That I saw this whilst actually in Phnom Penh made the setting all the more interesting. As one might imagine, Cambodia’s filmmaking industry is still in its infancy (IMDb only lists 193 films in total), and as such, one must go in prepared for some low-budget filmmaking. And that’s precisely what you get. The image quality varies greatly – some moments look like they’re on par with 28 Days Later…, others look homemade. From the late 90s.

It’s not that hard to overlook the shortcomings of low budget filmmaking – or at least it isn’t something I have trouble with. The one thing that’s really hard to ignore, however, is bad audio production and sound editing. Over the years, I’ve come to believe that this is the most important part of a film, especially in the modern age, where you can capture a perfectly decent image on your smartphone. Alas, Run doesn’t manage too well in the audio department. There are wild shifts in quality and atmos. It sounds like there’s been some ADR work, but not enough, and when there is, the reverb is all wrong.

I haven’t outlined the story, and that’s probably because there isn’t much of one to speak of. A group of teenagers are partying. Zombies attack. They’re the running kind, and it doesn’t take long before the city is decimated, left little more than a ghost town. (Considering what happened in Phnom Penh in 1975, this isn’t handled quite as seriously as one might expect.) There are half a dozen or so main characters, but there are only two that prove interesting. Chun is hopelessly shy and nerdy, and played expertly by Vathanak Seth, who was also on writing and line producing duties. The other standout is the charismatic Lion, who sports facial hair not unlike Jet Black from ‘Cowboy Bebop’. The rest are a pretty forgettable mob of zombie fodder, and it’s hard to distinguish them from each other.

At the end of the day, the low budget shortcomings wouldn’t be a problem if the script worked. Unfortunately, the film lacks even the most banal of structures, meaning that it’s a hodgepodge collection of scenes that don’t flow well at all.

I don’t like to be overly harsh about independent films, but Run was a struggle for me to get through. There are some well-executed moments, and occasionally impressive cinematography, but the film isn’t consistent enough to truly impress.

Run is only screening in Cambodia at the moment, but will no doubt appear on DVD sometime soon.

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Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) has survived the apocalypse thanks to formulating and sticking to his own set of rules. Most of America’s now dead and has a nasty taste for human flesh, so Columbus survives as best he can, staying fit and keeping a firearm at his side at all times. When he meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), they form an odd couple that, um – actually, that’s about it.

Zombieland is pretty light on in terms of plot. In fact, it might have easily been a 20 minute short film. We get the slightest hint of character arcs and the basic drive of the narrative is pretty much forgotten within the first half hour. What remains is effectively an escalation of gruesome zombie slaying, which seems to be Zombieland’s raison d’être. It’s pretty good in this department. This film has some of the funniest ‘deaths’ since, well, Shaun of the Dead. It does have, however, an unfortunate over reliance on firearms, which cuts down on a lot of potential violence.

Eisenberg is perfect in the lead role – the idea that only the insanely paranoid would survive a zombie holocaust is a brilliant one. Woody Harrelson, disturbingly, doesn’t look like at 48 year old, and he’s fine in a role that doesn’t really demand too much, other than to have a southern drawl and fire fake weapons. Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin are solid performers, too, even if their respective characters, Wichita and Little Rock, try really hard to make us not like them.

It’s Zombieland’s lack of plot that disappoints. Whilst the violence is fun, the downtime in between action scenes can get rather dull. It also suffers from characters who make the worst possible decision every chance they get, and the payoff is never so impressive as to make this justifiable. The special effects are decent, and if there’s a lot of CGI here, it’s well hidden. The prosthetics are fantastic, however. One complaint about the production values is the obvious lack of soundtrack. The score is fine, in a non-specific, try-hard rock way, but what this film needed was some decent songs.

It may be the second best zombie movie released this year (and sport a nifty, budget-breaking set of opening titles) but Zombieland fails to succeed on many levels. It’s a bit of gory fun, nothing more.

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Everyone knows that Nazis are evil. And that it’s totally cool to shoot them, stab them, garrotte them. Because, like, they’re Nazis. It’s acceptable.

Now think about this: zombie Nazis. It’s a one way ticket to excessive violence-ville, and that’s exactly what Dead Snow delivers – blood, guts and rotting Nazi flesh.

Tommy Wirkola and Stig Frode Henriksen have created an insanely enjoyable entry into the zombie genre, and one that doesn’t hold back one iota. They wear their influences on their sleeves (literally, in the case of one character with a Braindead t-shirt) and don’t waste any time rehashing that which just about everybody knows.

I was palpably relieved to discover that, contrary to tradition, the characters in Dead Snow HAVE SEEN ZOMBIE MOVIES BEFORE. For the most part, characters in such films seem to inhabit some alternate Earth where zombie flicks have never existed (curiously, this isn’t so often the case with vampire films – perhaps because there is a single identifiable book that ‘started’ it all). Imagine my joy when, faced with a zombie for the first time, one of our hapless heroes yells ‘Don’t let them bite you!’.

The plot is basic at best, but the writers knew this. As a group of twentysomethings make their way to an isolated cabin in the snow topped mountains one of them comments how this is exactly how most horror films begin. Soon after, when a stranger randomly delivers the back story concerning the evil lurking in the hills, there’s no excuse provided for such an unlikely moment, it just is.

The cast put in decent if unremarkable performances. Unfortunately, there’s a horrible lack of balance – the women are all pretty whilst the guys are unattractive (in terms of both personality and looks), so it’s hard to believe that there’s any sexual tension brewing, despite the evidence. They do strike a perfect balance between realistic and comedic responses – the early section of the film is surprisingly scary – and the dialogue never skips a beat.

When the action kicks in, Dead Snow is a non-stop gore-spattered roller coaster that never gets dull. There are some grisly moments that attempt to rival Peter Jackson’s first two films, though with a significantly larger budget. This easily has some of the best zombie ‘deaths’ ever captured on film.

There aren’t many films that can reference both Pulp Fiction and Indiana Jones in the same shot, but Dead Snow manages this with aplomb. An absolute must for zombie movie buffs, and anyone else in for some bloody good fun.

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Now, a zombie film wouldn’t be a zombie film if it weren’t a little dorky and embarrassing, and Land of the Dead is just that. We have good makeup effects, some dismemberment and lots of blood on offer here, but we’ve also got a bad script, dodgy acting and some badly executed action scenes. It’s almost as if Romero has learnt nothing in all his years of experience… The Spierig brothers’ Undead was more successful than this – at least they went all the way and embraced the B-grade-ness, never pretending that they were creating a masterpiece. Romero’s film feels like a straight to video 80s action movie that is desperately trying to be cool but failing on almost all levels.

But wait, you argue… Romero has reinvigorated the genre by having a zombie as a main character! Okay, objection sustained, however this is only a small part of the film, and is pretty much over and done within the first five minutes. Props to the actor, though. With regards to the rest of the cast, they do the best they can. Haven’t heard from John Leguizamo for ages, so it was nice to see him in action, but the cast are simply going through the motions. Dennis Hopper had some of the funniest lines, but overall I couldn’t even enjoy this film for laughs. Comedic moments were few and far between, and the bulk of them were unintentionally funny due to bad dialogue and/or acting.

Land of the Dead was pretty boring. The supposed ‘political undertones’ I have read about are pretty slim at best. Star Wars: Episode III and Batman Begins dealt with such issues with much more clarity. Considering this film was from the ‘master’ of the genre, I would have hoped to have been scared, shocked, excited or amused throughout Land of the Dead. Unfortunately the film provoked none of those reactions. I probably enjoyed The Return of the Living Dead more, and that’s not a good thing.

I hope the resurrection of the genre ends soon, cos I’m just about sick of it. 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead and the remake of Dawn of the Dead were the best zombie films we’d seen in years, and I think everyone else should leave it alone for now. Why doesn’t someone instead try to make a good werewolf film? There have been so few of those…

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Dawn Of The Dead has a solid cast – I’ve always enjoyed Sarah Polley’s work, and Jake Weber is particularly good also. It’s also great to see Matt Frewer back in action, after having gone AWOL for some time. (‘Max Headroom’ rocks!)

This movie doesn’t play around. There’s very little time spent in the setup, and thankfully the cast don’t spend too much time explaining the stuff we already know from seeing countless zombie films. In fact the first half hour is absolutely fantastic, as it launches into the horror pretty much straight away.

Dawn has a wicked sense of humour. There are certainly some jokes here that I haven’t seen in zombie movies before.

This film does seem to be an advertisement for the NRA – there’s a little too much slow-mo shooting and money shots of guns ejaculating… and heads exploding. Actually I’m surprised that the Monster Magnet song didn’t make an appearance here. Instead we get a very funny cover of ‘Down With The Sickness’ (as well as the original).

The credits sequences in this film are incredible – VERY well made, and in fact the end credits sport a short film in almost its own right.

I have this awful feeling that we’re pretty much at the end of the zombie movie revival, and that all the films from now on are going to be tiring for audiences. We’ll just have to sit back and see how Resident Evil: Apocalypse goes.

Dawn Of The Dead doesn’t do anything new, but boy does it do it well.

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Another boring film at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival. One of the new breed of zombie movies coming out recently, Dead Creatures tries to take a slightly different angle on the genre. It doesn’t work. The problem here, I believe, is a case of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. Zombie movies work quite well as mindless and bloody entertainment, and also when they are tied into larger social commentaries (such as in Romero’s original Dawn Of The Dead and 28 Days Later).

The cinematography has to be the most uninventive I have ever seen. This is truly a case of ‘point and shoot’. In fact they don’t even seem to worry about framing, and the bland shots make the film even more boring than the script. The production design is about as exciting as poorly toasted bread, and we’re constantly subjected to images of people simply sitting against bland white walls.

Dead Creatures just trudges along slowly, never really going anyway. Once the initial shock wears off, this slightly skewed depiction of zombie life isn’t really very interesting. Like a zombie, this film is in dire need of some brains. The film doesn’t seem to work towards any particular climax, and again like a zombie, this movie’s pulse is very very weak. You’d think the movie doctors would have called it ages ago. Screw the defibrillators, there’s no point resurrecting this movie.

Dead Creatures gets half a star for at least attempting to do something different, even if it fails completely. It sure ain’t gettin’ any hooplas though.

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There’s been a lot of zombie films in recent years, so it’s with some trepidation that I sit down to watch another one. Thankfully Shaun Of The Dead is fantastic. Not only does this film stay funny for its entire length (a rarity in comedies), the story is involving and the acting is fantastic. The byline ‘A romantic comedy. With zombies’ is a bit of a mislead. This isn’t a romantic comedy that happens to contain zombies, but well within the realm of the zombie genre (which is fine by me, considering how badly Dead Creatures played with the genre).

Every one of the actors were dead on with their performances. On paper I’m sure Ed simply seemed to be yet another ‘funny fat guy’ but onscreen Nick Frost was hilarious, from the big slapstick scenes to the subtle nuances. Simon Pegg is great in the lead also, and provides a wonderfully detached anti-hero who does his best to be a good guy.

The set-up of zombie infested England is subtle yet hilarious, and thankfully very little time is spent on exposition (we all know what zombies are and how to kill them from years of cinema-going experience). The production values are great – the zombies look impressive and the special effects awesome without being pretentious.

Most importantly there’s heaps of character humour to go along with the slapstick. This kind of humour leaves one more satisfied than the simpler jokes in Undead. Shaun Of The Dead is one of the best zombie releases in recent times, and hopefully will herald the end to the genre for at least half a decade or so. (We’re all getting a bit sick of them, aren’t we?)

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