Movie: Diary of The Dead (2007)

Diary of The Dead (2007)
Horror, Sci-Fi

This isn't mentioned on Simon Pegg's blogpost about zombies but I think it's one of the best zombie movies to come out recently, as far as your typical zombies go... But it was written and directed by George A. Romero so I thought it would be interesting to see his progression from the last film released in 1968 until this one forty years later.

These are the slow moving but quickly accumulating undead. It's filmed ala Blair Witch with a bit of a documentary feel which means it can get a bit chatty at times. It's raw but some of those shots are brilliant. There are also some of the best deaths I've seen. The Amish guy with the scythe? Jar of acid over the head? Electric paddles to the head...almost.

I liked the online presence. If there really was a zombie apocalypse then we would hear about it first via Twitter. #ZombieApocalypse  As soon as I started to wonder how they still had wifi and internet connections, it dropped out...

Even though the only person I recognized was Joe Dinicol (LA Complex) and it ended fairly suddenly and inconclusively, I liked this one a lot.

4 out of 5 Pegg plugs...

Movie: 28 Weeks Later (2007)

28 Weeks Later (2007)
Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Sequel to 28 Days Later with the same running, Rage infected zombies that turn in under ten seconds of being bitten. I just spoke about how awesome I think that is, you barely have time to realize they've been bitten and are going to turn before they are one of them. So the story is after 28 Weeks, the infected died from starvation so they cleaned out Britain and started rebuilding and moving people back in... sounds hunky dory right? Wouldn't you want to go there? Worst idea ever...

I only just realized how awesome the cast is! Starring Robert Carlyle (Once Upon A Time, Trainspotting) who I absolutely love! Aussie Rose Byrne co-stars and if you haven't seen her in Two Hands then you need to go watch that movie now, great Aussie crime film she co-starred in with Heath Ledger. Then there's Jeremy Renner...you know, Hawk Eye from The Avengers? He's pretty much Hawk Eye in this too... Finally; Harold Perrineau (Romeo + Juliet) who I've been talking about recently in Sons of Anarchy.

Of course the 'Safe Area' doesn't stay safe for long when a carrier of the virus is found and unintentionally spreads it to the new population. There were a few things like Carlyle being taken out early on and yet we still see him running around as a zombie, which is kind of cool.The kid who also ended up being a carrier being infected, rescued and then unintentionally infecting what looks like the rest of Europe. But you would have thought they could have found a cure from his blood... thought the kids didn't know he and their mother were immune.

I like that this one makes me think a little more and that the people - for once - we nice and tried to help each other instead of kill each other.

3 out of 5 Pegg Plugs...

Movie: 28 Days Later (2002)

28 Days Later (2002)
Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

This is going to be a series of as short as I can make them reviews on zombie films, largely inspired but this old blog post of Simon Pegg's (Sean Of The Dead, Paul) discussing the different styles of zombies. Simon is a fan of traditional zombies, you know, shuffling mindless brain eating zombies and thinks the running style of zombies is even more unrealistic. I have to disagree, if running zombies are done right they are more than feasible. Especially the virus infected kind. If they have two working legs I cant see why they wouldn't run...

The zombies in this film are runners and have been infected by a virus called Rage. What I like about this one is that it only takes about ten seconds before they are taken over by the virus; that is pretty darn quick. It starts off by a group of animal activists breaking into a primate testing facility and breaking out the Rage infected chimps....retards.

I recognized the main character - Cillian Murphy (The Dark Knight, Inception) - right away, I've seen him in a few things recently. I had no idea that he was in this though... Also spotted was Irish actor Brendan Gleeson who is just amazing in a number of films such as Harry Potter and Troy. Co-starring is Naomie Harris who I didn't recognize until I looked her up, she's been a bond girl most recent 007 flick; Skyfall.

I always judge a zombie flick by the amount of actual zombies... this one seemed a bit too quiet to be a world overrun by the dead.... it makes me even jumpier. But it is interesting to see that in most zombie films it ends up being the humans left who are the ones you have to worry about, not the undead wanting to eat you... How far do you think people will really go to survive?

3 out of 5 Pegg plugs...

Movie: The Cabin In The Woods (2011)

The Cabin In The Woods (2011)
Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

I love a good horror movie and its been a while since any really good ones have been released in my opinion. Then someone told me about this one... At first I thought it was going to be another one of those piss-take horror films packed with cheesy one liners. Well, it is full of cheesy one-liners but it's actually a pretty good horror flick - I know, I'm surprised too!

I was surprised that is, until I saw Joss Whedon's name on it and now it all makes a little more sense. That man is a god and if you don't know who he is, we can't be friends...

It's a very Whedon-esk cast too with Amy Acker of Angel fame and Fran Kranz from Dollhouse, but the star was Kristen Connolly who's most well know for her appearances as iGirl on Youtube's iChannel, and Aussie Chris Hemsworth - Thor, Norse God of Thunder, duh! I also recognized one of the zombies as Jodelle Ferland (Twilight: Eclipse)- yes, zombies!

It took me a little while to figure out what was going on. I hadn't seen any previews and the only thing I'd heard about it is that it wasn't what I would expect of a horror. From that I half expected it to turn into something like Tucker and Dale VS Evil, hehe, but that wasn't it. It's kind of like Big Brother's Haunted House... at least we know what happened to the Cube machine, ha!

It's a relatively short film at an hour and twenty-five minutes, but how long do you really expect people to survive in these situations? I love the idea of it, something really different and the ending is pretty awesome. Sigourney Weaver as The Director made me chuckle.

Will recommend to friends. Should have watched it in the dark...

4 out of 5 monster cubes...

[Quote] "Oh no, don't kill the gorgeous man, we're endangered!" - Hemsworth

Movie: Fido (2007)

Fido (2007)
Comedy, Drama, Horror

Another Zombie flick with a difference. I actually really enjoyed this movie. It's based after the zombie apocalypse has been brought under control. They've been collaring zombies to suppress their brain eating nature and make them into nice house pets; hence Fido. I also love how the zombie is the hero in this film, totally unexpected yet awesome!

I didn't realise until this very second that its Billy Connelly (The Boondock Saints) underneath that zombie make up! After having another look right now, it's obvious. The little boy, Timmy (Kesun Loder), seems to have an affinity for zombies; he's not sure if they are completely inhuman.... and he'd be right in this situation.

Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix), Timmy's mum, introduces Fido to the family. Timmy's dad, Dylan Baker (Damages) is not so happy  about this as he is afraid of zombies. About halfway through the film you begin to see Fido as more than just a zombie and slave, he has feelings too and he starts integrating himself into the family. I love how the relationship between Timmy, his mum and Fido grows throughout the film. It's lovely, almost makes me want a zombie of my own.

I couldn't help but thinking that Timmy surely wouldnt have been the first person to discover that zombies are not all bad can he? Obviously Mr. Theopolis (Tim Blake Nelson) - the guy over the road with the hot chick zombie - knows something *wink wink*

The fascination with funerals amused me; Sunday family outings, ha! Only ten percent of people are buried the rest become zombies apparently, and when you are buried you have a separate coffin for the head to ensure they won't rise again. Hilarious.

Love the different direction of this zombie movie, not the typical shuffling, screaming, running away type zombie movie. Give it a shot!

4 out of 5 pet zombies....

[Movie Quote] The elderly, they seem friendly enough, but can you really trust them? No! So don't get caught off guard; buy the ZomCom zombie alert heart monitor. When the heart stops, we start!

Movie: Devil's Playground (2010)

Devil's Playground (2010)
Action, Horror

Zombie movie! Hell yeah! This is totally how the zombie apocalypse is going to begin, with some kind of human engineered super drug that mutates our genes somehow... and of course there is one person who's not effected by the drug and everyone's after her. She's played by MyAnna Buring (Twilight: Breaking Dawn). Her boyfriend, Danny Dyer (Age of Heroes) is a cop freshly released from jail. What horrible freaking timing! Zombie apocalypse, you can go now. I'd be like; yeah right, lock me back up!

Then there's this other couple, Jaime Murray (Warehouse 13) and Sean Pertwee (Camelot), who try killing off the surviving people just so they could get a seat on a helicopter that doesn't work. Douches.

Of course everyone dies, everyone always dies. The hero, Craig Fairbrass (The Bank Job) - who I'm actually not positive is the hero - gets bitten right at the very beginning. Not that I can blame him, those are some ninja zombies! They can run and jump and damn are they fast! This is how it should be. Unless its like half a zombie then obviously it can't run can it?

Crap thing about zombie movies; once you've seen one, you've seen them all. It gets fairly predictable and boring. At least these zombies aren't the lame shuffling kind.

2 out of 5 ninja zombies...

[Disappointing] They should have shown the chainsaw scene... *sigh*