Tag: Zombies

Virus:32

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Virus:32 follows a well trodden path, with a small twist. A virus is flooding the streets of Montevideo with fast, violent Zombies. The twist? After they attack the Zombies need 32 seconds to recover their stamina.

Virus:32

Virus:32 has two main characters. The mother, Iris, is played by Paula Silva, and the tween daughter, Tata, is played by Pilar Garcia Ayala. On the day the outbreak begins, Iris brings Tata to work, which is apparently watching over an abandoned school. She might be a security guard, but not one who is supplied a firearm.

Iris sees her first signs that something isn’t right around the 17 minute mark when she looks out a window to see one man beating another violently. Her response is perfect, as she calls the police to report it, instead of going to investigate it herself.

Virus:32 has excellent cinematography. It has a minimalistic style that often enhances the movie. One of my favorite moments is when the camera pans to the security monitors and we see someone enter the school.

Its just after this, at around the 21:30 mark that things start to get good. The Zombies are in the building, and Iris has a mission. She has to get to her daughter, and then save both them if she can.

Scoring

Virus:32 has excellent production values. The whole 32 second delay, which is a core of the movie is shown to us, instead of being told to us, which earned it points in my book.

Overall, the movie earned a 62/100, making it a perfect Rainy Day Movie. The main drivers are how much the movie feels like a mix up of some truly great movies. It has a bit of 28 Day Later, then Dawn of the Dead (2004) as the middle of the movie really focuses on the whole Zombie Momma and baby. The ending was okay, but felt like it tried to hard to get an emotional rise out of me.

Let me know in the comments if you agree.

See all Zombie Movies here.

Resident Evil: Season 1, Episode 6

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Resident Evil: Season 1, Episode 6, Someone’s Little Girl, was thankfully almost all in the “here and now”. Unfortunately it also desperately tried to check off every “dumb mistake” that gets peoples killed in survival situations.

Resident Evil: Season 1, Episode 6, Someone's Little Girl
Resident Evil

Jade is captured and re-united with Billie, but of course Billie isn’t really the bad guy. Billie wants us to believe she’s actually on Jade’s side. Jade seems to buy it. Without much thought about how long Billie has hunted her, she just lets herself get taken back to her headquarters.

Really? No one checks Jade’s gear for trackers or bugs? No one can scan for whatever technology they use for a tracking signal?

And most egregiously Jade then brings a Zombie onto the floating headquarters. She then does a piss poor job of restraining the thing too! How about doing her tests in a locked down area instead of one right on the main path?

That scene had me screaming at my monitor. Really? This is how someone who has survived functions with a biter around?

Scoring: Someone’s Little Girl

Episode 6, Someone’s Little Girl, scored a 25/100 because it felt like a copy and paste from lots of other bad television shows.

If you need your Resident Evil fix, I’d go back to the classics.

See all Zombie Series here.

Resident Evil: Season 1, Episode 4

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Resident Evil The Turn has some really awesome fight scenes. The Brotherhood has Jade and Baxter. Worse, The Brotherhood has them captive in a very creepy stronghold.

Resident Evil The Turn
Resident Evil

The Brotherhood has captured a higher level “Mother Zombie” who can control the other Zombies, or Zeroes as the show calls them. This is one of those areas that I know is cannon in the Resident Evil world, there are Zombies who can think. It is a difficult line to walk. The hordes still need to be hordes. The more the Zombies show intelligence the less survival becomes about facing undead hordes. It just becomes any other war movie or survival movie.

Because this is canon in the game however, the series had to include it. The good news is that the directors did a good job of using Zombies with higher level thought processes.

My favorite parts of The Turn are definitely when Baxter goes full Bad Ass. I guess there is just some part of me that likes seeing slightly overweight people kick butt? I’ll have to see what my psychiatrist says about it.

Richard Baxter Goes Bad Ass

Jade of course finds herself face to face with the “Mother Zombie” but luckily she has a chainsaw for the fight which proves pivotal. Unfortunately for Jade she still finds herself cornered by the Zombies. Of course there is a box of grenades that just happen to be in the dead end room as well though. Wipes brow, not sure how she was getting out of that one otherwise.

Richard ends up finding Jade a minute later and they attempt to flee. This is where the slightly overweight guy ends up biting it (get it) because Jade can’t pull him up to safety. Richard ends up getting torn to pieces as Jade flees.

Throughout this we area also getting snippets of the “Old” timeline where Jade and her sister are dealing with Billie’s bite as well as the revelations that their father may not be the nicest guy in the world.

The Turn ends with Jade being captured by Umbrella. It ends with Jade looking up as an Umbrella soldiers pulls off their helmet. Based on Jade’s face, I’m guessing she just got reunited with her sister Billie.

Scoring Resident Evil The Turn

Resident Evil The Turn was really hard to score. If I cut out all the “Old” timeline scenes this was a 90. But that is like saying dinner was great if you ate around the roaches in the food right? I really am not a fan of the “Old” timeline scenes and would give them a 30. Because I’m trying to be fair I’m going to average the two scores. This leaves The Turn with a score of 60/100.

If you need your Resident Evil fix, I’d go back to the classics.

See all Zombie Series here.

Resident Evil: Season 1, Episode 3

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Resident Evil The Light has Jade attempting a dangerous escape through the Chunnel. She is leading a small group of survivors in an attempt to escape Umbrella’s wrath.

Resident Evil

The story telling continues to jump back and forth between the current timeline and the backstory. They should have just concentrated on the current timeline with Jade running from Richard Baxter, played by Turlough Convery. Yes, I kind of recognized him but couldn’t place it until I looked at his IMDB page and realized I knew him from Killing Eve.

With Baxter hot on her heels, Jade is forced to make a risky escape through the Chunnel, only to have Baxter follow her there anyway. Of course Umbrella isn’t the only dangerous thing in the Chunnel and there are some nice action scenes as everyone ends up fighting for their survival.

I Hate Spiders

Compared to The Devil You Know, The Light picked up and felt much faster paced. There are multiple combat scenes and a few good moments of suspense. I still don’t like jumping back and forth between timelines. It seems overused and I think I’d actually like the episode more if I could just watch the “current timeline” version. Yes, I love Lance Reddick as Albert Wesker. Actually, I love almost every role he’s ever had. From The Wire to John Wick, how can you not appreciate the subtle intensity that Lance brings to every role he plays?

But…I just want to see the story progression when Jade is surviving in the Zombie infested wastelands. I would even be happy if they just limited the flashbacks to a very short clip explaining why something is the way it is. I don’t need a whole other storyline to explain the past.

Scoring Resident Evil The Light

Okay, rant over. I’m giving The Light a 77/100 as I felt like it was back on track after a slower Episode 2. There was more and better action and I happily watched it twice to make sure I didn’t miss any small details.

If you need your Resident Evil fix, I’d go back to the classics.

See all Zombie Series here.

Resident Evil: Season 1, Episode 1

TJ Provost 1 Comment

The new Resident Evil television series kicks off with “Welcome to New Raccoon City”.

Resident Evil

The story uses the familiar dual storyline method, showing us today, and yesterday in spurts. Meanwhile the pattern of showing the past and present becomes a norm moving forward. The flashbacks show Jade and Billie Wesker have moving to New Raccoon City. Their father, Albert Wesker, played by the wonderful Lance Reddick has pull. Clearly he is a valued member of the Umbrella team. Obviously this makes me wonder who is more loyal to. His girls, or his employer.

In the current timeline Jade is thirty years old and researching the Zombies at great person risk. Evidently Jade will sacrifice time with her child to save the world.

This leads to the best action scene (for me) in “Welcome to New Raccoon City”.

Jade is working on her research when she accidentally cuts herself. The blood drives the infected mad. They swarm, searching for the source of the blood. The scene is awesome. I’m hoping it sets the tone for the rest of the season.

Jade barely escapes. In the process she runs into a group of scavengers. The scavengers give us new insight into Jade. She is a fugitive, and Umbrella is willing to pay to find her. Which is of course when we jump back to the other timeline. Just when it was getting good we flash back to the past. Jade and Billie want to know what their father is doing. To find out they break into Alberts lab. Even with the infected everywhere and the remaining population living in walled cities, teenage girls will get upset by animal testing. There is of course a rule that if you have dangerous pathogens in a lab, the security is crappy enough that a few teen girls can get in with nothing but a badge and some audio of their father who works there.

What the girls don’t know can absolutely hurt them. Albert takes blood samples from the girls. They think he is monitoring their health. Surprisingly, what Albert really does is inject their blood into himself. Is he infected? I guess I’ll have to keep watching to find out.

This of course brings us to the episode cliffhanger. Jade has limited choices. Jade has two choices. Be captured or dive into a swarm of the undead. With little real choice, she dives into the infected zone.

Thus ends the episode. How will Jade survive? What happened to Billie after being bitten by the dog?

Scoring Resident Evil Welcome to New Raccoon City

Firstly, this was a a great start to the season. Because of this, Welcome to New Raccoon City earned itself an 80/100, making it worth your time. The writing and dialogue is good and the special effects are top notch so far. The story itself is fairly boilerplate for the moment, but I’m hoping there are some twists and turns in the coming episodes.

Lastly, if you need your Resident Evil fix, I’d go back to the classics.

See all Zombie Series here.

The Valley Of The Dead (2021)

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The Valley Of The Dead is a Spanish Language film titled “Malnazidos”. Its original theatrical release was delayed because of the pandemic. Thankfully Netflix swooped in, bought the rights, and dubbed it to English for those of us without Spanish Language skills to enjoy.

Valley Of The Dead – aka Malnazidos

The material is probably not as familiar to Americans, as it takes place during the Spanish Civil War. The movie synopsis doesn’t actually cover this, so if you are like me, you probably assumed the time frame was one of the World Wars until it was a bit further in.

Months after bloody combats leave behind thousands of dead in the trenches. Jan Lozano, Captain of the Fifth Brigade has fallen prisoner by an opponent’s platoon along with a young driver while carrying out a mission that has been entrusted to him. The possibility of dying executed will soon be overtaken when a new unknown enemy arises. Both rival sides must unite and set their mutual hate aside in order to survive.

-Telecinco Cinema

Spoilers Below

The Valley Of The Dead kicks off as a standard war movie. Our unwilling “hero” Jan, played by Miki Esparbé, is given a mission which has little chance of success. Jan is sent to recover a downed pilot. Unfortunately for Jan, he and his driver are captured shortly after thier mission begins. This finally introduces us to our first Zombie. Why do I say finally? Because that first zombie doesn’t actually appear until twenty minutes in.

It isn’t long before Jan and his captors join forces to fight a common enemy. One of my favorite scenes is when they took down a lone Zombie only to realize they pulled every Undead within earshot down on their heads. This may seem obvious but so many movies have people blowing away undead without accounting for the fact it would pull every biter around them down on their heads.

The Valley Of The Dead

I would describe The Valley Of The Dead as a fun, but formulaic movie. Don’t expect new ground to be covered here. Don’t get me wrong. The Valley Of The Dead is enjoyable to watch. The visuals and special effects are first rate. The cast was well chosen and each of them plays their part well. It all comes together nicely.

The Valley Of The Dead Scoring

So why is The Valley Of The Dead scoring a respectable 70/100? It makes The Valley Of The Dead Worth Your Time, but just barely. There were a good number of Zombies, but I would have loved to see a horde versus a machine gun. There was plenty of action, I just wanted something a little more. The other main reason is that the story. There just wasn’t anything new there. It was enjoyable, but it needed something to make it pop just a little more to get that score up a little more.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

See all Zombie Movies here.

Zombie Movies – The Video Dead (1987)

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The Video Dead is what I’d call a classic Zombie Movie. Anything over 30 years old qualifies in my book.

The Video Dead

What should you expect from a 30 year old Zombie movie? Don’t expect state of the art CGI or a lot of special effects. The late 80s were a time when special effects cost big dollars, and Zombie movies relied mostly on practical effects.

Having said that, they did spend some bucks on what I’d call the Weird Science lightening effect. Who knows, maybe someone on the team actually worked on Weird Science, it did come out two years before The Video Dead was released.

Amazing CGI

The Video Dead tells a story about a television that allows Zombies to escape from it, as well as having the ability to haunt anyone who is watching it. The movie opens with delivery guys bringing the television to a house, and then shortly returning to find the owner of the house murdered in gruesome fashion. We then jump forward in time to a brother and sister who move in, not knowing they just made “The Murder House” their new home.

It’s not long before the television makes itself present felt, taunting Jeff, the younger brother with lustful messages.

Creepy TV

Jeff writes off the strange events, blaming the weed he was smoking for his crazy thoughts.

When a neighborhood young lady comes by with the dog she’s watching, Jeff temporarily finds a new target for his attentions, but in the process, the dog gets loose, leading to one of the funniest lines in the movie:

The Dog

It is not long before the last owner of the television shows up. His guilt driving him to try and help. He knew what the television could do, and tries to help the best he can.

The story was relatively straight forward and stayed true to itself. There is a nice little twist at the end. It’s not ground breaking, but I thought it was a suitable ending and I don’t want to give the end away as I do think The Video Dead should be put on your list as a Rainy Day Movie. The Video Dead scored a 65/100, putting it at the top of that Rainy Day Movie category.

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Eat Brains Love (2019)

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Eat Brains Love takes a slightly different view of the classic Zombie movie. It isn’t bites that spread the infection, but instead the Zombie Virus is spread as a sexually transmitted disease.

Eat Brains Love
Eat Brains Love

What happens when the geeky boy and hot girl both catch an STD that makes them want brains? They don’t have a choice. They go on the run together – which leads to fun and antics.

The government has psychics who hunt the infected. This leads to an interesting but strange love triangle between the main characters and one of the agents.

At the same time, there isn’t a lot of depth to Eat Brains Love and they either thought they’d be setting up the end of the movie for a sequel, they just ran out of money, or the writers just didn’t know how to end it. It would have scored much better if the ending had been more well rounded. As it is, the movie scores a 56/100, putting it firmly in Rainy Day Movie territory.

See all Zombie Movies here.

Rise of the Zombies (2012)

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Rise of The Zombies has an all star cast that includes Danny Trejo, Levar Burton, and Mariel Hemingway, so I had high hopes that I had found a gem.

Rise Of The Zombies

Then I watched the first ten minutes and realized this was a low budget movie. That doesn’t mean bad, and the director did a great job with what money they did have.

The story is fairly straight forward. San Francisco has been overrun, and the survivors flee to Alcatraz. The lead scientists, played by Levar Burton, is searching for a cure. Boy is it weird to see Levar shoot a shotgun. It just feels wrong! Anyway, once Alcatraz is overrun the majority of the survivors flee back to the mainland while Levar stays behind to continue his work.

One of the highlights of the movie is the caesarian birth scene followed by some baby Zombie stomping. I wish I hadn’t been laughing, but that is what happens sometimes.

Rise of the Zombies Scoring

Overall I’m giving Rise of The Zombies a 48/100, making it a solid Rainy Day Movie, which was perfect, because it rained while I was watching it.

What cost Rise of The Zombies points? Sadly, it does feel dated, but the majority of the points get taken off due to the overuse of the “Zombie the team missed” trope, as well as inconsistent rules. How can Zombies climb the Golden Gate Bridge but not a fence? Then there is the overly detailed scientific explanations. It’s a Zombie Movie, we don’t need to go too deep guys.

See all Zombie Movies here.

Quarantine 2 (2011)

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Quarantine 2 starts slow, telling the story of two airline stewardesses as they start their day, eventually leading to the start of the movie. Someone brought the virus onboard, and its not long before the plane is making an emergency medical landing.

Quarantine 2
Quarantine 2

From there, it is a fairly standard Zombie Infection story. The small group of survivors slowly gets taken down, and of course we have the emotional, bit, not leaving you storyline – which is just dumb at this point. If I see a bunch of my group get eaten alive after bites spread the infection, I’m not going to hesitate to leave you behind if you are essentially a stranger to me.

Quarantine 2 Scoring

Quarantine 2 scores a 64/100, putting it at the higher end of the Rainy Day Movie zone. The slow start, repetitive bad decisions, and the very formulaic ending cost this movie. There is nothing new here, but there are some good action scenes, even if there are no hoards. At max you see maybe four or five Zombies at any one time. That can work, but it has to be a good movie. Throw a few good hoards in and you get a few bonus points in my book.

Compared to the original Quarantine this fell by 3 points.

See all Zombie Movies here.