SYNOPSIS

The story begins on a seemingly normal day, in a small rural fishing community. Welcome to Berkeley: a small, relatively cheery place where old mates sit on a jetty trying to catch fish, or where father and son play cricket with friends in the local park, and old ladies chat as they do their groceries. But not everything in this little town is quite so pleasant.

In contrast to the warm orange tones of these happy scenes, local beauty queen Rene sits glumly surrounded by strong blue undertones . She listens as over-zealous bank manager ‘Chip’ lectures her on missing payments on her mortgage. As a result the family farm has been repossessed, leaving Rene homeless and alone. Her parents are both deceased and her only other living relative is her Alzheimer-ridden Grandmother in the city. So she decides to pack up and leave Berkeley with her fast talking, sleazy agent, to start again in the city.

However her plans hit a snag when meteors start falling from the sky, turning those in their path into flesh-eating zombies. Rene flees to Marion’s farm house, where she and Marion, and four other survivors find safety in the second basement. Marion is the town’s loony, having claimed years before that he was abducted by aliens. The other survivors include pregnant couple Wayne and Sally-Anne and police officers Molly and Sergent Harrison.

The group bicker about what exactly they are dealing with and what action to take next. No one can find an explanation for the strange clouds in the sky pouring acid rain, the beams of light sucking up insects or the fact the town members want to eat their brains. Over-bearing and obnoxious Harrison along with his timid partner, try in vein, to control the situation. The tension between the characters builds, until Sallyanne starts having contractions.

In hope of finding Sallyanne a hospital to have her child, they fight their way to the car. They set off through the hoards of zombies, only to find a giant metal wall has the entire town fenced in, trapping them in a town full of their flesh-eating friends. Harrison decides to try to be a hero, but instead, ends up falling to his death and being sucked up to the sky by the strange light beams. Molly also follows a similar fate, leaving the remaining four to get supplies and go to the airstrip where Wayne’s charter plan will take them to safety.

While in town at the local store, after battling more zombies and Rene putting on a particular patriotic display, Marion is confronted by strange, glowing aliens. He is beamed into the sky like Harrison and Molly. The three survivors scurry off to the airstrip, but after being separated from Wayne, and Sallyanne also being taken by a light beam, Rene is left alone.

Rene finds herself standing before the aliens, and although she can not understand them, she begins to realise what is really happening. The acid rain is a cure for the horrible plague infecting the town folk and turning them into zombies. She allows the rain to soak her, and is also beamed skyward. That leaves Wayne as the only survivor left, he jumps in his plane and flies through the masses of suspended people, over the other side of the wall.

The town is cured and those infected are again live and well. But Wayne is still infected and quickly turns into a zombie, beginning the plague all over again. This time it is Rene, not Marion who is prepared. She alone fights and cages them all including a zombie Marion, careful not to kill them. Instead, she waits for the aliens return to once again save them.

MY REVIEW

I love a good horror film, the adrenaline rush of being on the edge of your seat is something I crave in a movie. Undead however, did not fulfil this need within me. Undead is more of a comedy in my opinion, although the laughs were far and few between. Despite these downfalls in genre, I liked the movie, and if it wasn’t really scary, or extremely funny, what was the appeal?

Well it’s important to understand Undead’s place in the zombie film landscape. It loyally followed all the rules set by the Spierigs’ forefathers Romero, Raimi and Jackson. And while it’s not as original as Night of the Living Dead, or as scary as Evil dead, and no where near as gory as BrainDead, it does respect all of them and in ways pays homage.

The reason Undead was salvaged into an appreciated movie were aspects like the

An important part of any zombie movie is the relatively unknown actors. The six main characters of Undead are as inexperienced in the film industry as any actor can be. The first time I watched the movie Dirk Hunter who plays Harrison nearly drove me insane, I kept cursing every zombie who let him live. After watching it again and again, for purposes of this review, I came to realise that my loathing for his character was just my sub-conscience cringing at the thought of other countries watching this exaggerated Australian cop character, just as I do every time I see American actors trying to do their ridiculous imitations of our accents.

After I realised, I came to understand how the Spierig brothers were poking fun at this. What’s wrong with laughing at ourselves once and awhile? (And he does have some great lines: ‘When I was young we respected our parents, we didn’t fuckin’ eat em!’, ‘You’ll be gone quicker then a fuckin’ cake at a fat chicks party,buddy!’)

The other actors in this film also tend to overact. Rene was a great saucer eyed heroine, but the cast looked more like that of a stage play, then a feature film (This made a lot more sense when I found out that on stage was the only previous acting experience the cast had). There were times, however inconstant, that this type of acting seemed as if it was purposeful. All the good horror movies of the past (1950’s- 1980’s) had terrible acting. At times Undead appeared to be a tribute to this.

Being the gore-loving horror fan I am, what saved the movie from it’s lack of true scares, was the mind-blowing special effects. A great balance of CGI (Computer Generated Images) and make-up created FX to rival any big-budget movie. I was amazed when I found out it was all done on the brothers’ home PC.

The movie was suitably gory for me and this has placed it with other favourites of mine like From Dusk Til Dawn, Zombie Night and BrainDead. Although I really doubt any movie will beat BrainDead for the amount of gore. Lionel with a lawnmower strapped to his chest is the bloodiest battle I’ve seen in a horror film. Undead gives it a good shot and Rene wielding a broom with a blade on the end is pretty impressive, and very gory. I was in my prime.

Another saving grace of the film was the work of composer, Cliff Bradley. The music created perfect atmosphere through out the film. The beginning is upbeat and almost satirically sweet. Yet when the film turns directions so does the music. The music becomes creepy and in some parts curious. (By curious I mean the bum bum buuum’s you may hear in a light-hearted mystery film.) The score also helped characterisation; the western riff for example introduced Marion and created expectations for that character before he uttered a word.

Another thing I thought was impressive was the use of the lighting. Others have criticized the heavy use of blue filters, but I personally thought that it was effective. It gave a great contrast to the scenes before and after the meteor shower. The filters also gave the living cast members a pale bluish complexion, the result is a film with an eerie feel and sense of impending doom.

The Spierig brothers have made an impressive first feature film. It had great special FX, lighting and music. The terrible acting, sometimes came across as more of a tribute to old zombie films of the past rather then pure inexperience. These aspects mean the film is not dependant on a good plotline and script, and this works in it’s favour. The script is funny in parts, a little scary at times, but tends to drag on and should find a better way to balance comedy and horror. A balance that classics, like the Evil Dead trilogy and BrainDead, mastered.