The software is definitely touchy, J.M. Sometimes I can identify words (frequently ones with sexual connotations) that trigger a deletion, but other times it is difficult to figure it. I have felt your frustration.
J.M. here. Tell me about it, Casual. I just re-wrote all three reviews from scratch with any potential upsetting words removed, and they got rejected again! :'( Rats! Will try to salvage them for a Free Day, but this is why I've stopped posting on FTM regularly. I don't have time or the heart to pour my heart and sould into writing these reviews just for a @$%^$^ bot to reject them. Oh well, hope everyone enjoys Zombie! day. :-D
PONTYPOOL (2008, dir. Bruce McDonald) – Heading to Canada for zombie day. On a snowy Valentine’s Day in rural Ontario, the employers of a local AM radio station try to comprehend the chaos that is taking place around them. Reports of murderous mobs become first-hand accounts, in phone calls, of people being attacked and chewed on by deranged individuals. The cause of the zombie/contagion outbreak is never truly clarified, and the ideas explored for it are probably going to polarize viewers. I will not give it away here, but does touch on a distinctly Canadian issue. Though I did not completely dislike the ending, it is certainly not as strong as the opening of the film. The radio play version worked better for me.
Zombi 3 a.k.a. Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 (1988, dir. Lucio Fulci and/or Bruno Mattei)
A sequel in name only to Zombi 2 a.k.a. Zombie Flesh Eaters, which was a sequel in name only to Dawn of the Dead, which was called Zombi in Italy. Lucio Fulci is credited as the director, but he left the production midway through (either due to creative differences or an illness, accounts vary) and Bruno Mattei was brought in to finish the movie.
A terrorist steals a sample of a lab-created virus, gets infected with it, dies, and is cremated. Which of course spreads the virus into the atmosphere, infecting an entire island's population, so a few US army soldiers and a vacationing group of girls are besieged by flesh-eating zombies, both human and animal.
The gore effects are appropriately over-the-top and plentiful, the logic of how the virus speads and affects people is tenuous at best (somehow a severed head can fly and an unborn zombie baby has a grown man's hand), the synth score rocks, and the acting is hammy, not done any favors by the haphazard ADR. Especially Mike Monty as an army general and Robert Marius as a scientist seem like they made some bold acting choices on the set, then couldn't replicate them in the recording booth, making their performances feel incredibly stilted. So all in all, not a great movie, but a perfect Junesploitation zombie movie!
Train to Busan (2017, dir. Yeon Sang-ho) (rewatch)
A divorced father takes his daughter on a train from South Korean capital Seoul to coastal city Busan to see her mother. Meanwhile, the entire country gets rapidly infected with a zombie virus, and rumors say Busan is the only safe city.
A remarkably effective combination of pulse-pounding action, touching character drama, and some grisly and genuinely unsettling zombie effects.
This flick is bananas. Its got SO many creative, fun, low budget practical monsters/villains/zombies/etc. Its a grab bag of genres. Its got killer puppets. It has an entire scene, played straight, with farting mud monsters. Regrettably it lacks a story, a plot, and direction. Honestly if it had just a smidge of those i think it could be Evil Dead 2 or Re Animator levels of good! Still a solid junesploitation pick and a phenom 3rd act Zombie attack.
DIARY OF THE DEAD (2007) First-time rewatch since theatrical release. Burned DVD-R of the DimensionEXTREME disc, still 6/10.
I remember warming slightly to this flick in the days after seeing it. I feel the same now: Romero's only real misstep here was being very accurate in his revisitation of "that special night". All the semi-camp & subdued melodrama is too on-point for a bunch of film/acting students.
Cemetery Man (1994) Few zombie movies are funnier, even fewer are nearly as sexy.
Zombie Nightmare (1987) Bodybuilder baseball player zombie (who is quite reminiscent of Lou Ferrigno's Hulk) gets revenge on the people who...did any bad ever, I guess. Early Tia Carrere in this Canadian production, top-billed Adam West isn't in it nearly enough.
Zombie-comedy about a high school kid who comes back from the dead so he can go to the prom. Between this and Parents (1989) I find Bob Balaban to be a fascinating director of strange, offbeat and fun movies. Oscar winners Philip Seymour Hoffman, Matthew McConaughey, and Cloris Leachman are in this. Recommended.
SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD (2009) First-time rewatch since it came out on disc. Magnet/Magnolia Blu, 6/10 up from 2/10.
"Vinyl. Gag me." I really thought this was trash when it came out. I'll make zero attempts to talk anyone else off that ledge, but I can't muster much outright negativity this time around. I think SURVIVAL's worst crime is being directed by one of the genre-defining pioneers of zombie cinema.
Maybe Patrick Bromley's "oy-ta-toy-toy-toy" just pinballs through my head every time Kenneth Welsh talks. In a good way.
SURVIVAL has grown on me a lot, too. You're absolutely right about it being the victim of expectations given the director. If you compare it to most of the zombie movies available on Tubi it's a masterpiece.
I avoided Diary and Survival for the longest time because of their reputation and because I love the original three so much. After watching them a few years back my reaction was pretty much along the same lines as yours.
REVENGE OF THE LIVING DEAD GIRLS (1987) An ‘80s zombie movie… made in France? Small-town girls drink tainted milk (ew) and become flesh-eating zombies. As a French flick, yes there’s a lot of sexiness and bedroom-hopping, but it’s also tongue-in-cheek in a “we’re just having fun here” sort of way. I enjoyed this, but not enough to put on the watch-it-every-October list.
MY ZOMBIE GIRLFRIEND (2016) During the zombie apocalypse, a cool teen motorcycle guy returns to his high school to find a zombie girl who’s not like the others. There’s a little Shaun of the Dead in this, in that it’s more a quirky romance than it is gut-wrenching carnage. But I liked it! The Chinese-to-English subtitles were grammatically incomprehensible (It’s okay, I’m sure they did their best) but the filmmaking and the performances were so good that I was never lost.
Bonus Universal Monster-sploitation: DRACULA (Spanish version) (1931) We all know the story. Spanish-speaking actors made the movie with the same script, concurrently with the English-speaking ones. This version is much more modern and contemporary in the camera work and editing, but it doesn’t have Lugosi, Frye, and the rest.
I watched this one too, primarily because I wanted to see George Sanders last movie and I was surprised at how good it was. Non-brain-eating-zombie zombie hooligans on motorbikes who had to off themselves in creative ways to the undead army. Great stunt work!
THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS (2016) First-time watch. Lionsgate Blu. 6/10. I like the fungus concept. I like post-apocalypse movies. I like zombie movies. I waited years until the hype was vaporized. This is an interesting movie that I was partly entertained by & partly stricken with irksome tediosity by. I don't hate running zombies, but after my semi-recent rewatch of the DOTD remake, I find that little twist in the myth requires an enhanced level of disbelief-suspension that is often not supported by the movie that utilizes it. Hail the Spore-tower.
The last of the Romero Dead series I had yet to see. It was...not quite for me. It suffers from some extremely clunky exposition and dialog, borders on tedious at times, and when it gives us a very interesting set-up, totally cuts away. I have a whole new appreciation for Survivial now.
I'd watched After Midnight (2019), but had never gotten around to watching Jeremy Gardner's first movie, despite hearing good things about it. I'd say this is a really good movie for a directorial debut with a budget of $6000, and with a couple of very inexperienced stars, but honestly it's just a good movie in general.
Wyrmwood: Apocalypse (2021)
I really liked the original Wyrmwood. This one isn't as good. The characters are less interesting, and the scope seems more limited. It's a breezy enough watch though, and not bad.
Overlord (2018) was apparently a movie about Nazi zombies. The actual movie is slightly different (more like "super soldier" experiments gone wrong. No brain eating here), but I'm not about to spilt hairs. The first act was actually a pretty suspense filled action/war movie, and then we get reanimated people. I expected a middle of the road zombie movie, and liked what I got more than I anticipated.
Could have sworn I'd seen this, must have just been clips - absolutely loved it. If anyone could recommend tonally similar films I'd be super grateful (obviously seen everything Raimi, Shaun of the Dead is an all time favorite). "This calls for divine intervention" will not be topped this Junesploitation.
Cannibals in the Streets a.k.a. Invasion of the Flesh Hunters a.k.a. (as I saw it) Cannibal Apocalypse (1980) dir. by Antonio Margheriti
On re-watching, it felt a little less crazy but still doesn't quite have enough for me—mainly a lack of substance and logic... but also not bad enough to make it fun in that way.
But it does have that certain charm of the era and genre. Check out that gratuitous sweaty sawing scene! John Saxon is dependable in this role, the music is cool until one of the tracks gets a bit old, and I did like the way that they revealed something at the very end.
Shock Waves (1977 Dir: Ken Wiederhorn) Nazi zombies, Casey from Grapes of Wrath, Grand Moff Tarkin and a Bond girl in a tropical paradise. What more incentive to watch do you need?
RL Stines Zombie Town (2023 Dir Peter Lepeniotis) I hope some kids see this and love it. That this is the movie that ends up being their gateway to horror, much like I had Student Bodies and Saturday the 14th, I hope this horrible, unfunny nonsensical movie leads them on a path to so many better, scarier and better made movies. Most of all I hope that when they look back on this film in 30 years that even though may feel a slight tinge of embarrassment for their younger selves liking this movie that they get a rush of nostalgia and warm feelings for where their journey into the horror world began.
Zombie (1979) Embarrassed to say that I HAD NEVER SEEN THIS BEFORE (my secret shame). Surprisingly fun Fulci film: loved the zombie vs. shark match-up, odd editing, and famous “splinter” scene. Apparently, no one in this film has ever seen a zombie movie… Lucio Fulci, I owe you a blood-spattered apology.
A raucous rock 'n' roll ride! Japanese rockers Guitar Wolf save the planet from invading aliens and their army of zombies and teach us that love knows no boundaries and movies need no exposition. It's all mayhem and music, which is plenty for me!
Zombie (1979) The story of James, an autopsy assistant who can't do anything right. JK it's Fulci, baby! Zombie bites fishy, eye goes squishy. More than one arm gets separated from its zom-body! Will we ever understand the zombies? STOP TRYING, DOC. They want to eat you. Just get off that island.
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It's happening again! Three reviews posted, nuked by the Google document software bug... again! AAARGHHHHH! :'(
ReplyDeleteThe software is definitely touchy, J.M. Sometimes I can identify words (frequently ones with sexual connotations) that trigger a deletion, but other times it is difficult to figure it. I have felt your frustration.
ReplyDeleteJ.M. here. Tell me about it, Casual. I just re-wrote all three reviews from scratch with any potential upsetting words removed, and they got rejected again! :'( Rats! Will try to salvage them for a Free Day, but this is why I've stopped posting on FTM regularly. I don't have time or the heart to pour my heart and sould into writing these reviews just for a @$%^$^ bot to reject them. Oh well, hope everyone enjoys Zombie! day. :-D
DeletePONTYPOOL (2008, dir. Bruce McDonald) – Heading to Canada for zombie day. On a snowy Valentine’s Day in rural Ontario, the employers of a local AM radio station try to comprehend the chaos that is taking place around them. Reports of murderous mobs become first-hand accounts, in phone calls, of people being attacked and chewed on by deranged individuals. The cause of the zombie/contagion outbreak is never truly clarified, and the ideas explored for it are probably going to polarize viewers. I will not give it away here, but does touch on a distinctly Canadian issue. Though I did not completely dislike the ending, it is certainly not as strong as the opening of the film. The radio play version worked better for me.
ReplyDeleteZombi 3 a.k.a. Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 (1988, dir. Lucio Fulci and/or Bruno Mattei)
ReplyDeleteA sequel in name only to Zombi 2 a.k.a. Zombie Flesh Eaters, which was a sequel in name only to Dawn of the Dead, which was called Zombi in Italy. Lucio Fulci is credited as the director, but he left the production midway through (either due to creative differences or an illness, accounts vary) and Bruno Mattei was brought in to finish the movie.
A terrorist steals a sample of a lab-created virus, gets infected with it, dies, and is cremated. Which of course spreads the virus into the atmosphere, infecting an entire island's population, so a few US army soldiers and a vacationing group of girls are besieged by flesh-eating zombies, both human and animal.
The gore effects are appropriately over-the-top and plentiful, the logic of how the virus speads and affects people is tenuous at best (somehow a severed head can fly and an unborn zombie baby has a grown man's hand), the synth score rocks, and the acting is hammy, not done any favors by the haphazard ADR. Especially Mike Monty as an army general and Robert Marius as a scientist seem like they made some bold acting choices on the set, then couldn't replicate them in the recording booth, making their performances feel incredibly stilted. So all in all, not a great movie, but a perfect Junesploitation zombie movie!
Train to Busan (2017, dir. Yeon Sang-ho) (rewatch)
A divorced father takes his daughter on a train from South Korean capital Seoul to coastal city Busan to see her mother. Meanwhile, the entire country gets rapidly infected with a zombie virus, and rumors say Busan is the only safe city.
A remarkably effective combination of pulse-pounding action, touching character drama, and some grisly and genuinely unsettling zombie effects.
THE DEAD DON’T DIE (2019):
ReplyDeleteExactly what I expected when I read “Jim Jarmusch zombie movie.” Driver’s deadpan is gold. Dug it.
Spookies (1986)
ReplyDeleteThis flick is bananas. Its got SO many creative, fun, low budget practical monsters/villains/zombies/etc. Its a grab bag of genres. Its got killer puppets. It has an entire scene, played straight, with farting mud monsters. Regrettably it lacks a story, a plot, and direction. Honestly if it had just a smidge of those i think it could be Evil Dead 2 or Re Animator levels of good! Still a solid junesploitation pick and a phenom 3rd act Zombie attack.
DIARY OF THE DEAD (2007)
ReplyDeleteFirst-time rewatch since theatrical release.
Burned DVD-R of the DimensionEXTREME disc, still 6/10.
I remember warming slightly to this flick in the days after seeing it. I feel the same now: Romero's only real misstep here was being very accurate in his revisitation of "that special night". All the semi-camp & subdued melodrama is too on-point for a bunch of film/acting students.
Cemetery Man (1994)
ReplyDeleteFew zombie movies are funnier, even fewer are nearly as sexy.
Zombie Nightmare (1987)
Bodybuilder baseball player zombie (who is quite reminiscent of Lou Ferrigno's Hulk) gets revenge on the people who...did any bad ever, I guess. Early Tia Carrere in this Canadian production, top-billed Adam West isn't in it nearly enough.
How Anna Falchi didn't turn that role into a career in Hollywood I will never understand.
DeleteZombie Strippers (2008)
ReplyDeleteJenna Jameson, Robert Englund, let's go!
My Boyfriend's Back (1993, dir. Bob Balaban)
ReplyDeleteZombie-comedy about a high school kid who comes back from the dead so he can go to the prom. Between this and Parents (1989) I find Bob Balaban to be a fascinating director of strange, offbeat and fun movies. Oscar winners Philip Seymour Hoffman, Matthew McConaughey, and Cloris Leachman are in this. Recommended.
SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD (2009)
ReplyDeleteFirst-time rewatch since it came out on disc.
Magnet/Magnolia Blu, 6/10 up from 2/10.
"Vinyl. Gag me."
I really thought this was trash when it came out. I'll make zero attempts to talk anyone else off that ledge, but I can't muster much outright negativity this time around. I think SURVIVAL's worst crime is being directed by one of the genre-defining pioneers of zombie cinema.
Maybe Patrick Bromley's "oy-ta-toy-toy-toy" just pinballs through my head every time Kenneth Welsh talks. In a good way.
SURVIVAL has grown on me a lot, too. You're absolutely right about it being the victim of expectations given the director. If you compare it to most of the zombie movies available on Tubi it's a masterpiece.
DeleteI avoided Diary and Survival for the longest time because of their reputation and because I love the original three so much. After watching them a few years back my reaction was pretty much along the same lines as yours.
DeleteREVENGE OF THE LIVING DEAD GIRLS (1987)
ReplyDeleteAn ‘80s zombie movie… made in France? Small-town girls drink tainted milk (ew) and become flesh-eating zombies. As a French flick, yes there’s a lot of sexiness and bedroom-hopping, but it’s also tongue-in-cheek in a “we’re just having fun here” sort of way. I enjoyed this, but not enough to put on the watch-it-every-October list.
MY ZOMBIE GIRLFRIEND (2016)
During the zombie apocalypse, a cool teen motorcycle guy returns to his high school to find a zombie girl who’s not like the others. There’s a little Shaun of the Dead in this, in that it’s more a quirky romance than it is gut-wrenching carnage. But I liked it! The Chinese-to-English subtitles were grammatically incomprehensible (It’s okay, I’m sure they did their best) but the filmmaking and the performances were so good that I was never lost.
Bonus Universal Monster-sploitation: DRACULA (Spanish version) (1931)
We all know the story. Spanish-speaking actors made the movie with the same script, concurrently with the English-speaking ones. This version is much more modern and contemporary in the camera work and editing, but it doesn’t have Lugosi, Frye, and the rest.
Looks like monsters is your Junesploitation special theme this year, Mac. Didn't you watched the same film every day one year?
DeleteWas it Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou?
DeleteYes it was!
DeleteGlory days!
DeleteYep, that was me! My weird way of dealing with the pandemic, I suppose.
DeleteTHE DEATH WHEELERS a.k.a. PSYCHOMANIA (1973, Dir. Don Sharpe)
ReplyDeleteBunch of undead British bikers end up getting stoned.
I watched this one too, primarily because I wanted to see George Sanders last movie and I was surprised at how good it was. Non-brain-eating-zombie zombie hooligans on motorbikes who had to off themselves in creative ways to the undead army. Great stunt work!
DeleteIt was surprisingly well made considering the whole "Very talkative, alive-looking, Zombie bikers" thing. Such a fun discovery.
DeleteTHE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS (2016)
ReplyDeleteFirst-time watch. Lionsgate Blu. 6/10.
I like the fungus concept. I like post-apocalypse movies. I like zombie movies. I waited years until the hype was vaporized. This is an interesting movie that I was partly entertained by & partly stricken with irksome tediosity by. I don't hate running zombies, but after my semi-recent rewatch of the DOTD remake, I find that little twist in the myth requires an enhanced level of disbelief-suspension that is often not supported by the movie that utilizes it.
Hail the Spore-tower.
Diary of the Dead (2008)
ReplyDeleteThe last of the Romero Dead series I had yet to see. It was...not quite for me. It suffers from some extremely clunky exposition and dialog, borders on tedious at times, and when it gives us a very interesting set-up, totally cuts away. I have a whole new appreciation for Survivial now.
The Battery (2012)
ReplyDeleteI'd watched After Midnight (2019), but had never gotten around to watching Jeremy Gardner's first movie, despite hearing good things about it. I'd say this is a really good movie for a directorial debut with a budget of $6000, and with a couple of very inexperienced stars, but honestly it's just a good movie in general.
Wyrmwood: Apocalypse (2021)
I really liked the original Wyrmwood. This one isn't as good. The characters are less interesting, and the scope seems more limited. It's a breezy enough watch though, and not bad.
Overlord (2018) was apparently a movie about Nazi zombies. The actual movie is slightly different (more like "super soldier" experiments gone wrong. No brain eating here), but I'm not about to spilt hairs. The first act was actually a pretty suspense filled action/war movie, and then we get reanimated people. I expected a middle of the road zombie movie, and liked what I got more than I anticipated.
ReplyDeleteBraindead (Dead Alive; 1992)
ReplyDeleteCould have sworn I'd seen this, must have just been clips - absolutely loved it. If anyone could recommend tonally similar films I'd be super grateful (obviously seen everything Raimi, Shaun of the Dead is an all time favorite). "This calls for divine intervention" will not be topped this Junesploitation.
"I kick ass for the lord!"
DeleteIt would be interesting to see how Peter Jackson would make a horror film today.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCannibals in the Streets
ReplyDeletea.k.a.
Invasion of the Flesh Hunters
a.k.a. (as I saw it)
Cannibal Apocalypse (1980) dir. by Antonio Margheriti
On re-watching, it felt a little less crazy but still doesn't quite have enough for me—mainly a lack of substance and logic... but also not bad enough to make it fun in that way.
But it does have that certain charm of the era and genre. Check out that gratuitous sweaty sawing scene! John Saxon is dependable in this role, the music is cool until one of the tracks gets a bit old, and I did like the way that they revealed something at the very end.
Shock Waves (1977 Dir: Ken Wiederhorn)
ReplyDeleteNazi zombies, Casey from Grapes of Wrath, Grand Moff Tarkin and a Bond girl in a tropical paradise. What more incentive to watch do you need?
RL Stines Zombie Town (2023 Dir Peter Lepeniotis)
I hope some kids see this and love it. That this is the movie that ends up being their gateway to horror, much like I had Student Bodies and Saturday the 14th, I hope this horrible, unfunny nonsensical movie leads them on a path to so many better, scarier and better made movies. Most of all I hope that when they look back on this film in 30 years that even though may feel a slight tinge of embarrassment for their younger selves liking this movie that they get a rush of nostalgia and warm feelings for where their journey into the horror world began.
Everyone else should avoid this like the plague
Zombie (1979) Embarrassed to say that I HAD NEVER SEEN THIS BEFORE (my secret shame). Surprisingly fun Fulci film: loved the zombie vs. shark match-up, odd editing, and famous “splinter” scene. Apparently, no one in this film has ever seen a zombie movie… Lucio Fulci, I owe you a blood-spattered apology.
ReplyDeleteYou loved it, but my head was under the blanket. :)
DeleteWild Zero (1999)
ReplyDeleteA raucous rock 'n' roll ride! Japanese rockers Guitar Wolf save the planet from invading aliens and their army of zombies and teach us that love knows no boundaries and movies need no exposition. It's all mayhem and music, which is plenty for me!
Zombie (1979)
ReplyDeleteThe story of James, an autopsy assistant who can't do anything right. JK it's Fulci, baby! Zombie bites fishy, eye goes squishy. More than one arm gets separated from its zom-body! Will we ever understand the zombies? STOP TRYING, DOC. They want to eat you. Just get off that island.
“Zombie bites fishy; eye goes all squishy” would be a great 7 word review for Scary Movie Month.
ReplyDeletei would also accept the following 7 word song parody
Delete"Ohhhh when that shark's bit" - bobby darrin