Zombieverse has been dubbed for the English Language market and released (as of August 2023) on Netflix. The show is from Korea, which seems to be on fire when it comes to Zombie content lately.
A group of unwitting contestants gather to take part in a reality dating show, but things take a terrifying turn when they find themselves in the middle of Seoul overrun by zombies. Together, they must escape the city and outrun the walking dead, or risk becoming zombies themselves.
-Netflix
Zombieverse
The plot is fairly straightforward. A group of survivors does their best to handle multiple different survival scenarios. Of course they are all centered around Zombies! The English dubbing is okay, but the translation often seems out of place to the situation on screen. There is laughing when people should be scared and vice versa. It makes it a little hard to get into the show. Why are people giggling when they are being terrorized by the undead?
Why is the driver just relaxing as he gets gas? There are Zombies everywhere! These are the types of scenes that just drive me crazy and make it hard to enjoy the series.
Zombies? Where?
Zombieverse Scoring
Zombieverse tries really hard to hit a lot of different genres. Unfortunately it just doesn’t do a great job of hitting the mark consistently. There is also a bit of a disconnect around what it is. Is it a Zombie Gameshow and the survivors are playing a game? Or is it an actual Zombie Apocalypse and they are just dealing with different scenarios? It feels like it was supposed to be a game show but the English translation tried to make it more of a survival show?
Zombieverse scores a 40/100 for the first season. There are just too many slow spots and bits of the plot that didn’t make sense to me. That puts this series at the lower and of the Rainy Day Scale.
The series felt like vignettes loosely stitched together. The major item which cost this series points was a lack of something that gripped me. I didn’t fall in love with any of the characters. Parts of it just didn’t make sense to me. Someone please explain this ending scene to me?
Time to Rock Out?
If you are looking for a fun and action packed Zombie Series I highly recommend Z Nation! If you are looking for something that is just fun on the other hand, I’d recommend iZombie.
Episode Scoring
Yes, the episode names are just episode and number!
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is based off the book series by the same name. The movie was originally shot in Japan and then dubbed to English. There is also an anime series. Don’t judge the anime by the live action version.
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead
The movie is a very thinly veiled commentary on the Japanese Salaryman Culture. The working class are slaves who are expected to give everything to their corporate masters. Zombies to their jobs if you please.
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead Scoring
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead scores scores 60/100, putting if firmly in Rainy Day Movie territory. It attempts to be a fun Zombie survival movie like Zombieland but the characters in Zom 100 can’t hold up to the Zombieland crew. The dialogue is flat – just didn’t translate well. The same for the acting. A lot of it seems over the top when dubbed to English – which is why I wonder if the native Japanese version makes more sense?
Spoilers Below
It was fun, and had some good action scenes here and there. One of my favorites is the Zombie Bowling:
Zombie Motorcycle Bowling
The problem is that these scenes were great, they just were consistent. There are lots of slow spots between the good parts. I do have to give them props for working a Zombie Shark/Hybrid into the story though.
The real problem is the storyline. When dubbed to English it just feels like the writers are hammering something into my skull I already know. Corporate America will take everything and will never care about you as a worker. All they care about is about and cash. I agree.
My problem with the message is that I watch Zombie Movies to escape from that reality – not to wallow in it.
The other problem with the movie is that the men are all caricatures of some not so great mail traits. The woman aren’t well rounded characters either.
Save it for a Rainy Day and have a few drinks while enjoying it.
Stranded in the aftermath of a deadly outbreak, a brother fights to protect his sister while he desperately searches to find refuge and avoid an infected population with a thirst for blood.
Rob Worsey, Screen Writer
Among The Living
Per the internet, Rob Worsey shot the film around Leeds and Whitby. I believe Among the Living is a self funded passion project. I can’t find a production company listing associated to the movie.
Even if it is a low budget film, it is also really well done. The acting is nuanced and believable. The dialogue works well. I especially liked how they show instead of telling you how the Undead work in their universe. Instead of having one survivor explain it verbally, the rules are exposed through the telling of the story.
This is where things fall off just a bit. The plot and story flow well. The plot just falls into the same patterns as other Zombie Movies. Other survivors become the biggest threat, instead of the Zombies. Even the little twist at the end is about the survivors. I won’t ruin it here – but its not a huge twist.
Among The Living Scoring
Among the Living is a great movie to watch on a Rainy Day. It won’t blow your mind, but it won’t leave your Zombie Fix completely unsatisfied either. If you are looking for hordes of undead – this isn’t your film. But if you are looking for a well done, more suspense driven offering – this will hit the spot.
Resident Evil Revelations opens with Jade discussing how they might implement their own version of mind control. We then see a huge crocodile that appears to be under the survivors control.
Resident Evil
We then jump back to the older timeline as Evelyn sells Bert on a new project.
What’s the project?
At the same time Jade is trying to convince Billie that they make a run for it. Jade distracts their guard by talking about their dog as Billie seems to struggle with staying in control. They flee but Billie is caught. We then come back to the current timeline. The horde that Jade called down is ravaging the camp.
Jade uses the chaos to escape while her friends on the boat sail away. This leads to one of the best action sequences in the show as Billie calls up the gun drones and they go to town on the horde.
Jade just barely makes it to the ship. Once on board she convinces the captain to “push the button” to release their crocodile secret weapon they’ve been keeping hidden.
Because things were getting good, the writers of course picked this moment to jump back to the past timeline. So annoying. It really destroys the viewers ability to enjoy the show.
When we do cut back to the current time we see Billie killing basically everyone with her drones – just before the massive crocodile comes ashore to ruin her day. We are treated to another flashback before coming back to Billie fleeing the massive croc. Billie uses a grenade to distract the monster which points it back out to sea.
The next fifteen minutes is a mixture of the past and the present. The present sees Jade’s daughter almost get eaten by the croc, but Jade programmed it not to hurt her. This leads to the final confrontation between Jade and Billie. They must have thought they were getting a season 2 as the last few minutes of the final episode leaves us on a cliffhanger. Jade has been shot and Jade’s daughter has been taken by Billie. Wounded, Jade stands up to watch her daughter disappear in a helicopter.
Scoring
Resident Evil Revelations has the same issues as the rest of the series. There are too many plot lines that jump back and forth between the past and the present. Just as you are getting into the action not only does the scene change, but the timeline does as well.
While Resident Evil Revelations started strong, it just couldn’t hold the pace for the whole episode. There were some good action sequences, though, earning Resident Evil Revelations a 50/100, making it perfect for a rainy day.
The ending sucked. Especially when you consider there won’t be a season 2. The Resident Evil series could have been awesome. Unfortunately the writers and directors tried to squeeze too much into eight episodes.
Resident Evil The Devil You Know picks up right where Welcome to New Raccoon City left off. Jade has jumped off the wall to escape Umbrella Corp and only lives because the soldiers give her some cover and she’s lucky enough to be in the way of others trying to escape the Umbrella Corp cleansing that is about to go down.
Back in the past Jade’s father is dealing with the fallout from his daughters breaking into his lab, all while Billie is starting to exhibit some alarming symptoms. This is about where the episode loses some steam. The political drama and relationship drama is fine, but Resident Evil should be a show that focuses on surviving the Zombies, not surviving the big evil corporation. I’m here to suspend my belief, not relive our universal truth.
Basically the last thirty minutes of the episode is what I’d describe as story building. It was okay, and I know its a television show, but it just didn’t hold my attention like I wanted.
The whole present time versus past time method of creating media is burnt out in my opinion. It was novel, but now it seems like its a useful tool that just gets used too much. What the story teller is trying to say here is clear. A few brief flashbacks would have told the story and kept things much tighter. Instead we are basically watching two different shows that clearly have a link, but one where the present day story is just so much more compelling. That divide hurts the show because I really just want to know what Jade is doing in the here and now, and unless some major revelation comes out of the flashbacks I’m going to say all that time watching it was a waste.
Scoring Resident Evil The Devil You Know
The Devil You Know dropped to a 45/100. The opening was awesome, but the rest of the episode once we fell back to the past was very predictable and just not captivating enough.
Currency opens with a small group of survivors who finally find one of the crates. My brother pointed out that it looked like it in the Umbrella Corporation colors, and now I can’t unsee it:
Umbrella Corp?
Just as they are opening it up a lone militia man stumbles upon them, rifle at the ready.
Did You Find My Stuff?
The lone gunman offers to share what’s in the crate if they help him get the crate over the mountain. He tells them they have a choice. Take what they want and eat for a few days, or help him and have supplies for days. I guess that settled it for them. Time to be sled dogs.
Black Summer, Season 2
We then cut over to Rose, Anna, and their guide, the simple mechanic are marching through the snow. The Mechanic has promised them someplace warm. He thinks he’s found a marker, saying they are going in the right direction, but Rose is concerned. It’s getting dark, and he’s clearly not right in the head so she tries to give him some motivation.
Company introduces another two groups to each other. All while the main militia group and another find themselves at another crate, this one full of weapons.
Push begins what I think is a silly bit of story. Despite the crate being heavy, the group who is trying to move the gear decides to haul it along it in the crate! Come on, make a few sling backpacks and hump that gear out of there. Taking the extra weight of all the wooden crating is just dumb.
The Ridge takes us back to Rose, Anna, and the Mechanic as he struggles to find his promised safe place. Rose isn’t very accepting of his confusion and takes him out onto the ridge. She is going to kill him – but is saved because Anna is there. Rose shows that even though she has killed, she’s not heartless. Even if the Mechanic hasn’t shown them the way yet, she doesn’t believe he’s leading them in bad faith.
Saved By Anna
Offering picks up right where Company left off. The new group is waiting for the militia to pick the gear they want so they can have a go at the crate when the new groups leader pops one of the bent over militiamen so they now outnumber them.
This kicks off a standoff that is interrupted by Zombies before Sun begs them not to do it. Why? I doesn’t make any sense to me, but it does get the Militia Leader to take her cuffs off in thanks.
The whole segment didn’t make sense to me. If someone popped one of the Militia, I don’t see any way they are just going to let the other guys just walk away?
Basically, Pull just continues the silliness with predictable results. The path is snowy and steep and people are behind a heavy wooden crate. Anyone want to take bets on what happens? Of course the load slips free, killing one who becomes a Zombie who slowly crawls towards the wounded militia man. The silly approach get two men killed.
The last segment with Rose, Anna, and the Mechanic have them cover over a rise to see the ski resort in the distance – they made it.
Currency Scoring
Currency was by far the weakest episode of Black Summer, Season 2, so far. It had a lot of silly plot points and had people acting in ways that didn’t really make sense to me, making Currency the worst scoring episode so far with a 69/100.
The first thing you are going to notice about The Dead Don’t Die is the all star cast. It is just jam packed with A List actors. Bill Murray plays Chief Cliff Robertson. He’s clearly been a fixture of the town for decades and knows just about everyone. Adam Driver plays Officer Ronnie Peterson.
I’m going to describe The Dead Don’t Die as quirky. Up until the thirty minute mark I was thinking this might have been an art house piece where the zombies were going to be some type of symbolic representation of society. But no, we get to see two women get eaten in the diner right around the thirty minute mark.
Diner Snacks
Once the Zombies start showing up things rapidly get out of control. The town is overrun, and no one is safe. Ronnie has been saying throughout the movie that things are going to end badly, and he’s absolutely right. Almost everyone dies, but even worse, the movie just kind of takes a hard left that didn’t make any sense to me. Even in a spoof and then ended in a very predictable way.
What cost it points? At about the 1:30 mark Ronnie breaks the 4rth wall. Chief Robertson asks him why he’s been so sure the whole time that things would end up badly. Ronnie tells him its because of the script. When I’m watching movies, I don’t want to be reminded that its a movie. The only thing that really earned this movie points was Bill Murray. He can take pretty much anything and make it worth a try. There were some amazing moments, which got The Dead Don’t Die the points it received, but overall I didn’t feel like it had a story that worked. Why the hell was the mortician an Alien? It didn’t feel like it fit to me, even in a spoofy movie.
Today was the last day of holiday for me and I wanted to get drunk and watch a movie, and generally be lazy all day. The alcohol was easy, the movie was a bit harder to find. After a few months of quarantine, there isn’t a whole lot of unwatched media out there, know what I mean?
So I was really excited when I saw this new movie, Shadow in the Cloud. Chloë Grace Moretz plays Maude Garrett, a woman trying to escape her past, any way she can. This ends up with Maude on a WW2 bomber, which just so happens to be the target of both Japanese fighters, and a gremlin.
Shadow in the Cloud Scoring
The acting was top notch, Chloë Grace Moretz is an A Lister after all, but the overall story was fairly standard. This felt a lot like a really well done episode of the Twilight Zone. There was plenty of action, just not a whole lot of plot, but even so, it was really well done, so why a 66/100?
The main reason is the price. I paid $25 bucks for this, and that was just too much. At $10 bucks this would have been an 80/100 based on value for the buck. Even so, this is still Worth Your Time, even if its only by a single point. My honest feedback is to wait a few weeks until the price drops a bit though.
Deadlocked is a movie that takes almost entirely in elevator. A small group is stranded in an elevator just as the Zombie Apocalypse starts. It is an interesting idea but there were clearly limitations on what the production team was able to pull off.
Deadlocked Score
Deadlocked is a low budget movie. If you are expecting a ton of action and CGI, this might not be the flick for you. If this were a college project I’d likely give it an 85, but as a commercial Zombie Movie I’m giving it a 35/100, putting it just a single point into Rainy Day Movie territory. Just a few points lower and it would have been a “Just Bad” movie.
The good news is that the movie did get better as it went along. It starts really slow, but does pick up during the last 20 minutes or so. My advice is to have a few drinks, and save Deadlocked for a really rainy, dreary day.
For fans of Demolition Ranch/Off The Ranch, you are going to recognize Matt and Hickock45. They had teased this zombie movie some time ago, and now it is out. Strain 100 has a simple, straight forward premise. A woman is in a car accident and when she wakes up, people are snacking on people.
My first thought as I watched the first few minutes was surprise. I was honestly not expecting the level of cinematography. A part of me was assuming this was going to be college movie project quality. So it was a pleasant surprise how good the cinematography was. Unfortunately, the professional quality of the cinematography didn’t carry over to the special effects. They might have had a high quality camera but that didn’t leave much money left over for special effects. The blood squirts are B- to straight B quality at best.
Time to Run
After a brief into where a scientist panics and tells her daughter Jesse to get someplace safe and hold up. The next thing we see is how Jesse ends up on the side of the road. Literally, we see her in her car which is on its side, on the road.
Jesse’s girlfriend, who she was trying to save after the girl was bitten at camp, has turned. This leads to a nice bit of gore in the car as Jesse is forced to kill her first Zombie. I guess her friend was still “fresh” enough to have a lot of liquid blood on board.
Jesse Gets her First Zombie Kill
As she runs, we get the obligatory, kid zombie scene as well. It is just a random scene inserted for fun before Jesse finds her way into a strangers house.
Zombie Piñata Party
Inside the house Jesse listens to a stranger’s voicemails? This made me think it was her house at first – because why else listen to them? But it turns out its just the first house she found with an unlocked door.
After Jesse listens to the voicemails she wanders deeper into the house. She slips on a massive puddle of blood which leads us to Jesse’s second zombie kill. It was an over the top, covered in blood kill.
Bloody Business
Emma
With the Zombie killed, Emma, who has been hiding in the closet, decides to pop out now that its safe. Emma is apparently a combination waitress and EMT. She challenges Jesse about her bite wound. Emma doesn’t understand how Jesse has been bitten, and not showing signs of turning.
Bitten
This leads to a common trope in Zombie Movies. Let’s not tell anyone else about the bite! I’m sorry, if I see people eating people and your bitten, I might let you live, but your going to have handcuffs on and a hockey mask/motorcycle helmet until I’m 100% sure your not going to turn.
With questionable decisions made Emma leads Jesse to the diner, and the small group of survivors holed up there. The survivors are the classic mix of individuals. We have the bossy gun toting owner of the diner, the old male chauvinist and his wife, the trash talker, and the nice guy.
When the generator at the diner goes out we see Roy, the owner with his back to the dark, talking loudly as he’s trying to get the generator going, which predictable results. The remaining survivors split up, with Jesse driving away with the group who wants to live while the old man and his wife decide to end things. It’s not super clear if the younger girl who stayed behind also did herself? There were three of them, and only two bullets after all.
Atlanta
On the way to Atlanta, Emma finds her sister, and her niece, but her niece didn’t make it, which results in Emma and her Sister giving up. I get what they were going for, showing how brutal live would be, but at the same time, these scenes felt a little forced.
This leads the dwindling group to seek supplies at a quickie mart, where Brandon quickly gets overrun. Again, I think I know what they were going for, but I felt like Brandon was smart enough to tap on the windows before going into the store?
On the way to the brother and sister’s family the car dies, which leads to an act of bravery as the sister’s brother makes a run for it to distract the zombies. Thankfully the older brother is fast and makes it to a truck that luckily has the keys in the ignition. This leads to a ridiculous bit of redneck shooting as a father and his two grown children decide they have to save the truck by shooting at it?
In the Uncle’s barn, we find that he’s maybe not the nice guy the survivors were hoping as he tells Jesse and the little girl that its time to receive “The Blessing”.
The Blessing
Following another played out trope, the Uncle isn’t really the Uncle, and he’s not interested in helping the girls. As he’s prepping what looks like a bomb the little girl’s brother creates a distraction by driving over mines? Why the hell does the vehicle got explosions around it?
The brother rescues the girls, but he’s been shot and dies along with the truck. No, it’s not really explained why the girls end up walking after he bites the big one.
Hickock45
As the girls are walking along the road they are swarmed by Zombies, which is when Hickock45 shows up to the save the day. I feel like the directors at this point knew this was a dud, and tried to leverage a few YouTube stars to try and guarantee that at least their viewers would buy/rent the movie.
Hickock45 Teaching Jesse To Shoot
The whole Hickock45 and Matt from Demo Ranch felt completely shoehorned into the movie, and while fans of their channels might want to see Strain 100 just for that reason, I have to be honest with you that it’s a little painful to watch. I love Hickock45 and Matt, but their scenes in Strain 100 didn’t really add anything to the story and felt very forced.
As Jesse and her ward go to leave Hickock45s house, we find out that Grace, the kid, was bitten. This leads to the obligatory scene where Jesse has to put the kid down and bury her by the side of the road, complete with a little stick cross.
Strain 100 ends with Jesse reaching Atlanta, where she meets up with a gun toting security guard badass. The security guard apparently brings Jesse inside to watch her moms final recording. Her mom has known her daughter has some super human immunity, and with the package she gave Tory, the security guard, she believes there might be hope for humanity.
The movie just kind of suddenly ends with Tori driving Jesse away on a motorcycle as she blasts away at Zombies, taking Jesse to another lab in Washington which leads to a WTF ending where Skynet is distributing the cure made from Jesse’s blood.
WTF?
Strain 100 Score
Strain 100 earned a score of 42/100, putting it in the Rainy Day Movie Category. The first thirty minutes of Strain 100 were on track to earn a score in the low 70’s but the scenes at the diner cost the movie a few points and then things quickly went downhill from there. The other issue with the movie is the general atmosphere. The acting was B+ but the dialogue was often a little hokey and peoples reactions didn’t quite fit the gravity of the situation. Everyone seems a little too relaxed after having seen multiple people get attacked, eaten, and bitten. The other issue I had was the whole religion/reason for the Zombie Apocalypse. It’s been done in a ton of other movies, and quite frankly, done better.
In the end Strain 100 doesn’t really break any new ground. It suffers from feeling like someone watched a bunch of other zombie movies and tried to write a movie script using what they thought were the best parts of those movies, but everything doesn’t quite feel like it fits together smoothly, or at all. There are a lot of jagged edges to the story, and the atmosphere never quite feels right for the Apocalypse. If your going to watch Strain 100, save it for a rainy day when your having a few drinks.
