Colin

For anyone who has ever wondered, thought or perhaps even dreamed what it would be like to die and return as a member of the undead, this movie is for you. Colin is an extraordinary feat in the world of micro budget film making. Not only wrapping the film up with a 75 pound budget ( it was filmed in England ) as director Marc Price has claimed,but bringing us a zombie film structured like no other I have seen .Very cleverly done and well executed, Colin is disturbingly realistic with it's outlook of a young man's deterioration of both his body and soul.

Without an establishment shot, the film begins with a door opening , an injured young man enters. Placing the weapon of choice, a hammer down to attend to the wound on his arm.Like an episode of C.S.I. we see the the inner workings of Colin's blood cells as they are transforming? As this isn't enough he is then attacked by a zombie in the safety of his own kitchen. Reaching for the utensil drawer for some kind of a weapon , Colin pulls out a wooden spoon and raps the zombie over the head with it until the spoon breaks. Finding a knife, he stabs the zombie's head repeatedly, this little scene reminded me of the famous shower scene from Psycho with it's quick editing techniques not nearly as complicated of course but very well done.

Colin's transformation into the undead is handled with the use of strange camera angles and effects such as camera tilts and shots from behind glass objects. Sound is also used to great effect, much of it reminded me of man made noises not unlike that of Alan Splet's work in David Lynch's Eraserhead. Making his way outside, shuffling through the city streets, we can see that the undead have taken over most of the streets. One impressive special effect is shown as a man trying to escape the zombies through an open window, is pulled back in by a horde of of the undead, bending his legs in the most unnatural of ways. At one time Colin stops to to pick up a child's building blocks, an oversize lego, they fall from his hand, losing the motor skills he once had acquired but have now lost. One block falls into a sewer grate, like his life , it too is falling apart and literally going to Hell.

We experience the sights and sounds of one person's journey from life to death to the undead. We see Colin's first taste of flesh, as he rips into an injured man's ear and pulls the man's MP3 player out along with it. Colin looks puzzled as he seems to recognize the music he is hearing. Another time Colin is confused staring at a traffic sign, he recognizes the shape and symbol but at the same time looking very alien to him.

There is a very impressive and prolonged set piece, a group of people are under attack from the undead. It has a very realistic feel to it as there are no real weapons at hand, house hold items are the weapons being used here. Pots and pans,a cordless drill, and umbrellas are all used to create some unique splatter effects, again impressive for such a minuscule budget.This created a very claustrophobic situation and one that I can aspire in a zombie apocalyptic film.

Colin now being a zombie, has been targeted numerous times by a dwindling population of humans. One such time he was even abducted, a potato sack like bag placed over his head, another effective use of the camera was to show Colin's P.O.V. ( point of view ) the camera inside the sack with Colin. Tat, Colin's sister and friends have captured and tied Colin up in hopes of jarring his memory. Showing family pictures only brings animal growls and snarls from the undead sibling's mouth, Colin has become very animalistic. Finally his mother and sister realize that he is not coming back. In a very emotional and somber scene Tat ,a friend and mother are seen arguing, probably about Colin's fate, as he is locked inside stroking the window pane where his family stands on the other side of the glass. The emotional strings are tugged on us again as Colin's mother is shown covering the windows with newspapers, headlines of zombie outbreaks ETC.. are shown. Shutting his little contact with the outside world completely off now.

Escaping from his Mother's house, Colin soon finds the humans have now banded together to take control of the streets and the escalating zombie population. In a battle of survival, which resembles more of a street rumble with pipes, wrenches and sling shots being the weapon of choices. In a twist of irony, Colin is bashed to the head with a hammer( his weapon of choice )and is seen falling to the ground. A chaotic and powerful scene follows. The surviving humans must draw straws and the losers must round up the newly infected, they are then cornered and put to death by bludgeoning, a cruel twist of fate.
Colin who is still with us rises to his feet, looking a little worse for wear thanks to some decent make up effects courtesy of Michelle Webb.Stumbling back to the place where this terrible fate has taken place.

This is an extraordinary little film regardless of the budget.With it's innovative ideas and editing techniques used to give the film a more impressive budget. A realistic look is acheived by having actors  with previous experience mixed in with those actors with none.This is very cleverly done and well executed,but because of the camera's closeness it sometimes feels too tight and difficullt to comprehend the confusion caused by physical confrontations.

My Thoughts: This is the first that I have heard the name of Marc Price, but willing to bet it won't be the last. This young fella will certainly be making big budget features one day. The very least , he will be using his fine talents for editing.

My Rating; 4 Go Go Girls out of 5

The Walking Dead ( Week 4 )

Another fantastic episode , I'm beginning to have more respect for that hill billy red neck Merle and he wasn't even seen in this episode. The man cuts his hand off with a hack saw, cauterizes the wound and steals his would be rescuers truck and killing zombies along the way.

It now looks like the show is it's own entity and entering other story lines not seen in the comic book. So far I'm O.K. with the changes, I still have Kirkman's books and a new television series to enjoy.

Shane looks to have settled down from his beating to poor old Ed, even displaying a little compassion to Jim after having to restrain the man from hurting himself, digging all those holes like that. Speaking of Jim, what's up with him ? Is he now psychic ?

I enjoyed the confrontation between Rick and his group with that of the street gang, I totally wasn't expecting the reasons for the hostility from the gang.

The zombie attack happened quickly and from out of nowhere, the consequences were horrific and surprising, like the book , you can never be sure who will be next.

Zone of the Dead

Directed by Milan Konjovic' and Milan Todorovic'

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

In the last year or so there has been a splurgence of films making their way here from Serbia. Some of these films have caused controversy at film festivals and screenings, one film in particular A Serbian Film may even become banned in certain countries. It's real to life violence and horror representing the atrocities that have taken place in their country since the breakdown of Yugoslavia. Zone of the Dead is not one of these films, although it has been financed and supported by the Republic of Serbia, it has it's own atrocities to deal with such as bad dubbing, terrible translation and some mediocre acting.

The film's opening scene starts with a police detective and a coroner investigating four skeletal remains at a construction site and are only partial decomposed after 300 years. The bodies are covered with Lyme indicating they have died from the plague. A worker has cut himself on one of the skeleton's bones and has since died. The worker rises from the dead attacks the pair . The opening scene does nothing to advance the plot, we never see these characters again.

At a train station, we have an old man trying to phone his wife after he has missed his train, a station manager and a skinny ass kid of a police officer, or peace keeper I'm not quite sure. Enter three obnoxious assholes wearing military garb, NATO is performing military exercises throughout the country. The three soldiers are harassing the young officer, removing his gun from it's holster, a struggle per sues and the handgun accidentally fires into a tankard full of Toxic chemical from a train that arrived just moments before. A greenish colour gas escapes. I hate to be a nit picker, BUT I find it hard to believe that a tankard carrying such a dangerous chemical could be released with a single bullet from a handgun. Wouldn't you think the tankard containing the Toxic gas be reinforced with a metal of superior strength. Yeah I know sometimes we have to suspend our dis beliefs and not think about gaping plot holes, but I really don't like it when writers take advantage of their audiences. These characters all perish to the Toxic gas except for the old man who has managed to don a gas mask located in the station house.

We are introduced To Reyes ( Foree ), I'm guessing from the boxes packed in his small apartment, the picture of the pretty blond and Reyes popping pills and drinking vodka that we are supposed to feel sympathy for him. How can we , we don't even know this person or given a chance to feel connected to him or any of the other characters in the film. Now working with INTERPOL his partner Dragan ( Krstovic ) pulls him away from his apartment for one more mission.

It's Agent Mina Milius (Klebe) first field assignment, along with Reyes, Dragan and three other agents to escort a prisoner to Belgrade where the prisoner will then fly to London. On route the armoured vehicle transporting the prisoner and the truck with the agents run into trouble in the region of Pancevo, where the deadly gas has escaped from the tankard. The surviving agents must now form a truce with the prisoner if they are to survive the growing horde of the undead. Making their way to an abandoned police station, which also quickly becomes surrounded by the zombies. Is this a homage to John Carpenter's Assault on precinct 13 ?

The zombie make up effects by Miroslav Lakobrija look impressive enough I think, sometimes it is really too difficult to tell with most scenes being under lit and the use of jump editing during attacks giving the picture that jerky look which I find has been done to death in the zombie genre. My favorite zombie has to be the well endowed woman wearing nothing but an untied bath robe and a towel in her hair.

As all of this is going on, a young man having been locked up in a church and now free has been anticipating this moment all of his life and is prepared for Armageddon. He has enough weapons for a small army, and he is going to use them.

Along with the wooden and stilted acting, the dubbing is off target and I'm hoping for the sake of the screen play writer that the dialogue has been lost in translation because most of it is ambiguous and an incoherent mess.

In another homage, this time to George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, the survivors are debating where to go next, someone suggests a shopping mall. Foree's character replies " it would be too hard to secure, and believe me , they would get in anyway. Ken Foree portrayed Peter in the original 1978 version, a trooper whom with a small group tried to make a shopping mall their sanctuary.

My Thoughts: Watch Night of the Living dead again.

My Rating: 2 Go Go Girls out of 5

The Walking Dead ( week 3 )

Another fantastic week, I can't believe we are at the half way point of it's already short season of six episodes. Thankfully for us it has become a big hit and has been signed on for another season, Hallelujah for the T.V. gods. What a powerful emotional beginning to last night's episode, I could feel my eyes being slowly lubricated from some alien fluid that some how found it's way into my eye sockets, it takes a powerful moment from a television show to make this happen. But when Rick exited the truck and little Carl And Lori turned their heads up to see him, and that music by Bear McCreary you could actually feel how ecstatic they both were with his appearance. At the same time you can see Shane's little fantasy world come collapsing down around him.With Rick's arrival it's becoming an emotional battlefield out there. We are starting to see how much of an asshole Shane really is, telling Lori that Rick was dead, but man did she put him in his place, letting him know he is off limits to her family. Shane didn't take this so well, and took out his frustrations on poor Ed,beating the piss out of him after treating the women disrespectful. As I was watching Shane punch Ed in the face several times with no sign of letting up, I couldn't help but think Shane was wishing it was the face of Rick's he was beating to a pulp. And Rick thanking Shane for taking care of his family , is he really that nice ? or that naive ? I'm guessing, that nice, especially wanting to go back to rescue that red neck prick Merle. Considering the circumstances with a city full of undead citizens, a wife and child he has just reunited with, why bother?

Any how things are getting even more interesting with the small rescue team including Merle's brother Darryl reaching the roof top where Merle had been left hand cuffed, finds the roof empty except for a dangling pair of cuffs, a hack saw and a hand. Merle will not be taking this lightly, and I'm guessing will want to avenge his abandonment.

What says you?

King of the Ants

Directed by Stuart Gordon

Starring Chris McKenna, Kari Wuhrer, George Wendt, Vernon Wells,Lionel mark Smith, Timm Sharp and Daniel Baldwin

Remember how friendly and likable George Wendt was as Norm Peterson in the sitcom Cheers? Well be prepared to loathe him in this film. He truly is a despicable mean son of a bitch, a character you will grow to hate. This role of Duke Wayne and the one he played in The Masters of Horror episode " Family "proves his acting chops, especially in the horror genre. The movie House also benefited greatly with his presence.

Stuart Gordon gives us his scary, surreal look at average shmoe Sean Crawley (McKenna ) when he becomes involved with shady land developer Ray Matthews (Baldwin ) and his small posse of henchmen ( Wendt,Wells and Smith ). When the Jack of all trades, Sean is hired to follow an accountant who is occupied at City Hall, things turn sour for Sean when he agrees to try his hand at being a hit man and retrieving a wanted document. After Matthews reneges on his payment, Sean blackmails the wanna be Kingpin with the wanted document that he has hidden.

Believing killing Sean will lead the police back to them and possibly the murdered accountant, the mobsters decide to fuck Sean up literally. Sean is abducted and held hostage where he is tied to a chair and is hit upside the head daily. You will not look at a golf club the same way after witnessing this cringe inducing display of cruelty. In between Sean's daily tee off time, he is slowly beginning to lose a grip on reality,hallucinating some surreal images as his mind unfolds to reveal an unsettling, disturbing breakdown as only Director Gordon can deliver. Stuart Gordon is most noted for bringing the characters and creatures of H.P. Lovecraft to life. He gave us Jeffery Combs as Herbert West- Re animator, From Beyond,and Dagon which he has adapted from Lovecraft's short story Shadows over Innsmouth and the Masters of Horror episode " Dreams from the Witch House".Dennis Paoli adapts Lovecraft's stories and in my humble opinion is the only one capable to do so. Gordon and Paoli have worked on many other projects in the past.

With the help of a friend Sean finally manages to escape from his cruel and unusual punishment, and makes his way to a mission where the murdered accountant's wife ( Wuhrer ) volunteers . Things get interesting, when the newly widowed woman takes Sean in as her house guest.McKenna who portrays Sean is excellent, his character begins likable enough, taking on odd but honest jobs to make a living. Sean is a little off kilter , but the creep factor is on high alert after his head injuries are healed. Is this from the traumatic blows to the head, the inner Sean escaping ? Or is it metamorphosis ? Escaping from that shack , could be compared to exiting a cocoon.

The character of Ray Matthews is a pitiful excuse for a human being, and one who believes he is entitled to what and who he pleases. Matthews is the kind of person who has snapped the neck of an ankle biting dog because it's yapping had caused him coitus interuptus with a young woman he was trying to conquer. I'm not sure how he would take this , but Daniel Baldwin was made for this role. Kari Wuhrer's character of Susan is the only person who deserves any type of sympathy but she too is an emotional little fire cracker waiting to go off.

My Thoughts: This is a post modern horror film with compelling images, that will linger with you substantially after pushing that eject button and snapping the disc's keep case closed.

My Rating: 4 Go Go Girls out of 5

Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye

Directed by Antonio Margheriti, Starring Jane Birkin,Hiram Keller,Francoise Christophe,Venantino Venantini,Doris Kuntsmann.

Man, I had a tough go with this one. Sure it looks good with it's Gothic style setting of a castle complete with damp basements and secret passage ways that open up behind stone walls. Young women running through long corridors in their nighties, rats devouring the flesh from forgotten bodies tossed to the cellar. An ape even puts in an appearance to wreak havoc on the castle grounds.All of this does not make an exciting story, and takes quite some time to get where it is going and in my opinion not worth making the trip. You would think death by nasty slashes to the throat, a mysterious cat which is always present during the killings and a family curse involving vampires could hold my attention. Hypnotically stylish, maybe too much for it's own good, this is a sophisticated horror film and those looking for a film with plenty of body counts and clever methods of doing the victims in are advised to look elsewhere.This killer's M.O. is the slashing of the throat.Of course a movie where the potential victims and killer are all situated at the same location creates many red herrings and this picture is no different.

A young woman Corringa ( Birkan ) arrives at her aunt's Scottish castle to find members of her family being killed off one at a time, a la Agatha Christie's Ten little Indians. I found most of Corringa's family to be pretentious, but her cousin Lord James MacGrieff (Keller ) is also an obnoxious rude, spoiled brat who, when first introduced ,clears the table of his mother's dinner guests with his blatant insults. Lord James MacGrieff is a strange bird who happens to keep an orangutan caged in his bedroom.

There is a little bit of kinkiness going on, including a bi-sexual slut and an incestuous relations, but that darn pacing did me in. Slowwww going.In my opinion a better film by director Antonio Margheriti is Danza macabra ( 1964 ) also known as Castle of Blood starring the impressive Barbara Steele and filmed in a sombre black and white medium.

My Thoughts: I wished the story elaborated more with the family curse, and the dead family members did return as vampires. As it is ,it's just another case for Scotland Yard.

My Rating: 2 Go Go Girls out of 5

The Walking Dead ( Episode 2 )

So far so good, Darabont and company are batting two for two. I'm really enjoying the way the story is unfolding, catching a little glimpse of the members of the caravan and some of the new characters introduced. Having read some of the trade paperbacks I am getting a little anxious to jump in with both feet. But from the look of this episode , it could very well be a slow cooker before the whole kitchen goes up in flames. The characters are fleshed out a lot more, Glenn is even more good natured and easy going than the book shows. Shane is , well Shane is Shane. Pausing his little rendezvous with Lori until she removed the locket from her neck, and then he turned her over anyways.
I found most of the ideas from the book are being incorporated into the series, just not following a chronological order, I'm not complaining, it's familiar but at the same time new.Chopping a walker into little pieces by an axe, Rick and Glenn smear flesh and guts onto themselves to cover their own scent of being alive.Trying to make their way to a construction site for a vehicle.The book shows the two already having been back at the camp, then making the trip back to the city for guns and ammo using the same olfactory disguise.
Michael Rooker's character, I believe it's Merle, he is quite the red neck and will make an interesting addition to an already excellent ensemble. Rooker is the type of actor who takes on characters which are usually uneducated and a low life scumbag of some sort.So far this character is not an exception.
It was nice to see Glenn speeding along the empty freeway, finally releasing some unpleasant emotions, he no doubt has built up since the zombie apocalypse.
What are your thoughts? Let us know.