Monday 4 March 2013

Review: Zombie Apocalypse (2011)


Zombie Apocalypse 2011: Back Review

Year: 2011
Director: Nick Lyon
Stars: Ving Rhames, Taryn Manning, Johnny Pacar
Time: 87 mins



Interesting SyFy production directed by Nick Lyon (which has a bunch of TV movies under his belt and 2 DTV features including a species flick) a virus has broken out over the world turning 90% of the population into crazed undead killing machines. In an effort to stop the virus spreading they EMP the planet, not a fantastic idea I think as that would surely impede any cure attempts?

It stars the old zombie movie powerhouse since he starred in the quite successful Dawn remake that’s right old Ving Rhames.

Taryn Manning (who has a lot of decent film credits under her belt from a few years back recently mostly TV series) she stars as Ramona one of three survivors we see at the beginning.

Johnny Pacar also stars (was in Playback a film I reviewed a little while back, also some TV stuff more recently) he plays Julien part of Rhames survivors. Ramona’s survivors are entering civilisation after hiding out in a cabin for a while running low on supplies they venture into town.
Her group consists of friend’s well one of them possibly something more; the other is Crab-man! Yes that’s right Eddie Steeples from my Name is Earl.
After her possible love interest becomes zombie chow they are saved by Ving, Julien and the rest of their team.
They are on their way to a rumoured safe haven on the island of Catalina. They take Ramona and crab-man to get geared up in a sports store. Along the way to Catalina we lose some party members and close to the end they even get separated. Two of the party members split when they get ambushed by zombies, the other half is rescued by a team of archers.
As always on THN I won’t spoil the ending for you.
This film has some interesting and brilliant ideas for a zombie film but it’s a little let down by some clunky acting at points and the inability to stick some better emotion into their lines, but that is only at times it’s not always like that.
Set wise and location wise? There’s some brilliant and stunning locations used that really help keep the story fresh and from stagnating even though on occasion you can see the odd sunlight glint of a car on a faraway bridge. Luckily I’m only the one who usually notices this stuff.

Effects wise we have the usually CGI splats and bullet holes here that are becoming popular in zombie films and even on the walking dead. Thankfully like a lot of zombie flicks lately the make-up effects are great they look dead and they don’t look like someone just painted green the actors who are zombies do a decent job of shambling or even running (the fresher ones can in this movie) on the whole you could do a lot worse than this movie and for a low budget affair it’s well worth the watch I’ll give it a strong 4/5 stars from here at THN.


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