Over the past few years I’ve become quite the fan of Ozploitation films, and I’ve quite enjoyed the recent resurgence of Australian genre filmmaking. One of my more recent finds was the flawwed, yet still enjoyable, Australian zombie film Undead. And while it was a decent enough independent horror comedy, I must say I found it a bit surprising that the director’s of that film, The Spierig Brothers, were able to secure over $20 million to film their next project. The Australian vampire film Daybreakers.
I’m a bit at a loss on just what kind of film this will be, as the trailers seem to be pushing a glossy action pic, but judging by Undead I wouldn’t be surprised if Daybreakers ends up being a relatively decent budget schlock film. Complete with ridiculous effects, gaping plot holes and over zealous acting. Willem Dafoe is in it after all. And if its a good one, man do I hope it makes it to the multiplex.
“One day you are in your boat and you get attacked by zombie fish.”
Back when I worked at American Express I had a colleague who was as fascinated with zombies as I was. Much like Derek he was deathly afraid of the very concept of zombies and as such we would have deep philosophical discussions on the nature of the undead.
When we first heard that George Romero was making a new zombie film for the first time in twenty years we were quite excited at the prospect. I took it upon myself to track down a copy of the script and printed a copy out for the two of us to read, and within its pages came about a concept that afforded us hours of time wasting discussion.
The film, at the time still untitled but soon to be known as Land of the Dead, had an interesting, if somewhat throwaway scene that was to lead off the third act of the film. With zombies encroaching upon the city, an unknowing loan man on patrol stops for a quick smoke break under a bridge. As he stands there something stirs in the darkness. Soon it seems as if the entire underside of the bridge is shifting and as the man looks up a horde of zombie rats drop down upon him and quickly devour him whole.
During the course of our relationship I have “forced” Anna to watch several movies that she had absolutely no interest in, thus resulting in several treacherous crossroads for us to navigate. And even with huge successes like The Descent, Fight Club and American Movie, it has still proven to be quite the struggle to convince her that my love of a particular film might actually translate into being worth her time to view it. Recently such an event happened involving Slither.
Now when Slither was released about 2 years ago we had been dating for several months and my birthday was fast approaching. I had gotten some passes to an advance screening of the film that was to occur on my birthday. Now, with a March birthday it can be a bit of a struggle to find even a competent birthday film, so I was quite excited at the prospect of watching a halfway decent horror comedy as my own personal birthday present to myself. (more…)
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