( 2003 / Spain )
Review By-Paul Cooke Director: Julian Lara Starring: Beatriz Mateo , Maria Minagorri , Julian Lara , Dan Liano , Jose Manuel Gomez , Jesus Gallardo & David Ruz Source : Crypt Keeper / Region Free NTSC / Format Approx 1:66:1 / Dolby Digital 2.0 / Two Bonus Short Films
‘‘Follow the rules exactly or pay for your mistakes with your life’’
With a loud and angry soundtrack blasting out from the sound system of a speeding silver sports car you’d expect the deafening noise of splattering Zombies to follow. It’s not long after the credits that the Director’s obvious intent to temper proceedings with humour becomes apparent. Stepping from the sports car with a dress code refinery , that harkens back to a lone gunfighter preparing to square off against the bad guy in a spaghetti western , the figure of a long black coat wearing modern desperado prepares to do his thing !. Eyes burning behind his sunglasses , and sun beaten brow nestling beneath the cowboy hat , this modern dude delivers not a six shooting display of intent but a half cocked pea shooter. This guys a stripper , hired by a gaggle of horny women getting down and dirty for a hen party. Lucky then for the viewer that this anti climax turns into a blood gurgling gang bang once a Zombie comes knocking , and she sure ain't no Avon lady!
The Zombie attacks become more and more frequent , delivering an infusion of pestilence that leads to an infection brought about by the dead rising up to feast on the living. Oh if only it was as good as it sounds. Time for a special tactics unit to be brought in to stem the flow of this growing army of the un-dead. A flimsy looking band of one time technical support geeks and dropouts that finally get to use their thumbs on real guns , instead of home video game shootouts behind closed curtains. One member is from the Vatican , a Father of faith sent to assist as the papal fraternity are concerned at this damnation upon society.
The mercenaries for hire protect the local businesses for a cut of their takings and even everyday regular folk dial them up like calling out a plumber , but rather than to unblock a drain they need to flush out the dead and dispose of the mess left behind. These guys have a heart though as a no show on arrival at the scene by reported Zombie and its customer half price !.The attempt at humour is sadly quite poor and even yawn inducing as the wince inducing attempts are a far cry from the horror comedy infusive turns of the likes of Sam Raimi. What is most unforgiving is the terrible sound production and when guns are fired , by actors flailing their arm about in a back and forward motion , the effect is just laughable. Only the brain bashing rock sound track thumping away and drowning out the dialogue comes out as presumably intended.
There are some moments to perk things up here though and the sight of a one legged old man on crutches beating down a gang of Zombies is quite funny. Stupid , but not without entertainment value. The ubiquitous movie making gremlin Lloyd Kaufman gets a cameo and is soon dispatched of in an auditorium , where doubtlessly the Toxic Avenger is playing or moping up the brain spillage caused by these rampant Zombie types.
One of the anti Zombie unit guys is rushed to the local hospital after being attacked and receiving bites from the living dead , time then for more absurdity as he clearly isn’t checking out without coming back for two legged snack down time. The banality here runs out for a very long seventy five minutes and even the better directed end sequence in the underground cannot save this lacklustre outing. Lack of budget forgiving but lack of final product delivery definitely unforgivable !.Thankfully where Director Julian Lara does deliver is with his two short movies that come packaged as part of this DVD release. Forget the abysmal ‘Deadhunter’ main feature and dare to dive in with both ‘Evil Night’ and ‘Zombie Extreme’. ‘Evil Night’ is a twenty minute throwback to ‘Evil Dead’ and ‘Night Of The Living Dead’ territory with some aplomb. A group of friends camp out in the woods at night and get attacked by the risen dead , in a blood filled outing that delivers the goods along with some very well done gore and make up effects.
‘Zombie Extreme’ picks up after ‘Deadhunter’ and is so much better !. Damn if those guns do sound real this time out and the humour works well !. Set in a live game environment where a couple of surviving members of the Deadhunter unit take it upon themselves to step beyond the entry door and take down the real Zombie element inside. A clever idea that does pay off very satisfyingly. Sign away your rights of any representation against the proprietors , there’s no comeback for dying !.Bizarrely the recommendation in purchasing this DVD does not come because of the main feature but because of the two support movies which really are a lot of Fun. Director Julian Lara is worth looking out for in the future but has a lot of learning and development to undergo before once again exploring the world of main feature.
© 2005 cinema-nocturna.com
