Review: Maggie

http://pubfilm.com/maggie-2015-full-hd-pubfilm-free.html

For Mother's Day, I got to pick our Saturday night viewing, so we shelled out a few bucks to watch the new indie zombie flick Maggie on OnDemand. Overall, the movie was strong. It was original and smart and it had a cohesive feel.

The first thing you notice when you're deciding to watch this movie is that it contains Arnold Schwarzenegger in an unexpected leading role. For a man who has spent his recent years picking up a pay check for somewhat blase action movies and, you know, governing one of the largest states in the country, doing a movie like Maggie seems like an odd choice. The movie has a limited theatrical release and feels like an indie movie at every turn. I was never a big Arnold fan, but I have to respect that he cares enough about the craft of acting to pick up a role like this that promises him nothing in the way of fame or fortune.

That said, I kind of wish he wasn't in it. It isn't that he doesn't do a good job acting--he does. Still, he's just so incredibly recognizable that he takes you out of it every once and a while because you're just like, "hey, that guy was the terminator...oh, right...pay attention to the zombie movie." Other than him, I was pretty impressed with the acting. Abigail Breslin was decent as his daughter who is slowly succumbing to a zombie virus with a 6-8 week incubation period. She looked and felt realistic in her processing of her depressing but inevitable fate. The best performance, however, was from Joely Richardson. I remember Richardson from The Patriot where her most notable achievements, let's be honest, were her wardrobe and her cleavage, but in this she really brings the story to life in a realistic way. Richardson plays Breslin's stepmother who sends her own children away to care for Breslin as the disease becomes more and more advanced. While you don't exactly "like" her character, you absolutely understand her choices. She seems realistic and complex in a very human and honest way.

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Aside from the acting, one of the major strengths of this film is in the simplicity and tightness of the narrative. At first, some of the scenes seem unnecessary, but the filmmakers have weaved a simple and important story in which all the pieces of the puzzle are very important in the end. And in a genre that's so often about splashing zombie brains across the cement, we rarely get a story that's entirely focused on telling the other side of the story. This story reminds us that zombies are people, and that when they turn, they leave behind mothers and fathers and children who love them and often can't let them go. The movie is slow and is far more drama than anything else, but that's the beauty of it. It shows us 90 minutes of grieving. It takes us though the stages of grief through a few different character perspectives and makes the zombie genre feel real. It reminds us that, as much as we may think it from time to time, we really don't want the zombie apocalypse to be a real thing.

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The apocalyptic landscape and art direction were spot on in this movie. Receiving marks for originality, this film depicts a world in which the disease affects not only humans but also possibly plant life, which presents additional apocalyptic problems. This aids the futile mood of the movie with shots of barren fields and burning crops. Overall, I just like the film's approach to the zombie infection. We've never seen a zombie virus with an incubation period like this. In some films, the turn is almost immediate, while in others it can take a few hours, but in this film the burn is slow but still inevitable. Bitten people last for 6-8 weeks which means that they are released back home for a sort of undead hospice care, and that's just eerie. Also, I like that, like in films like Contagion, this "apocalypse" is more realistic. The virus hasn't killed everyone. Society still exists, just not well. This is more honest to how devastating diseases like this have happened in human history.

https://mountainx.com/movies/reviews/maggie/

In the negative column, I had a little trouble believing that in a country that detained an Ebola nurse in a tent due to panicked fear of pandemic, the authorities would ever allow bitten people to return home to the care of their families until they were more advanced in the stages of the disease. The more the film went on, the more I bought into this piece of the storytelling, but it was definitely hard to swallow at first.

The writing was usually good, but it had the occasional trite line or conversation. Nothing major, but it could have been a little more original and authentic in some of the conversations. Still, the film thrives in its silences, just like The Dead, so a little bit of hackneyed dialogue or disorienting Arnold-ness does little to break the overall mood and meaning of the film.

Maggie is in theaters now and is also available on OnDemand. It's not really a "must see in theaters" film, not because it isn't really good, but more because it's not cinematically grandiose. It's a small, lovely little film about letting go and accepting the inevitable. It's a good allegory for terminal illness as well as the early days of AIDs, and it says a lot in ninety minutes that you don't typically get from the zombie genre. Find time for this movie.

Review: Dead Snow 2

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So tonight I wanted to watch me some zombie flick, and after looking at what options I had, I decided it would either be Dead Snow 2 or The Dead 2. I was honestly more excited about The Dead 2, but since it wasn't on Netflix, Dead Snow 2 it was.

The flick was a lot like the first installment, filled with pretty big positives and a fair number of negatives, but overall a fun way to spend 90 minutes on a Saturday night. Just like the first film, it's zombie gore at its very best and bloodiest, and the film possesses a tone that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Of course, like most sequels, it's not quite as good as the original. I think the main difference is that it doesn't have the darkness to it that the first film had. The first film was solidly in the black comedy genre, with a number of moments that were truly terrifying or disturbing. The second film tries, but it's really just a straight up comedy, even as the film is killing off children, the elderly, priests, etc.

The killing actually was my major complaint. Maybe I'm just getting old and boring, but I felt like the film was trying too hard to be "edgy" by killing off children in a sandbox, two people in wheelchairs, and two women with their infants in strollers. At first it was kind of funny that they were not holding anything back. A scene early on depicts a young boy being killed in a way that is legitimately both awful and completely hilarious, but from there some of the kills just seem like they're trying way too hard to be "shocking", and it distracts from the film.

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That said, the gore was visually very strong. For a movie that doesn't have an enormously large budget, they do a good job of being inventive with their gore and also making things look realistic. Like in the first film, most of the characters are bathed in a delightful coat of blood and dirt for the majority of the film which gives the film a strong aesthetic. You can't hate too much on a movie in which a Nazi zombie uses a dead man's intestines to siphon gas out of a tour bus and into a World War 2 era tank. I mean...that's just damn good cinema.

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The acting is probably a little better in this sequel than in the original, but it's hard to compare the two since the sequel is in English and the original has subtitles. I was worried about this decision, but it was fine. Much like the original film, however, the actors were all kind of strangely cast. I feel like many of the characters were too old for the characters they were portraying, and the two female American zombie nerds seemed extremely fake and were honestly pretty annoying. I love Star Wars as much as the next girl, but the one character's constant references to Star Wars seemed out of place, inauthentic, and distracted from the rest of the film. The local gay guy in the film was funny and endearing, but they made too big of a deal about him being gay. Maybe it's a bigger deal to be gay in Norway, but him trying to hide it seems a little silly and played for a film released in 2014.

Other than that though, the writing was probably one of the major strengths of the film. There are some witty moments, and the plot is interesting and original. Most of the characters have entertaining lines and deliver them well. The cinematography, like the original, is also pretty good and enhances the comedy of a lot of the scenes.

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The ending of the film is a bit rushed, but the final battle is well executed and fulfilling. The very last moments of the film are kind of bizarre, but not horrible, especially considering how poorly most movies seem to end nowadays.

So, should you watch it? Totally. Don't expect to be laughing out loud, but it will give you some genuine chuckles and will keep you engaged for an hour and a half. Go in just expecting a fun little indie movie, and you'll be pleased. Just remember that, like the original, this is film is very loosely defined as a zombie flick. These zombies talk and use weapons. They're more like corporeal ghosts in a lot of ways except that their look is very "zombie", so if you are a zombie purist, I suggest that you stay away.

Review: Fear Eats the Seoul

My last review from Chicago Fear Fest this year is going to be for the last flick we saw at the festival: Fear Eats the Seoul. It's difficult to know where to start when reviewing a movie like this. Overall, I wasn't a huge fan of the film. I absolutely loved the opening sequence, and I was really excited from the first minute of movie, but after that, a lot of it let me down.

My primary struggle was with the pace of the film. The flick was about two hours in length, but you left the theater feeling as though the story really could have been cut down to about 70-80 minutes. Rarely do I find a horror or zombie film that has me checking my watch, but this one certainly did. That's not to say that there weren't some genuine moments of both tension and action--there were. Still, the gaps between these moments seemed a little languorous.

The majority of this problem might have stemmed from the fact that this film jumps back in time frequently to look at the characters before the outbreak. This could be a nice touch, and occasionally it is, but often it seems unnecessary. We don't usually learn anything important from the flashbacks, and I feel that many of the flashbacks didn't answer any questions for me or inform my understanding of the characters one bit.

Possibly, that's because I wasn't really invested in the characters. It was very difficult, as a 28 year old senior citizen, to sympathize with the characters in this story. The majority of the characters struck me as self absorbed, whiny, and without solid ideas or survival instinct. At times I found myself thinking, "Really? This is who makes it out?" As a result, I didn't care about their back story and I certainly didn't care if they made it out of Korea before it was bombed.

The main protagonist, Nadia (Amber Green), was my primary fish-to-be-fried. Her voice over was cliche, trite, and vastly lacking in maturity. She was moody and bitchy with other people, and not in a funny or relatable way, but rather in a "Dude, why haven't you people thrown her to the mutants?" sort of way. That being said, I'm absolutely sure that I would have adored both this movie and her character when I was seventeen. This flick would have been like my bible, and she would have been my idol. Thank the lords of Kobol that I'm no longer seventeen.

But the film wasn't all bad. First, you have to give the director, Nick Calder, some mad props for undertaking such an immensely challenging project and executing it completely and professionally at such a young age. I've certainly never been that dedicated to my craft. The film looks and feels more professional than you would expect, and for a very low budget, Calder has done some admirable work. In addition to being the director and writer, he's also the only mildly palatable actor in the whole movie. The effects on the infected (they're not...really...zombies. more like demons.) are really cool and original. They certainly strike a little bit of fear into the soul. And speaking of my horrible pun, I really dug the title of this flick. It was one of the main things that had me speeding up to Rosemont from C2E2 to watch it.

But aside from a few moments of "looking cool", an interesting base-level concept, and some original make up effects, this film is not destined to be a horror cult film for decades to come. The film is weighed down at many points by overly emotional writing, purposely shaky cinematography, slothful pacing, and unlikeable characters. All of these elements band together to make the audience disengaged and apathetic. Will they get out of Seoul? Will you care? Decide for yourself by watching Fear Eats the Seoul.

The trailer is below. Rewatching the trailer makes me rethink this entire review (the trailer is really good), but unfortunately the movie is not what the trailer advertizes. God, I wish it was. Maybe some very generous editing could recut the movie into a faster paced narrative. When that happens, someone call me.

Review & Event: Juan of the Dead at The Wilmette Theater

I know it's been two weeks, but I might as well get around to posting my final two reviews from Chicago Fear Fest. One of the primary reasons that I went to the festival was to see Alejandro Brugues' Juan of the Dead. This independent flick has been devouring awards like outstretched limbs at recent festivals, and I couldn't wait to see what all the hub bub was about.

The film centers around the plight of Juan (Alexis Diaz de Villegas) and his portly, degenerate friend, Lazaro (Jorge Molina). Usually heroes are likeable, white toothed super men. They get all the woman and are the envy of all the men...but not Juan and Lazaro. Their bumbling idiocy, their blatant selfishness, and their inability to employ provident thought to any situation, are all some of the main reasons that this film is both unique and enduring. These aren't unrealistic super people surviving the zombie apocalypse; these are kind of scummy, realistic people surviving the zombie apocalypse.

Juan and Lazaro are certainly the central figures of the flick, and their crude banter is one of the main reasons to watch, but the supporting cast is loveable, dynamic, and brings a lot to the table--both in terms of zombie killing and comedy. Juan's daughter, Camila (Andrea Duro), is realistic and pretty. She brings a little drama and heart to a film that is otherwise pretty saturated with dick jokes and crime. Lazaro's son, Vladi (Andros Perugorria), is the eye candy you're missing in Juan and Lazaro. Some of my favorite characters in the film, however, were La China (Jazz Villa) and El Primo (Eliecer Ramirez). This couple consists of a particularly sassy drag queen/car radio thief and her enormous blood-shy boyfriend. La China's banter with Juan and Lazaro definitely adds to the comedy here, as does El Primo's tendency to faint every time he sees blood--not a great deficiency to have during the zombie apocalypse.

My only complaint about the film at all would be that the translation seems a little off. At times it is clear that a native Spanish speaker with a better understanding of Cuban history than I possess (Merci for that, three years of high school French) would find some of the jokes funnier and clearer. Because we're not watching a story about Cuban upper crust citizens here, the jokes are very colloquial and clearly contain many idioms. Unfortunately, at times these do get, pardon the cliche, lost in translation. Other than that, I have no complaints, but the movie is quite vulgar, especially sexually, so those with a reduced tolerance for the dirty joke might want to stay away.

Overall, the film will have you laughing and it may even tug at the heartstrings for a moment or two. There are absolutely some strong zombie effects here, and the story moves at an engaging pace. In other words, there isn't a "good time" to go grab some more popcorn from the concession stand.

Wondering when you'll be able to catch this gem on the big screen again? How about NOW!? The good folks over at The Wilmette Theater, one of my past employment stomping grounds, will be showing Juan of the Dead in a one week run between April 27th and May 3rd. The theater manager is a huge horror geek, and he is really excited to be premiering the film in its first American theatrical release. For tickets, check out the website. Showtimes are listed on the left. And don't procrastinate! The film won't be there next weekend!

Review: The Zombie Factor

The first zombie-related flick we watched at Chicago's Fear Fest this weekend was a short called The Zombie Factor directed by Matt Cantu. This flick was a pilot for a mock-reality television show in which nine unsuspecting strangers are put in a zombie infected hell hole and forced through funny and death-defying challenges. It was a funny idea, as if George Romero were to direct a Fear Factor/Real World hybrid.

Overall, it was very funny. My favorite performances were Steve Forbes (Jason) and Earl Cabo (Kareem). Cabo and Forbes had some of the funniest and best lines, but they also completely committed to their characters and seemed comfortable and natural in front of the camera.

The challenges, especially the "zombie hat day" challenge, were funny and original, but occasionally moments like these went on for a little too long. They clearly had enough funny ideas, so I thought it could have been edited to be a little tighter. My only other complaint was that there were two or three more characters than needed. It's not that the characters were poorly acted, but it became a lot to keep track of in 22 minutes. Still, I would concede that this is absolutely authentic to many reality TV shows.

Overall, Cantu has produced a funny, loveable and engaging piece with some fresh and original ideas. It was definitely worth 22 minutes of my time. Watch the trailer below...

Review: The Dead

Ever since I saw the preview last year, I've been dying to get my hands on the British indie flick--The Dead. Unfortunately, it wasn't being released for the states until Valentine's Day, but fortunately I have a husband who truly understands what makes me tick...and so guess what I got for Valentine's Day? I'll give you a hint; it wasn't chocolates.

The DVD actually ended up arriving a few days after the release date, but the minute it came in the mail I made my husband watch the whole thing with me over dinner. First note? This is not an "over dinner" movie. I have a pretty thick skin, but some of the images here were super gory (and therefore also super awesome). Check out this movie if you want to see a few cars run over zombies, zombies dining on the flesh of the living, bones sticking out of skin, and about a million disembodied limbs adorning the set. Everything looks really gross and really real; clearly they were doing this the old fashioned way.

Aside from the well done gore and effects, this movie was successful in its ability to creep you the heck out. I was sure that I'd have nightmares (but I didn't), and I had a number of audible gasps and shrieks. Also on a positive note, the movie takes on an appropriately bleak tone throughout. They've picked a stark and frightening...and yet hauntingly beautiful...background that suits the tone of the piece well. As a viewer, you can feel the oppressive emptiness and futility of the situation. They aren't safe, not even for a moment, and neither are you.

Overall I liked this flick, but it does have a few larger flaws that are certainly worth noting. The acting...especially the acting by Lieutenant Brian Murphy, played by Rob Freeman. Freeman emoted visually very well, but the directors should have cut every single one of his lines. Some of his line readings were literally laughable, which is such a shame. There have to be better actors out there, even for a small budget piece. I mean I'm watching crappy SyFy channel movies right now and the acting is better in most of those. Sgt. Daniel Dembele (Prince David Oseia) is a little better. Not great, but he makes the stoniness of his character a little more believable and a little less Acting 101. The good thing though is that the dialogue in the movie is less than abundant. It's largely a flick about moving through space and trying to outrun the inevitable, and that apparently just doesn't involve a lot of chit chat. So if the dialogue starts to bother you, just remember that each scene of dialogue will be followed by at least five minutes of bleak visuals and a pretty darn nice score.

The only other complaint I'll make is about a cut away scene that happens at the climax of the film. The conversation it involves had to happen from a plot point of view, but I'm still not sure why we needed to see the speaker on the other end of the radio. All of a sudden the effects looked extremely cheap and the quality of the picture instantly dropped like 50%. Why couldn't the conversation happen in voice over? Changing locations like that was generally unnecessary and robbed the ending of some of the punch it deserved.

But it's definitely worth a watch. I'll watch it again. If nothing else, I have to commend this film for its grittiness and tone. It is truly a zombie film for old fans of the genre, with a simple storyline and good, old-fashioned shuffling ghouls (as opposed to those new-fangled running ones). And if none of this grabs you (or you need a selling point to make your girlfriend watch it), Prince David Oseia is hot...like really hot...and there's a sort of unnecessary scene with him shirtless at a water pump...so there's that.

News: Juan of the Dead Feasts Upon Festival-Goers

Like any self-respecting Chicago liberal, I was listening to WBEZ this week when I heard an interview with a Cuban director. The director, Alejandro Brugués, spoke at length about his new film, Juan of the Dead, in which he is using the zombie genre and the comedy genre to satirically poke fun at what he believes are the troubles with Cuban government and society. For example Brugués features the Cuban government blaming the zombie apocalypse on dissidents funded by America. Check out a print summary of the interview here.

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Well after I heard the interview, I did some more research on this flick and now my appetite is all teased! The trailer looks amazing, and it has been really well received at many film festivals. Most recently, it won the Audience Award at the Havana Film Festival. This should be a great catalyst for its cinematic release, which begins in Spain this January.

Personally, I can't wait to see it make its way to the states. If I could see this movie AND The Dead (directed by Howard & Jonathon Ford), it would be the best Christmas present ever...Santa, make it so.  Haven't heard about The Dead? Check out that trailer below. Seems like a glut of good foreign horror films have been popping up lately.

Review: Dead Snow

From the opening sequence, you know Dead Snow is going to be a good movie. The film opens against the stark white backdrop of Norwegian mountains and snow on a lonely arctic night. A woman is running through the trees, pursued by what? We don't know. Music from the Nutcracker blares in the TVs speakers as you struggle to discern what's happening...and just as you do and the woman meets her untimely end? Opening credits roll. Genius. I'm instantly engaged.

After the credits, Dead Snow begins like many movies of its type. You are introduced to a number of stock characters of varying levels of acting ability. They're all supposed to be college students, but they all look they could have been guests at my late-twenties Halloween party. The girls are too attractive for the boys, but hey...it's film. I was wary for a little bit at the beginning, as the dialogue pirouetted around sex jokes and cheesy puns, but this film won back my allegiance very quickly.

Dead Snow is a gore-lover's dream. The filmmakers were certainly not shy with their karo syrup and red food coloring, and they seemed to hold a special place in their hearts for intestines and other internal organs. By the end of the film, every character is shellacked in a lovely coat of fresh blood, and every stab wound seems to hit a vital vein...sending pumping and squirting blood everywhere...even on to the camera. Yum. Definitely not for the faint of heart. That being said, the effects are actually quite nice and realistic looking (with a couple reasonable exceptions). For a small budget flick, they made some pretty involved gore look pretty damn realistic. You'll be screaming and squirming the whole way through.

From a zombie standpoint, I'm a little on the fence. The movie was certainly a good horror movie, but it's hard to title it a straight, classic zombie flick. The monsters are clearly dead, they're referred to as zombies, and the makeup artist certainly intended for you to think that the are the living, brain-eating undead. But here's where I get a little iffy. They're nazi zombies, which of course means they are still in full nazi regalia, but these zombies also use binoculars, lead organized charges, and stab, punch and kick like actual, living soldiers. My only other complaint would be that they don't seem to eat their victims at any point, although they do disembowel them and dismember them like true zombie pros. So don't expect a whole lot of zombie gluttony here, but as long as you go in with that in mind you'll be fine.

From a film making standpoint, this film usually gets it right. The narrative is clear, focused and honest. The cinematographer was original and gutsy, but everything he tries really tends to work. Sometimes his choices seem a little out of place stylistically, but they really do help to tell the story. My personal favorite is a moment when one character is buried under the snow...you'll know what I'm talking about when you get there. Great camera work. Also, while the film is foreign and is therefore subtitled, you get used to it very very quickly. There isn't much dialogue in the final 1/3rd of the film, so it isn't too distracting even if you don't watch many foreign flicks. My only filmmaking complaint would be the editing (both sound and video). It seemed too abrupt and actually impeded the story telling at times. There were a few moments in the film where I was left like "wait...what just happened?" because of the editing, and I don't really feel like that was intentional.

Overall, it was well worth the 90 minutes I spent watching it. It had a sort of Shaun of the Dead vibe, and I both gasped and laughed numerous times during the film. It has a good handle on the balance between black comedy and horror. Also, the backdrop certainly adds to the creepy factor in a very The Descent kind of way. You keep thinking, even if they can avoid the zombies...how the heck are they gonna get out? On the first really snowy day of the year here in Chicago, it was a perfect choice.

You can check it out on Netflix (it's available on streaming), or you can purchase it for $14.99. After watching it, I may have to add it to my amazon wishlist. Until then, here's the trailer...