The Soska sisters (American Mary, Rabid (2019), and my personal favourite: the Hellevator TV series!) bring us Gen Z teens fighting zombies in this "spiritual sequel" to Romero's Night of the Living Dead.
Set 55 years on, the festival in question is commemorating that past zombie outbreak... and our lead, Ash (Ashley Moore), is trying to fit in after years of being a social outcast with one good friend, Iris (Camren Bicondova).
Ash agrees to attend the festival along with her douchebag boyfriend and his terrible friends, while Iris covers babysitting duties. When everything almost immediately starts going wrong, Ash's heroic heritage of being the granddaughter of Night's Ben (Duane Jones), and being rather skilled with a shotgun, certainly comes in handy.
Social media influencers start snorting dust from a recently crashed meteor near the festival site - could see a YouTuber legit doing this btw - triggering a zombie outbreak as they die and reanimate ("Talk about going viral..." <-- actual dialogue 🤦♂️). But now it's 2020's festival style, with fairy wings and face glitter.
At the risk of stating the brutally obvious, Festival of the Living Dead is not to be taken too seriously! It's a fun little appetizer of a zombie flick; a silly, simplistic, colourful romp of snark, guts, and finding your place in a terrifying world.
This song also gave me an earworm.
Really reminds me of the indie I was into in my early twenties. Got that Dandy Warhols vibe, y'know?
Anyway, this is streaming on Tubi now. I picked it out of a whole heap of zed flicks currently in their catalogue. Maybe services are stocking up for when we all get zombie fever again, from the soon-to-be-released 28 Years Later? We can hope.
I sat and listed all my loose DVDs in a spreadsheet last night... partly self-isolation boredom and partly because I am tired of forgetting and mis-remembering which parts of my collection are still left in the UK. SO. That's good and helpful going forward.
I found I do NOT have Day of the Dead here, booo. But I did find it on Tubi, yaaay.
They also have the disappointing "remake" and a fairly impressive selection of other zed movies, should you feel so inclined.
Ravenous is a zombie movie that somehow manages to feel unlike any other I've seen. I was drawn to this one even before I saw some favourable chatter about it, because I live relatively close to Quebec, and if anything adds a little frisson to a horror movie, it's that sense of familiarity.
This little Netflix Original was written and directed by a Canadian actor, screenwriter and film director by the name of Robin Aubert, and it won the TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) Award for Best Canadian Film in 2017. I can see why :)
We join this world in the aftermath of an outbreak; long enough ago that everyone seems to know what the situation is, but not so long that they aren't still thinking about their lives before.
There's not much story to speak of, now that I actually think about it. The viewer is really just following the lives of several individuals whose paths intersect and overlap, as they try to survive in a rural town.
One of my favourite things about this film is the characters. The skill with which they are drawn for us, with such speed too - and without resorting to tired old tropes. These people feel fully developed and real, and like real people there aren't any black and white heroes and villains. Everyone is a little soft, a little hard; a lot scared about what's going to happen. These people are written so well it made me realise how we're forced to put up with poorly constructed characters so frequently.
Ravenous is nearly 2hrs long, and I am not going to say that it goes by quickly. This film is incredibly slow and considered, and yet nothing feels like padding. The moments of misty stillness over the fields and forests are important, because being quiet is important in this new world.
When the silence is shattered, it is with the sounds of bullets, bludgeoning, and inhuman screaming. In fact Ravenous uses sound to great effect, with the suffocating/protective forests deadening the noises of approach or altercation, or the empty farmhouses and hideaways; all hard surfaces and outdated decor. This movie feels incredibly... acoustic.
So with the aural taken care of, let's move on to the visual. This film is stunningly atmospheric in places.
Again, Aubert makes some simple but highly effective choices, subtle camera movements, angles, and framing choices add a visual flair that really excited me. Mist is used often but not overdone, to cloak the surroundings in a blanket that simultaneously softens and masks the threats. A world of zombie carnage is rarely shown as beautiful as this (if ever? Correct me if I'm wrong!).
In its third act, things become mysterious, bordering on the supernatural. The zombies are shown congregating and possibly even building structures. These scenes are so unsettling and they raise way more questions than they answer. To see these monsters so still and silent is baffling, almost sad?
Opening with a short string of cheap-ish jump scares, I advise you to hold on, to be rewarded with an affecting and thoughtful tale of humans caught up in chaos, and all the bleakness and the hope that such a tale must embody. Highly recommended!
(And being one of its Originals, hopefully destined to be streaming on Netflix for a good while 👍🏼).
Extras:
Just gonna say it, I'm absolutely delighted when a zombie film has the zeds leaving animals alone. We have cows, horses, kittens(!) and dogs in this. Yes, in a post-apocalyptic world their lives aren't going to be great, but at least we don't see them ripped apart by zombies!
These ghouls seem more cognizant and that's so fascinating to me. The scene in the field with the young woman looking and looking away was so good!
Stay and watch the credits. For the director's first thank you/dedication (below) and the post-credit scene that might make you happy, if you're weird like I am.
Having always shied away from watching this due to obvious concerns of dead/dying animals, tonight I was feeling brave and ventured forth. I was happy to see that there's minimal animal trauma - maybe even less than a normal horror movie!
Directed by Mary Lambert - a woman! Shouldn't be a cause for celebration, but it still is! - this was originally meant to be a Romero flick. Due to delays in filming George had to split on the project, so Lambert stepped in as director of this little beauty, based off of Stephen King's own screenplay.
Fact: Mary Lambert also directed Madonna's "Like A Prayer" video 🙏🏻
Quick Pet Sematary plot summary for anyone such as myself who honestly was clueless about it: A happy family of four (dad Louis, mum Rachel, young daughter Ellie and toddler son Gage) move into an idyllic house in the Maine countryside. The place is lovely - apart from the fact it's directly next to a road that Mack trucks come speeding down with alarming regularity.
They have an old man neighbour across the way, Jud Crendell (Fred Gwynne: Herman Munster!) who helpfully explains to the family that the path they see going into the woods from their backyard leads to a "Pet Sematary" (the sign is misspelled, hence the title is too). The place is pretty cool looking, and being there results in some pondering on death and loss - much to the annoyance of Rachel (Denise Crosby).
She wants to shelter her kids from the subject of death. Seems healthy! Though she does have her reasons...
In any case, when Rachel and the children are visiting her parents for Thanksgiving, the family cat, "Church" - short for Winston Churchill - a gorgeous Russian Blue, gets run over. To spare Ellie the pain of losing her beloved pet, Jud leads Louis through the Pet Sematary and up a hill, emerging at a Native American burial site.
For reasons not made wholly clear, Jud encourages the burial of the dead moggy here, even though he knows from personal experience that this soil has "sour" resurrection properties.
Louis is like "yeah, right" and then "holy shit!" when Church actually does come back, but this kitty isn't happy and spends the rest of the film hissing with glowy eyes. He's not the cat he was.
So you see where this is going. Young children, speeding trucks, an ancient Indian burial ground? Yup, Church isn't the only being brought back to life during this runtime. But as Jud later says, "the person you put up there ain't the person who comes back...", and as tempting as it is to try and reclaim a lost loved one rather than deal with that loss... "sometimes dead is better."
Things get a lot "better" before the end credits.
Negotiating child death in a film is not easy, and Pet Sematary does it pretty excellently all while still giving the audience gasp-worthy moments. We don't see the accident, but we are shown a bloody little shoe. Similarly, we only ever get glimpses of Gage's tiny corpse, never a full on look at it. This builds the tension to when we actually see him again.
And Gage is completely adorable in life, so even though it's not a shock he dies; it is sad. When he returns... well, he's an adorable little monster.
An adorable little KILLING MACHINE monster.
Favourite moment alert: When his doctor father injects his neck to "put him back to sleep" - father's words, creepy much? - in an amazing scene (below), and he toddles off whimpering "no fair!". It's... it's perfect.
I haven't even mentioned Ellie's psychic abilities, Rachel's nightmarish sister, or Victor Pascow, the ghost jogger acting as a kind of spirit guide to the family.
He first encounters Louis right before dying, and then continues to manifest throughout, offering warnings and handy advice, such as proper name pronunciation and tips on hiring a rental car!
My verdict on this film? Way less animal death than the name would suggest and a satisfyingly sad tale to boot. I wish I hadn't taken so long to see it!
I put on Land of the Dead last night. I think I can be honest now and say that the film more or less blows. Not hugely, but it's not very good. I loved it at the cinema, but then cinema does that to me. The dark room, the huge screen, the excitement and totally engrossing... er, ness of it. That and I so dearly wanted to love Romero's "comeback" film. Eh. The best thing about it is the band at the start. It kind of slides slowly downhill from then on. Although the arm being ripped in two in silhouette remains pretty damn cool.
I'm not sure Romero is too bothered about it anyway. I seem to remember reading he wasn't comfortable with the big budget and the expectation that brings (never mind the fact he's the zombie Godfather!). He doesn't sound too impressed on the commentary track, it has to be said. And after having been obsessively listening to the Creepshow one lately, the difference is huge. He and Tom Savini giggle and ham it up and share some genuinely fascinating facts during the latter; in the former there are long gaps between very dry and matter-of-fact tales from the shoot. Perhaps it's because he was smoking during Creepshow?! We know how much he loves those cancer sticks. Anyway I fell asleep to it, so that tells you a lot.
I think the best way to write about this film would be to write as I watch. So, here we go...
Er, don't remember horny teens starting off the original?! Hey, I know this is only "loosely based" but for christ's sake keep the best bits of the 1985 version! Where's the phenomenal desolate town, the "IS ANYBODY THERE...?", the alligator and the very very slow very very cool jawless zombie? Oh man. This doesn't bode well.
Ving Rhames! Ahh, suddenly things are looking up.
"Our child is sick." Cut to pale looking little boy. Where could this possibly be leading?
False scares are so often really lamely done.
Jesus, Ian McNeice has got really fat.
Colorado looks pretty. I'd like to visit it someday.
Good first instance of gore. Okay, I'm sticking with this.
That "punk" extra looked like Spike from Buffy.
I like the premise of freezing in place while the turning happens, that is actually quite creepy and well done. The crappy CGI "showing" the biological side of the turning was pointless and jarring, however.
Aaaand once turned you are immediately rotting and incredibly fucking agile all of a sudden? Seriously, these things are continually leaping like fleas.
Right, so fast zombies I don't mind so much - they have their place and are more adrenaline-pumping scary than their slow counterparts. They aren't "canon" but I do have time for them when I'm in the right mood. This said, I have a bit of a growing hatred for the modern zombie that fucking screams and hisses and roars all of the time. That really takes the edge off of the whole undead corpse thing for me. Oh SHUT UP. If you're so rotten that your face is falling off then how have you the ability to yell so loudly? Shhhh!
The frenetic MTV editing is giving me a headache by 30mins in.
I wonder if a cough has ever been used as a scare tactic before?
Obligatory ventilation shaft scene.
Oh fuck, legless zombie Ving Rhames ******* *** *** ****** *** *** ***! (censored because it's so great I don't want to spoil it). Worth the DVD price alone.
"I put bleach on it." = LAME.
How does it work that a character knows to refer to them as "zombies", but doesn't know about only headshots taking them down?
That blade was way too flimsy and serrated to cut like that.
The wave of second floor window jumping zombies was pretty cool, I'll admit.
Dodgy, shit-looking CGI blood spurts.
One of the younger characters reminds me of a very very poor man's Shia Labeouf.
He-Man reference, hehe.
Oh no. No no no no. The Bub equivalent is a pouting, morose, vegetarian zombie called Bud. Who has sexual desires. I... I have no words.
More dodgy CGI...
If you were born in America, do you just instinctively know how to fire a gun?
Claustrophobic and dirty underground bunkers. That's more like it.
Oh god STOP ROARING.
And then it ended.
The extras on the DVD suck. Don't even bother with the "soundbites" section. It's just the actors uncomfortably answering boring questions, and extremely poorly edited.
I think the above may come across as rather more negative than I actually view this film, hmm. It was definitely watchable and I don't regret buying it. It is silly (wall and ceiling climbing zombies! Er...) and entertaining enough, unfortunately though without ever lurching into the realms of the Dawn remake of genuine scares and tension.
It's Day of the Dead very much in the loosest sense. I don't know why film makers can't just come up with their own titles and strong enough stories, so they didn't need to piggyback the classics and gain instant credibility through their name. I suppose when I put it like that, why would they put the extra work in when it's that easy? I am playing along here, so Im to blame too. Put Romero's name on something, somewhere, and I'm standing in line like a chump, money in hand. Why waste time on decent, original stories when you have a bank of ready-made fans in the wings?
Oh okay, I've stepped down from the soapbox now. I'm hardly saying anything new anyway.
Want a rating for this? Two and a half irrationally exploding zombie heads out of five. It's not so shit that you feel dirty after, but it's not so great that you feel the need to recommend it.
I've spent the evening screen capping the 'holy trinity', for pictures to use down the right hand side there.
Love renewed again, for those films. In particular:
Gaylen Ross. How beautiful is she? I love this point in the film, where they've just cleaned the place up and all have expensive new coats on.
Bub. Wonderful wonderful Bub. "That's right, Bub! Say hello to your Aunt Alicia! Say, "Hello, Aunt Alicia!" "Hello!" ".
Will we see him in the next Romero flick? It's been suggested, remember. Pre-zombie Bub? I think my brain just melted a bit. Sherman Howard is probably in good enough nick to take up the role again, with the help of make-up. It should be Howard or not at all, though. If you're gonna bring him back, then bring him back, don't be half arsed about it and bring in some nobody, labelling him as the beloved Bub, is all I'm sayin'.
