Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
Undead is a campy, tongue-in-cheek take on the zombie genre from local independent filmmakers Michael and Peter Spierig. It begins like any other small-town outback drama, until a sudden meteor strike brings with it a plague of zombification and a mysterious storm.
It's not quite a parody, though some scenes are tone-perfect digs at survival-horror clichés. My favourite was its take on the rest-before-battle sequence, with our heroes camped out in a basement shelter, oppressed by a bullying cop with Tourette's and the deadpan doom-saying of the hermit who had encountered zombies once before -- in the form of a freshly caught fish that simply refused to die -- until surprise!, the pregnant girl went into labour.
But the humour isn't central to the film, except as a constant undercurrent of absurdity. The zombies fly apart with the slightest touch of a mêlée weapon, decapitated by this and sliced in half by that. The score is intrusive, but too upbeat to keep the mood from becoming wholly serious.
The final product is, perhaps, less than the sum of its parts, hampered by an uneven script and acting which rarely rises above competent. It does look amazing given its budget, however, and some of the special effects -- such as the scene with bodies floating above the clouds -- are quite breathtaking. Worth a look for genre fans.