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Zombieworld
R2 - United Kingdom - Image Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Matthew Crossman (19th June 2015). |
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The Film
 Zombie films have been a staple of horror cinema since George A Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ burst upon the silver screen. Recently the zombie phenomena has taken an upturn mostly due to the popularity of the television series ‘The Walking Dead’ and the Brad Pitt vehicle ‘World War Z’. Image Entertainment’s DVD taps into this phenomena by producing a feature film which is in fact ten short vignettes cobbled together with a further wraparound story holding the assembled pieces together. As with most anthology films, Zombieworld has it’s highs and it’s lows. The problem Zombieworld has is that it’s highs are no more than decent whilst it’s lows are pretty darn low. The film opens with a segment called ‘Dark Times’ (all titles of the segments are culled from the closing credits. There are no titles on screen during the film). This is of the ‘shaky-cam’ variety and shows what it’s like to be in the midst of a zombie attack. Sadly the makers have decided to mix comedy with horror to the effect that neither succeed. Following this short vignette is the start of the wraparound story. It takes place in a news studio where the anchorman, Marvin Gloat (Bill Oberst Jr.), has just been bitten by a zombie. Ever the professional he insists on continuing the show, and it is his updates that basically introduce each sequence. The next short film is ‘Fist of Jesus’. This section, in Spanish with English subtitles, is played purely for laughs as Jesus repels hoards of the undead in the guises of Romans, disciples and cowboys (don’t ask!). How does he do this? I hear you ask, but with fish of course. Moving on we come to the first part of three in the public service announcements entitled ‘How To Survive a Zombie Apocalypse’. If you have seen the (far superior) ‘Zombieland’ starring Woody Harrleson, then these sequences should be slightly familiar. The first two are weak but the sequence is wrapped up quite well during the third and final segment. ‘I am Lonely’ tells of a man who comes back from shopping during the apocalypse to find that his only ‘friend’ and flatmate is dying through a wound to the throat. This one-man-show plays out, mercifully in short time, to a one note gag at the end. ‘Dead Stop’ is a straight forward drama as filmed through the security cameras at a petrol station and a police car when a police officer stops to offer assistance to someone who has recently had a skirmish with the living dead. ‘Home’ is set in Australia and features a woman who has to come to terms with her undead fiancé as she wonders whether love can conqueror the divide between the living and the undead. ‘Dead Rush’ is another shaky-cam, point of view addition and whilst reasonably well filmed and acted offers nothing really new at this point. ‘Teleportal’ is one of the shortest, and weakest entries as a man playing a zombie video game finds himself inside the game fighting the zombies for real. ‘Certified’ plays like an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’ (1980’s version). It feels out of place here as it features no actual zombies at all. The final segment is from the same people that made ‘Fist Of Jesus’ and again is in Spanish with English subtitles. It’s called ‘Brutal Relax’ and features a man who is told by his Doctor to go and holiday and keep calm and enjoy himself. This he intends to do until the beach he has chosen for his relaxation is invaded from zombies from the sea. Overall the film is a hodge podge. The decent episodes are sadly over too quickly but, thankfully, the poor ones are over just as quickly. The film moves along at quite a pace and because of the that it’s easy to be forgiving. You can also appreciate the effort and love that has gone into each individual segment but ultimately the film fails because the tone of the film is such a mish mash. Any drama or intensity that is built up is quickly wiped away but the supposedly funnier sequences which aren’t all that funny anyway. Horror and zombie aficionados that take these subjects seriously will want to stay away but for everyone else, those that laugh at horror films, may just get a kick from Zombieworld.
Video
Anamorphic 1.85:1 ratio. Picture is acceptable without being stellar. The film was stitched together from twelve different projects by eleven different directors so different techniques are applied from segment to segment but despite this the film remains reasonable uniform in regards to it’s picture.
Audio
There are two options available; English Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 and English Dolby Digital 5.1. There is little to choose between the two mixes but the 5.1 mix just wins out as the subwoofer is used to decent effect in a few segments. There are no subtitles of any kind available.
Extras
The only extra of note is a segment that did not make it into the final film. More curious still is the segment is listed in the film’s final credits. This segment is called ‘Marathon Apocalypse’. This segment is very short at 2 minutes and 14 seconds and whilst modestly atmospheric it is easy to see why it was omitted from the main feature. Start-up Trailers: - "Frankenstein vs the Mummy" - "Camp Dread" - "The Haunting of Radcliffe House"
Overall
Get your mates round, stock the fridge full of beer and order in your favourite pizza and you may just get a kick out of this disc. The film fails in the end because it cannot decide whether it wants to be funny or scary and ultimately it achieves neither. There are some interesting, well made segments but these are few and far between. The comedy sequences are quite infantile, playing mainly to the slapstick crowd, and are, for the most part, not funny at all. The films were all obviously labours of love for their creators so I do not wish to be too harsh. There are some good technical elements to many of the films but at the end of the day it’s just twelve short films made by aspiring filmmakers about zombies. There is no real reason to over think it. Just don’t take it too seriously.
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