Writing's a fight and this boy needs a battle
This picks up exactly where season one left off. The political intrigues continue, but it’s the pace of the action and quantity of gore that’s most impressive. Think Train to Busan (2016) but set in feudal Korea. Can’t wait for season three.
This South Korean period drama adds a new twist to the zombie genre. There’s a lot to like in a very bingable six episodes. It’s packed with action and gore soaked teeth. The characters are well draw, with a plot that has a decent amount of mystery. A usurped prince discovers his strength fighting for his inheritance.
A “zombie” film with a religious twists. It stretches the first person point of view to the point of be annoying. Using what are Google Glasses, in all but name, lead us on a journey through an end of days Jerusalem. The zombies here are demons rising from the underworld. But that’s pretty much all we know about them. It owes its existence as a film to The Blair Witch Project (1999), Cloverfield (2008), and the much much better Rec (2007).
There are so many startling things about this movie, not least that it was all shot on tape, with a domestic video camera. The only thing that bothers me is the final act. The whole army salvation thing feels like a poor choice. While I understand the basic idea of men with no hope descending into batshit crazy. I’ve never been convinced by the idea that trained soldiers would become that ill-disciplined. Trained soldiers respect the chain of command, and follow orders. It feels wrong. Following the orders of a crazy captain, that might’ve worked, but not the ill-discipline.
The quality of talent on offer here is better than the film I saw yesterday, Inmate Zero (2020). This film has more pace, a clearer through line, and a better grasp of who and where we are. Characters are given more clarity, chasing their limited wants with a certain vigour. Notions of Darwinian evolution pepper the film. Weak humans trying to protect themselves against a virus, that could be the next stage in human evolution? It leads to another enigmatic ending, or the springboard to a sequel, or even a series.
There’s a really tight zombie horror in there somewhere. It has some good ideas, and one or two decent jump scares. The monsters are sufficiently gruesome, with enough black blood and jerky movements to make you squirm. Overall the plot feels about fifteen minutes too long, but needs twenty minutes more story? They play fast and inconsistent with the rules of their own story. Typified by the confusion we feel around their physical location, where the people are within the architecture of the prison. It’s just not clear. On the plus side it has a majority female cast, but it does lean heavily on a few zombie horror tropes, forcing some of the the characters to be realised as stereotypes. What this film needed were fewer characters, a clear plan by the lead, basically a much tighter screenplay.
It has the same knowing voiceover that defined the original. It’s not as funny but that’s mainly because it’s a mirror of the first. There’s all kinds of in-jokes and references for the zombie nerds, but mostly it works as funny splatter fest.
The Morningstar virus causes fever followed by a violent death, then its victims return from the dead. Hits the ground running and doesn’t stop.
All horror films should be Certificate 18, especially those with flesh eating zombies. Where’s the horrific if it’s not an 18? Peter Jackson sets a great example with Braindead. Unfortunately this film lands somewhere between ironic and twee. It’s closer to a PG 13 than the gross bloody splatter needed to interest those old enough to vote.
This was all kinds of pants. The baritone voiceover was pointless and lazy, and made me think is Mad Max, The Road Warrior. The ending is silly. We’re meant to believe that a strategic thinker like the Colonel would let himself be trapped, surrounded on the ground floor of a warehouse. I’m a sucker for an infected zombie film, maybe you can be suckered by this?
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