the jaded viewer

Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead (TV Series)

Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead (TV Series) (2008)

Directed by Patrick Davaney

The zombie-mania thats been plaguing America is a hit or miss thing. For every Rec there is a Diary of the Dead. For every 28 Days Later, there is a Automaton Transfusion.

But now its infected the independent world of cinema and the horror community.

After touring Chiller, I stumbled upon a booth of geared up soldiers ready to blow up shit. And they were offering something I've never heard of.

A zombie TV show.

Well that's new. A NYC production, they gave their sales pitch. We discussed the POV horror I hate so much and they laid out what they were all about. Hmmm. So I forked over some cash and bought myself a DVD of the first 4 episodes of Zombie Hunters - City of the Dead.

I support the indie horror scene. I was once a zombie on a low budget short film in college. You gotta give props to people willing to take a risk and make something they hope horror-lings will appreciate.

Well it's got heart.

Boring Plot-O-Matic

ZOMBIE HUNTERS is a show of modern horror. It details the lives of Billy Cassidy and his group of friends and family, all trying to survive the re-awakening of the dead in New York City.

Awesome Review-O-Matic

The first feeling I got when watching ZH was like watching a living adaptation of a chapter in Max Brook's World War Z which is one of the best books about zombies...EVAR!!

World War Z told different stories of people's experience during the Zombie War. Each perspective gave you a view of what it was like and how people survived.

ZH, if somehow was jigsawed into WWZ was an interesting take on how New Yorkers would handle such a situation. Would we all take up arms and go all militia? Would we wait for the government to send troops to save us. Or would we make our house or apartment a fortress and build a fuckin moat?

Episode 1

The pilot was a quick intro to the main characters. Billy Cassidy our main anti-hero and his 2 friends Bates and Denworth. With the help of 2 doctors they save a couple who seem to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Episode 2

2 of our ZHs have to save a girl lost in the woods. Solid entrails eating and gratuitous headshots.

Episode 3

We get an intro to how the 2 doctors joined the team as they are attacked in a hospital.

Episode 4

The ZH's try to buy guns from a survivalist militia group and shit hits the fan.

The zombies are your generic, slow moving, very fuckin dumb, oozing guts, very pale zombies (fuck frenetic zombies!). Lots of moody music and trash metal are met with quick surreal shots that go for tone and atmosphere. Think lots of darkness and 60 watt lighting.

As low budget as ZH's is, it tries to give you that sense of dread of living in a world where the dead have come back to life. They hunt the dead in abandoned buildings, backwoods and dark streets. The suspense is littered but sometimes it dragged way too long.

The 3 main actors were all solid and gave decent performances. It was like talking to your friends at a BBQ but with zombies. A few cameo performances were outright horrible ranging from the distressed couple to a mom worrying about her daughter. Total spazzing wooden acting and outright reading your line performances, I could only wince.

But it's the zombie violence that bulks up Zombie Hunters. Back to the basics, Savini style, very minimal CGI gore and splatter. Headshots galore, finger flesh eating, intestine munching and white wall blood splatter.

It's that effort that makes up for the shortcomings of ZH.

And that's where the heart comes in. Zombie Hunters is ambitious, splicing in a TV newscast every episode complete with news anchors and "on the street" interviews which I found very entertaining.

The scope and landscape they wanted to accomplish may have been over ambitious but they pushed and pushed to make a horror TV show they wanted to make. And that's pure heart. A heart covered with blood, intestines and guts.

You gotta love it.



Gore-ipedia (if you want to be shocked don't read)

Headshots galore
Finger flesh eating
Intestine munching
Beheadings
Lots of zombie annihilation

Nude-ipedia (because you like boobies)

Nada

WTF moment

2 doctors fucking up a zombie

The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis

A few of the episodes are on YouTube. There have been worse low budget zombie epics than Zombie Hunters. There have also been better efforts.

This falls somewhere in the middle. If you still haven't gotten your fill of Romero, check it out.

Rating:

The Trailer





Tags:
Zombie Hunters, Zombie Hunters - City of the Dead , american horror splatter gore , zombies, george romero, zombie tv show, indie horror, gore

Labels: george romeo, indepentent horror, zombie hunters, zombie hunters city of the dead, zombie hunters review, zombie tv show, zombies

Posted by the jaded viewer at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Diary of the Dead

Diary of the Dead (2008)
Directed by George A. Romero

Cloverfield with Zombies.

Oh George. Where were you trying to go with this one?

Suffice it to say, I didn't enjoy DOTD. The overall film didn't give me a happy like Land of the Dead where George with his all star cast and special effect zombie gore was like a good meal.

Here are my gripes in no particular order.

1.) 1st person perspective/multiple camera shooting type movies

I'm beginning to hate this film device with a passion. Cloverfield did it and it made me sick. Here the film is edited together from shot footage and for a zombie movie, this just doesn't work. The threat of zombies is seeing them in large masses. That's scary shit. They may be slow but in huge numbers your going to shit in your pants. The movie doesn't need this FPS type device to make it work. George could have made it without this crap and it would have been way better

2.) These characters suck and the acting was horrible

NYU-film school hipsters are worse than NYU hipsters being chased by a monster.

These characters are very badly written.

Jason (the director guy): Yo, you really gotta film everything? Seriously? I mean put the fuckin camera down and help your friends before they get eaten

Debra (the survival girl): She is a spitting image of Eliza Dushku. So annoying with her "I need to save my family" crap. I really wanted her brains eaten.....slowly.

Tony (a dude): ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Tracy (hot Texan girl): She barely got naked.

Mary (victim girl): The "where's the religion" perspective

Maxwell (the snotty drunk teacher): ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. He can shoot arrows really well.
Mummy guy, other director guy, etc.

I wanted all of these characters to die. All of them. I hated all of them.
They were actually worse than the Cloverfield hipsters.
That says a fuckin lot.

3.) Missing: Gore Gore Splatter Gore

A couple of good gore moments. Sickle through the face. Gunshots to the head are always good. Arrow through the head. Acid through the brain. And that was it?

George, we know you don't fail us with the gore and splatter. It's what we love your movies for. But where was it here? I hate this CGI zombie kill gore. It just doesn't look real. We need Savini (I can't believe I wrote that). We need good ole fashion blood pumps and pig intestines.

That was a monumental failure in this movie. Without gore and splatter and blood, it's not a zombie movie.

Where were the scenes of zombies just munching and lunching? I paid $11 to see that shit.

Finally............

4.) The satire doesn't need to be explained to me through a voiceover

Horror fans are smart. We appreciate satire in our horror.

We got it. We didn't need it explained to us.

Night was about the plight of blacks in America, Dawn was a crack at consumerism, Day was a reflection on the corruption of power and Land was about classism and how through the most dire of circumstances the status quo somehow remains the same.

Diary is of course about how technology and media separate ourselves from reality and the world we live in.

George, we didn't need Debra telling this us in monologue voiceover. We didn't need those scenes explaining to us that he's shooting the film but not taking part in it.

We get it. You kind of made me mad and assumed I wouldn't get it.

But that didn't save the movie.

Only George would do an homage to his own Night of the Living Dead in Diary.

Diary at the end of the day is perceived as a zombie movie with a gimmick. Romero is of course the creator and he can take his zombie-verse anywhere he wants to.

I just think he took a wrong turn on this one.

Rating:

Tags:
horror movie review, George A Romero Diary of the Dead , american horror splatter gore , zombies, george romero, hipsters dying, romero satire diary of the dead, gore

Labels: american horror, diary of the dead, first person, george romeo, gore, hipsters dying, satire, splatter, zombies

Posted by the jaded viewer at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post