Despite its brutally predictable ending, the Australian short zombie film “Perished” is a grueling and terrifying horror entry. Once again, a storyteller has the idea to feature less zombie carnage and explore the minutiae of survival where every little step dictates whether you live or die by tooth and nail of the walking dead.
I wish more zombie movies could be like Jeremy Gardner’s “The Battery.” The problem with most modern zombie films is that the writers forget that the humans should be the centerpiece of the film, and not the zombies. Director Jeremy Gardner’s “The Battery” is the prime example of how to handle this kind of genre entertainment with a low budget. Rather than flood the screen with zombies, the monsters are used sparingly and for great moments of terror and memorable scenes, while Gardner focuses primarily on character, building two complex and unique people we can love and hate, in many ways.
This October, zombie fans are able to scoop up the newest film compilation from Mill Creek Entertainment. With over sixteen hours of classic and not so classic zombie movies, this is for the horror fans looking for more with their bucks. The 1962 shocker “Carnival of Souls” is a classic spook fest, about a young woman who crashes in to a lake and survives to tell the tale. Trying to make sense of the incident, she finds herself being stalked by pale bug eyed zombies, all of whom are identical and desperate to take her. For reasons unknown (until the very end), she can’t escape their grasp.
Spawned from a mock variant cover last year, “Afterlife with Archie” is another of the many unique attempts by Archie Comics to re-claim their relevance. After wisely acknowledging that there are such things as gay people in their universe, Archie is now embracing the horror genre. Thankfully, this crossover isn’t disastrous like their crossover with The Punisher. This is more demented with a hint of genius like “Marvel Zombies.” I don’t know how long this series can go before it gets boring, but so far I’m loving the dark nature of the Archie Universe.
There is still no explanation as to the origin of the strip club/temple. Not that I really cared, mind you. In the final shot of “From Dusk Till Dawn,” it was a great final blow to the audience to show how these vampires have likely been committing these slaughters since the mid-1800’s. I didn’t need to know how they got together and devised this idea to lure bikers and truckers to feast on them, but I assume if they’re going to continue the series with a prequel, you might as well give it a shot and explain how the temple came to be. Maybe an 80’s montage set to “Our House” with the vampires building the club and painting it at night or something.
Let’s face it, someone took a shitty movie about vampire bank robbers and turned it in to a sequel to “From Dusk Till Dawn.” Except it’s nowhere near being a sequel. Even with an appearance from Danny Trejo as the vampire bartender Razor Eddie from the first film, this is a shitty vampire movie someone decided to make in to a sequel. It’s a goofy, campy, and ridiculous vampire movie filled with horrible performances, and a ridiculous premise that does nothing to reconcile itself with the first film. There’s not even a mention of Seth Gecko for crying out loud. Shit, at least re-cast Juliette Lewis’ role as Kate Fuller and follow her along on another vampire adventure, at least.
Not surprisingly, when long time film making pals Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez teamed up to make a horror movie, in the end it felt like two different movies. For folks unaware of the duo’s style of writing and film making, the second half will completely blow away anyone entrenched in the crime drama that is the first half of the film. “From Dusk Till Dawn” begins like a hyper violent take off of “Reservoir Dogs.” Seth Gecko and his brother Richie have broken out of jail leaving a trail of bodies behind, and are now hiding out in a gas station. Just their luck a sheriff comes in to chat with the owner, and thanks to a series of mishaps, Seth and Richie leave the gas station and its workers dead in a hail of gunfire and flames.