Evil Dead Rise (2023) - Movie Review

I’ve never gotten on the hype train for the Evil Dead series. I certainly appreciate the legacy of the films themselves (a world without Evil Dead is a world without Braindead, and that would be a sad world to live in), and I don’t think any of them are bad necessarily. I just can’t seem to get into them as much as others have. The first Evil Dead just doesn’t do much for me (tree rape doesn’t exactly warm me up to a film), and while Evil Dead II is quite fun, I struggle to consider it more than just alright all things considered.

Army Of Darkness… yeah, okay, that film goes hard, I can’t front. After truly hitting his stride with Darkman, Sam Raimi really cut loose to deliver a properly gonzo and aggressively goofy bit of medieval fantasy action-comedy ridiculousness. But even with how much I enjoyed it, considering the sharp change in setting and tone, part of me thinks that I got into this because of that change, rather than anything to do with the shared IP.

Now for the tricky bit: As an overall entertaining movie, Army Of Darkness is the franchise’s peak. But in terms of a proper scary film, I liked Fede Álvarez’s reboot/sequel thingy from 2013 more than either the original or Dead By Dawn. I really got into how it toyed with the franchise formula, using the Deadite possession angle as metaphor for addiction and withdrawal, making the astoundingly blood-soaked finale feel genuinely cathartic in how much progress Mia had made to get to that point. I’m also just a fan of how Álvarez handles atmosphere in films like that, really bringing the dread out of the situation.

With all of that in mind, I went into this latest addition to the franchise on a mixed note. I may feel a bit left out as far as the entertainment value of this franchise as a whole, but Evil Dead 2013 had me hoping that this could give me more of that expansion on the original material that could get me on-side with it. And yeah, it certainly did its own thing with the franchise lore, but I once again find myself a bit underwhelmed by the result.

Wyrmwood: Apocalypse (2021) - Movie Review

About six years ago, I looked at a little Aussie feature called Wyrmwood: Road Of The Dead. Along with thinking it was terrific, and still one of the most all-out fun movies I’ve ever reviewed on here, that particular screening involved a Q&A with the directors, where they got into some of their ideas for a sequel. I said that I’d be right there when that sequel materialised, and lo and behold, they finally made that fucking movie. It is most certainly not the film I was expecting, though.

Army Of The Dead (2021) - Movie Review

Now that Zack Snyder seems to be in a better place creatively, I think it’s time to check out his other feature that came out this year. But while the build-up to Justice League involved years of socially-driven momentum right up to the release of the Snyder Cut, part of me has always been more interested in this effort of his. As much as I love just about anything to do with superheroes, combining two other genres that I adore (heist flicks and zombie flicks) was bound to grab my attention, regardless of who was behind it. And after how much ZSJL genuinely impressed me, I’m actually excited to see if he can deliver on what might be the single most tempting feature-length release that has taken place since I started this blog. No pressure, Zack.

Blood Quantum (2020) - Movie Review

The zombie apocalypse sub-genre may be one of my personal favourites, but I’d be lying if I said that’s because of its originality. It’s a pretty reliable source of gorehound material, and there’s definitely something about the recurring scenario that speaks to my socially-isolated ways (and that’s before the pandemic made that way of life mandatory), but it’s quite a task to truly think outside the box with the stumbling or running dead these days. Some attempts like Warm Bodies just feel like bad experiments, and arguably the most creative zombie movie in recent years, Zombieland, is largely the result of poking at how overused its own tropes are. So for something to come out that really pushes the boat out is cause for celebration, far as I’m concerned, and this Shudder exclusive is one such effort.

After The End (2020) - Movie Review

Well, this is about as close to the bone as a feature can get for me: A post-apocalyptic Aussie film, where a virus has decimated humanity, that came out just last month. Have to admit, after covering Edge Of Extinction for FilmInk a while ago, I was expecting to end up with another perplexing sit that managed to make the end of the world insufferably boring. Thankfully, that’s not what we get here; in fact, it’s a fittingly depressing look at humanity’s collapse when the rest of the world goes to shit.

Death Do Us Part (Zoo) (2020) - Movie Review

John (Ed Speleers) and Karen (Zoë Tapper) are stuck in a loveless marriage. After they discovered that Karen was infertile, and their last child stillborn, they haven’t stayed together out of love but complacency. Mindlessly shuffling their way through life, propped up on copious amounts of drugs and alcohol to be even remotely interested in this existence, all while they both stay on the cusp of a divorce but ultimately unable to take that plunge. You can see why, once the zombie apocalypse breaks out across the world, their lives haven’t really changed that much.

Zombieland: Double Tap (2019) - Movie Review

2009’s Zombieland was a pretty big turning point for both the people involved in its production and for its genre. As far as zombie cinema is concerned, its highly self-referential and tongue-in-cheek approach to the running dead makes for one of the bigger splashes the genre has seen this side of the new millennium. And for its production crew, it was the first big break that led to much bigger things: Jesse Eisenberg was on the cusp of his defining role in The Social Network, Emma Stone was on her way to becoming one of the best romantic leads of the modern era, writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick’s first collaboration here would lead to great success with Life and the Deadpool movies, and director Ruben Fleischer… well, I won’t hold Venom against him, but he got a big boost from it too.

The Night Eats The World (2019) - Movie Review

I’ve gone on record a few times in previous reviews that I have a serious weakness for zombie movies. Far as I’m concerned, the weirder, the stupider, the more outright insane, the better. And yet, with how much I’ve delved into my love for this sub-genre, one question still seems to elude me: Why? Why is it this specific brand of genre cinema that sticks to my heart the easiest? I could just chalk it up to nostalgia for Planet Terror, the film that made me realise I loved film at large, let alone zombie films, but that still doesn’t seem to fit. I bring all this up because today’s entry in the genre makes for a distinct diversion from the norm… and honestly, it helped me finally pin down why I love this genre so damn much.

Pet Sematary (2019) - Movie Review

While it didn’t get a lot of love back in the day (and judging by reactions to today’s film, that feeling persists), Mary Lambert’s Pet Sematary is a fucking great horror flick and one of the better Stephen King adaptations. Having King himself penning the screenplay certainly helped, but as a look at how people react to grief and why it is vitally important to come to terms with that grief, it is a seriously intense ride, if an occasionally goofy one.

I’d argue the point in remaking the story in the first place, but considering the recent crop of King adaptations and their combined consistency, I’m not entirely against the idea. Hell, this one has an uncredited David Kajganich working on the script, and given how well he did with last year’s remake of Suspiria, this could turn out good. However, as I’m about to get into, this film ends up being a mish-mash of underperforming, overperforming and just outweirding the original and not all in good ways.

Anna And The Apocalypse (2018) - Movie Review

 

Movies like this make me love this job. Not just because they give a lot of material to work with for a review, but also because this kind of high-concept storytelling makes it remarkably to sum up why this film is worth watching: It’s a Scottish Christmas zombie musical comedy. And the best part is that, while that kind of five-car genre pile-up works so well at selling the movie that writing a review may seem pointless, there is actually something quite special at the heart of this production. But all in good time; let’s get into this truly wondrous film.

Day Of The Dead: Bloodline (2018) - Movie Review

 

Spend long enough on a creative endeavour and before too long, it will start to reflect aspects of the one who created it. And oh boy, is that no truer than it is when dealing with the legendary zombie flicks of George A. Romero, who have themselves become cinematic zombies. Or rather straight-to-DVD zombies as, through a combination of head-scratching rights issues and just general money-grubbing idiocy, there have been a lot of unnecessary additions to that canon. Day Of The Dead serves as one of the more egregious examples, between the 2008 remake to the unofficial prequel to the original Contagium, both of which exist for little more than blindsiding the uninitiated. Surprisingly, though, the same cannot be said about this film… not entirely, at least.

Overlord (2018) - Movie Review

 

There was a time when saying that Nazis are bad wouldn’t have been met with so much resistance. There was a time when seeing Captain America punch Hitler in the face wouldn’t have drawn accusations on the artists being SJWs. There was a time when recognising that the Nazis are responsible for some of the greatest atrocities in human history was the least controversial statement a person could make. But it seems that, in an age where white supremacy is a hot-button issue, that time is not now. Many people aren’t exactly happy with this idea, myself included, and that is why this film is such a delightfully demented breath of fresh air.

Rampant (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: Prince Lee Chung (Hyun Bin), after hearing that his brother had taken his own life, has to return home but it is certainly not as he left. The region has become infested with Night Demons, causing the dead to rise again and swarm the living. Unless he and a group of resistance fighters can stop them, the entire nation will be theirs.

Resident Evil: Vendetta (2017) - Movie Review

The plot: Arms dealer Glenn Arias (John DeMita) is preparing to unleash a new zombie apocalypse on the masses, having engineered a virus that he is able to control. After an infiltration mission goes south, BSAA agent Chris Redfield (Kevin Dorman) enlists the help of scientist Rebecca Chambers (Erin Cahill) and former agent Leon Kennedy (Matthew Mercer) to help him stop Arias and find a cure for the virus. However, as Arias’ plan goes ahead, the three of them will have to work fast to save the world once again.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2017) - Movie Review

 

Release Date: January 26, 2017

Genre: Action, Horror, Science-Fiction

Director/Writer: Paul W.S. Anderson

Cast: Milla Jovovich, Shawn Roberts, Iain Glen, Ever Gabo Anderson, Ali Larter, Ruby Rose, Eoin Macken, William Levy, Rola

The Mummy (2017) - Movie Review

With Marvel sweeping in box office hit after box office hit, it seems that everyone and their backyard sound stage want to get in on this ‘shared film universe’ trend. Sure, Marvel didn’t exactly invent the idea; filmmakers like John Hughes and Kevin Smith both filled in their films with little threads that tied them together for those willing to pay attention. However, those guys did it more in passing than anything else, whereas Marvel has officially turned it into a new blossoming branch of the Hollywood franchise system. From DC’s attempts to match their graphic novel rivals to Legendary Studio’s increasingly-promising big monster franchise, even individuals like M. Night Shyamalan who seems to be setting up his own comic book-inspired world off the back of Split, this is basically the big new thing in Hollywood right now.

 

So, naturally, it seems that Universal Pictures wants to get in on this trend as well, using today’s film as a springboard for a shared universe based on their classic cavalcade of movie monsters. Of course, if the rest of the entries in the Dark Universe series are anything resembling this, we may be in for a very bumpy ride over the next several years because this film is something truly special.

Pride And Prejudice And Zombies (2016) - Movie Review

For as much as I try and deconstruct the films that I watch, with varying degrees of success, I am quickly discovering something about myself when it comes to films: I love dumb zombie movies. Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse, Cooties, Wyrmwood: Road Of The Dead; sure, these are all meant to be comedies, but even then these are incredibly silly films and more than a little wrong-headed in their own ways. And yet, as I look back on them, I still love them a hell of a lot more than I probably should, given the pseudo-intellectual air that can be felt around these parts. Hell, I’m still laughing at a bit from Cooties where a character just says “Word”. So, knowing my own weakness for the more goofy iterations of the living dead, I look at today’s film with a general idea of what I’m getting myself into. I mean, look at the bloody title; my love for all things surreal and ultimately silly can’t help but be triggered by something that gloriously inane. But, I have to maintain some level of professionalism around… here… yeah, I can’t even pretend that that’s what I do in the first place. Let’s just say that my opinion on this film may already be skewed before we even get into it proper. Anyway, time to sink our teeth into this thing.

Cooties (2015) - Movie Review

This is most certainly a team-up that, even in my weirdest pot dreams, I wouldn’t have been able to foresee. On one hand, you have Leigh Whannell, best known for his collaborations with James Wan on the Saw and Insidious series. On the other, you have Ian Brennan, best known for being the brainchild of the thankfully recently-concluded TV migraine Glee. Except for a possible connection involving people screaming in terror, I can’t even think of a comparative duo to explain just how strange this is. The fact that this is yet another zombie film seems like an afterthought by comparison. Well, in the spirit of goodwill and the fact that I really hope Whannell is at least capable of keeping up with his cinematic brother’s success, it’s time to delve into today’s rather strange production that just happens to feature a lot of dead children. Yeah.

Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse (2015) - Movie Review

No matter how menacing, influential or popular a creature is, there will always come a time when they will officially stop being scary. We’ve seen it happen with vampires and werewolves and now, with how obnoxiously prevalent they are, zombies have joined them. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they can’t be used in stories anymore; just that the method has to be tweaked ever so slightly. Where vampires and werewolves used to be monstrous creatures of the night, they have now become more humanised and treated with the character in mind more than previously. Zombies, on the other hand, are pretty much reduced to being scenery. They are nameless, faceless cannon fodder that the audience can feel guiltless for seeing killed off in bloody fashion, all the while mainly contributing the setting for a story. Hell, the most popular zombie-related media right now, The Walking Dead, is far less about the zombies themselves and more about their presence and prevalence affects the few human survivors and how they interact and conflict with each other. What I’m getting at with all this is, even with my own still-lingering affinity for the genre, I’m not expecting too much from today’s film.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) - Movie Review

With the Hunger Games drawing to a close at the end of this year and the Divergent series only getting worse with each instalment, the third-wave of YA adaptations may soon be reaching its conclusion… or, at least, we can only hope lest we have to sit through the same darkly shot post-apocalyptic analogies for high school for another three bloody years. However, it seems that we may be able to squeeze at least one more good series out of the fad: The Maze Runner.

2014’s The Maze Runner, in my not-so-humble opinion, is easily one of the most underrated films of the year, if not of the entire wave. It’s probably one of the few times that the attempts at analogy with these films has panned out, as the plot works as a surprisingly nuanced, if flawed, fable on the transition from adolescence to adulthood: Venturing out into the unknown, leaving your old ways behind you, discovering the opposite gender in a new light; coming from a bunch of first-time writers under a first-time director, this is kind of astounding. As such, other than the complete surprise of John Wick, this was the film that I have been most looking forward to a sequel to; with how cynical I can be when it comes to my own expectations, it’s rare that I genuinely anticipate a good film these days. So, how does this sequel turn out?