cast members speaking English I'll never know - their characters are supposed to be from the US anyway.

As I said though I can usually forgive cheesy performances in a film of this type, but unfortunately it didn't deliver in the departments that matter either. For me a genre movie succeeds if it either does something original with it's concept, goes way over the top in the exploitation stakes, or simply does what that genre does best (i.e. scares or excites). Apocalypse of the Dead never really does any of these. The filmmakers do nothing original at all, apart from maybe set it in Serbia. Every zombie cliché you can think of is included, from the group member being bitten early on who will need to be killed at some point (I'll let you guess when) to the old character asking to be left behind to die. As for going over the top and doing what a horror film does best, this is where the film disappointed me most. The film starts very poorly, largely because it relies heavily on the terrible supporting cast, but also because it takes a while for any serious zombie carnage to kick in. The only really impressive and exciting scene comes at the film's finale when the survivors have to fight through a vast wave of the living dead armed with a variety of guns and a samurai sword. This scene is great fun, but was too little too late for me. There are one or two moments in the middle which are entertaining enough too, such as a decapitation by harpoon, but generally it's just a queue of cheaply reproduced scenes that we've seen many times before.

I generally like to give all types of films a chance, especially horror and action movies because I'm a fan of the genres. Apocalypse of the Dead however just felt a bit lazy. The potential was there for a fun 'beer and buddies' movie, but it's overuse of actors working away from their native tongue and far too many clichés just left me wanting to revisit better films. Those who are big zombie fans and don't want anything extra added will get a few kicks from this, but I'd prefer to whack Evil Dead on again.

3/10

CS - Saturday pt. 1: Coffin Rock, Anguish & Yoroi: Samurai Zombie

Coffin Rock

Year: 2009
Director: Rupert Glasson
Writer: Rupert Glasson
Starring: Lisa Chappell, Robert Taylor & Sam Parsonson

Saturday kicked off with another solid offering from Australia. Coffin Rock didn't blow me away like Lake Mungo did, but it's a taught, well performed, slick thriller/horror.

A couple have been trying for a child for a long time with no success, until a strange drifter comes into their lives, and a drunken fling with the wife throws their lives into turmoil and eventually grave danger.

It's a story that has been told before and there are no surprises in this psycho-stalker tale, but a powerful performance from villain Sam Parsonson and some tight direction elevate the film to higher level than you'd at first imagine. Parsonson creates a wonderfully deranged obsessive who makes Lisa Chappell and Robert Taylor's characters lives a living hell. He has a creepily charming side to him that he employs to get people on his side, but when this drops he turns into something truly terrifying.

So, it's not a film that will change the world with it's predictable story and textbook finale, but it's a well-made effort and shows that first time writer/director Rupert Glasson is someone to look out for.

6/10


Anguish

Year: 1987
Director: Bigas Luna
Writer: Bigas Luna & Michael Berlin
Starring: Michael Lerner, Zelda Rubenstein

Anguish is a mad, long-forgotten curiosity from the 80's that is quite an experience, not necessarily a great film, but certainly something worth seeing, especially at the cinema.

I don't want to give too much away, because the central conceit is such a shock when it's revealed, but basically about a third or maybe half way through the film there is a sudden revelation that turns the whole film on it's head and splits the film in two. The first part tells the story of a troubled optometrist's assistant (played by popular supporting actor Michael Lerner, given a welcome lead role) who is controlled by his overbearing mother (played by Poltergeist show-stealer Zelda Rubenstein) into a vicious killing spree where he cuts out his victim's eyes.

This core of the film is quite effective, with some hammy but entertaining performances leading us through a bizarre and gory slasher story that is pretty mad at times, but still quite effective. Unfortunately, when the 'revelation' occurs mid-way through the film, everything goes a bit wrong. It's an original and very interesting idea, but for me it spoiled the impact of the story that had already been developed, and any tension is lost because from then on the film jumps around too much.

That said, the film is certainly made memorable because of it's eccentricities, and although it doesn't always work, the premise does make it the fascinating curiosity that it is. So as an entertaining experiment it's a film I'm glad I caught before it disappears.

5/10


Yoroi: Samurai Zombie

Year: 2008
Director: Tak Sakaguchi
Writer: Ryuhei Kitamura
Starring: Mitsuru Fukikoshi & Issei Ishida

You get the idea from the title, Yoroi: Samurai Zombie is a silly action horror film with surprise, surprise, a bunch of samurai zombies in it! Unfortunately, although I never expected it to be a work of art, Yoroi does disappoint as an exploitation flick.

Written by Versus writer/director Ryuhei Kitamura and directed by Versus star Tak Sakaguchi, Yoroi borrows heavily from their cult classic debut. It's got the same low-budget, all shot in the woods feel to it as well as the over-the-top action and gore quota. It doesn't have the kinetic style of Versus though, or the pace, which means it never excites as much as it should. Also, crazily gory low budget action films from Japan these days have the likes of Machine Girl to contend with, and this never reaches the giddy heights of the king (or queen) of splatter.

At the end of all the daftness, the film has a surprisingly dark ending, which I wasn't expecting. It doesn't quite settle though after watching an hour or so of severed heads and pressure-washer arteries. The bloodiest sequences are where the film works best. The effects are never realistic, and some of the bloodletting looks copied and pasted throughout the film, but most of the humour comes from these crazy moments. If gore doesn't interest you, you'll be lost though, as there isn't much else to enjoy here. The comedy quite often struggles to hit it's mark. A seemingly indestructible gangster character provides some bad taste chuckles, but most of the time you'll be smirking rather than laughing out loud.

There is fun to be had though. It's obviously a very silly film, and if the style is to your liking you'll still leave the cinema with a smile on your face. Unfortunately, you'll also have a feeling of 'been there, done that better before'.

4/10

The write-ups for each day of the Celluloid Screams festival are now available:
Introduction
Friday
Saturday Part 2
Sunday