Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

WARNING: I give out a lot of details about the movie in this review. If you’re not into finding out major details about the movie, don’t read this until you’ve seen it. You’ve been warned!

If you saw a zombie moving down the street, what would you do? Do you think you would even know what to do? Shaun is just your average guy. He has a job in retail that he hates, but does anyway. He has two roommates, Ed and Pete, that are extremes. (Ed sits around all day playing video games while Pete likes to think of himself as the responsible one.)

There’s a zombie outbreak, but Shaun doesn’t take notice of it. It’s all over the news, but he somehow manages to tune it out. Zombies are walking down his street, but he doesn’t see them. Perhaps this is because things in his life aren’t going so well. His girlfriend, Liz, wants to go someplace special, but dumps Shaun when he wants to take her to the Winchester, which is where they always go. He also has to visit his mother, which means visiting his stepfather, who he doesn’t like.

Eventually, Shaun pauses on a channel long enough to listen to what’s going on. That’s when Ed notices a woman in the back yard. They realize that the Zombie epidemic has reached their house. The newscaster on TV tells Ed and Shaun about the zombies. To become infected, one is bitten, dies and comes back to life as a zombie. The man on TV mentions some of the early symptoms, which Pete seemed to have had. He also says that to ‘kill’ a zombie, one has to either decapitate said zombie or to cause brain damage.

Shaun and Ed grab blunt objects and try to figure out what they’re going to do. They decide to get Liz first, then to get Shaun’s mother. Things don’t go entirely as planned; Ed manages to crash their car while he’s waiting for Shaun to come out of Liz’s place. Shaun’s stepfather has been bitten, but he’s not showing signs yet. They take the stepfather’s car to the Winchester, which is easier said than done. Hopefully, they’ll be able to wait out the night.

The movie works on a lot of different levels. Sure, the whole zombie thing is ridiculous, but it’s a comedy. Comedies can get away with that sort of stuff. It’s never explained where the outbreak originated from. There are brief phrases about experiments, but nothing specific. The real focus is on Shaun and Ed, who simply want to survive until help can get there.

Shaun is very frustrated, yet is constantly thrust into a position of responsibility. Since his boss is out sick, he’s left in charge of the store. He’s the one that has to convince Ed to do something. He has to make reservations at a good restaurant, but fails to do so. Still, Shaun is the one to step up and take charge of the group, hoping to save everyone. As one of Liz’s roommates points out, Liz and her two roommates might have been safer if they had been left in her apartment.

This is not a movie for children, and I mean that in the most extreme way. You might even want to skip this paragraph if you’re squeamish. There are several scenes where zombies are eating corpses. There’s also another scene where someone has internal organs pulled out while he’s alive. There aren’t a lot of gross scenes, but those that are gross are very intense.

There are some funny scenes, too. Shaun and Ed want to use records as weapons. While two zombies approach, they discuss which records to throw at them. Most of the records don’t hit the zombies and those that do don’t seem to have any effect on them. Also, at the end of the movie, there are several shows involving zombies. (For instance, there’s a talk show featuring a woman married to a zombie.)

I thought that there was more comedy that horror, but there was a lot of tragedy in it. I think that Liz and Shaun are the only two main characters to make it through unaffected. I came into the movie expecting something that made fun of living-dead movies. Even the title is presumably a play on “Dawn of the Dead”. However, there was more to it than that. I really think that a lot of people can enjoy it, depending mostly on how much gore they have a tolerance for. 

IMDb page

Creature with the Atom Brain (1955)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

In my quest to find really cheesy and bad movies, I came across The Giant Claw.  When I ordered it from NetFlix, It was paired with The Creature with the Atom Brain, so I decided to see if I could get an extra review out of it.  I have to admit that this movie is better than The Giant Claw, but not by much.

The plot is simple.  A gangster that’s supposedly in Europe makes his way to America and teams up with a German scientist who’s working on some sort of mad-scientist project.  With the gangster’s funding and the scientist’s  knowledge, they find a way to reanimate dead bodies that they’ve stolen from the morgue.  In return for the funding, the gangster wants to use the bodies to kill those that put him away.  It sounds like a great plan.  Someone ends up dead and you were nowhere to be seen.

This is where it gets strange.  The reanimated bodies are controlled from a computer back at the lab.  The person controlling them simply looks at a monitor to see what they’re doing and speaks into a microphone to command them.  (The zombies retain no memory, but know how to follow commands.)  The dead body can speak, but is always in the voice of the person controlling them.  It’s not clear why this is or how the zombie knows what’s an order and what’s to be spoken.

What got me most was that the police noticed a connection after two homicides.  Somehow, they knew that some sort of creatures were involved.  The identity of the gangster is worked out not to long after that.  Granted, they had finger prints from dead people and radioactive blood.  That would be a little obvious, but of the first two murder victims, one was a district attorney and the other was a gangster.  It seemed a bit rushed.

The science is somewhat good, but nothing on par with today’s stuff.  The forensics lab apparently consists of a small centrifuge and a basic microscope.  Also, the scientist becomes radioactive despite wearing protective clothing.  He’s so radioactive, in fact, that he’s able to make a beer set off a Geiger counter after a few seconds of exposure.  I don’t know if that’s how radioactivity works.  It seems more like a way to have the police know that where the scientist was.

I think most people, having seen today’s big-budget movies, would not be impressed by The Creature with the Atom Brain.  This is the kind of movie I’d expect either on a specialty movie channel or something that the broadcast networks might show late at night.  In fact, I don’t know if they release it alone any more.  If you wanted to get just this movie, you might have to find it on VHS at a garage sale.

At 69 minutes, it was just the right length.  On a side note, I’ve always wondered why people in movies like this never become alarmed at someone talking in a monotone voice.  If someone came up to you and started speaking in a flat voice, wouldn’t you become just a little worried?

The Living Dead

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Many, many years ago, back when I was working at Wolf Camera, I found these sets of movies for $7.99 each.  Each set had 9 or 10 movies that fit in to some theme.  One set is all Alfred Hitchcock movies.  Another is all science fiction.  This one is titles The Living Dead and has to do with zombies, vampires and strange cults.  (Or at least things that pass for zombies, vampires and strange cults.)

The thing that first attracted me to this set was that it had Dawn of the Dead.  This was a movie that I had heard about and had wanted to see.  I figured that I could get eight more reviews out of it.  (Nine, if you include this one.)  With that many reviews, it was just a matter of waiting for the right promotion on Epinions and I could make my money back.  (I ended up getting a few of the other sets when the store put them on sale.)

Well, I’ve finally gotten around to reviewing them.  Now, I have to review the set as a whole.  I don’t really want to write too much on each movie.  I doubt you’d want a 3,000-word review and I know that I don’t want to write one.  (Since I’ve reviewed all of the movies, I will link to the individual titles.)

This set has nine movies spread out over three discs as follows:

Disc 1:  The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, The House by the Cemetery, Fangs of the Living Dead

Disc 2:  I Eat Your Skin,  The Last Man on Earth, King of the Zombies

Disc 3:  Night of the Living Dead, The Thirsty Dead, Messiah of Evil


The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave is about Lord Alan Cunningham, who likes to kill women.  He seems to think that marrying again will cure him of this.  It just leads to a strange and disjointed movie.  It’s more strange than scary.  Also, kind of light on the living dead thing.

The House by the Cemetery does have living dead that haunts a family.  They move into a house while the father finishes the work of a colleague who committed suicide.  It’s not quite as strange and disjointed, but that’s not to say it makes any sense.  Take the grave marker in the house.

Fangs of the Living Dead does have living dead.  (In this case, vampires.)  A young woman about to be married inherits a castle.  She goes over to sign the paperwork only to find out that her uncle really isn’t her uncle.  Also, there’s some question as to whether or not her mother is dead.  The movie comes across primarily as goofy.  (I don’t know how much of it was intended to be goofy.)

I Eat Your Skin was originally billed with a movie called I Drink Your Blood.  (I kid you not.  Check IMDb.)  The only likeable thing about this movie, in my opinion, was that it was filmed near me, albeit before I was born.  In this movie, a writer goes to Zombie Island with the intention of getting material for a new book.  He and his party get more than they bargained for.  This one redefines what it means to be low-budget.

The Last Man on Earth is the reason I got this pack in the first place.  I’d say it was worth it.  It’s one of two movies in this set that are worth the purchase price.  (The other one is Night of the Living Dead.)  The movie is about a man who seems to be the last human alive, hence the title.  He spends his days gathering supplies and his nights hiding from the undead.  It’s not a great movie, but it is worth seeing, especially if you’ve seen Omega Man or I am Legend.  All three movies are based on the same book.

The King of the Zombies is not even worth watching unless you want to get the review out of it.  It’s the shortest of the nine as well as the oldest.  In it, three men crash land on an island.  They discover a strange man in a strange castle with strange things going on.  This is another case where the living dead aren’t technically living dead, but it’s a minor point.  The movie is just plain bad.

Night of the Living Dead  is a classic.  Yes, it’s that Night of the Living Dead.  It’s the one directed by George A. Romero.  This movie does have actual living dead and is actually good enough to raise the bar for zombie movies to come.  This alone is worth the purchase price.  If you’re going to get this set, watch this movie first if you haven’t already seen it.

The Thirsty Dead does not involve anyone who is either thirsty or dead.  Instead, it involves a cult that lives in a remote area that drinks the blood of people to stay young.  They think they’ve found someone who is supposed to change the course of their special cult.  The only problem is that she wants nothing to do with them.  Ironically, one of the other women kidnapped with her does want eternal youth and beauty.  The shame of it is that she’s nothing to look at.  Neither is the movie.  It’s just plain ridiculous.  This is Mystery Science Theater 3000 material at its finest.

Messiah of Evil was somewhat decent.  It’s not as good as other movies I’ve seen, but it does involve some creepy scenes.  It’s about a woman looking for her father in a small town.  The small-town residents have some sort of infection that turns them into flesh-eating zombies during a blood moon.  The main drawback is the film transfer; it looks like St. Clair Vision used the cheapest one they could fine.  It’s worth watching, but only if you get it as part of this set.

In addition to the nine movies, there are three special features.  On disc one is classic movie trailers.  Disc two has vintage movie posters.  Disc three has a feature on the making of The Night of the Living Dead.  The only one I watched was the one on the movie posters, which is basically a slide show set to music.  I watched a few minutes, but didn’t see anything interesting.

I think the common thread running through all of these movies was that they were either public domain or had expired copyrights.  In other words, St. Clair Vision, who distributed this collection, didn’t have to shell out any money beyond what it cost to produce and ship the units.  Most of the movies don’t seem to have been restored at all.  I think very minimal effort was put into this.

If you find this collection and think (as I did) that you might be able to get your money back by reviewing the movies, I’d really think hard about it.  I only finished most of the movies because I wanted the reviews.  Had it not been for the site, I don’t think I would have finished (or even started) watching some of these movies.  Many of these are really old.  Release dates range from 1941 to 1981.  I’d say that all of the movies show their age to some extent.

The packaging was very basic.  It’s a plastic case with three places for the DVDs.  The only problem is that the back half has two holders that are arranged so that you have to take out one disc to get at the other.  It’s not a problem, but it might be a nuisance if you want to get to a movie on the bottom disc quickly.  On the back of the DVD case is a short description of each movie and the suitability for children.  Each disc is easy to get out of the case.

Interestingly, there’s a copyright warning.  I think all of these are public domain, so I think the only thing that would fall under copyright is the menus and maybe the special features.  I guess it’s one of those things that they have to put in just in case it ever matters.  I don’t really regret buying this.  I’d say that between Last Man on Earth and Night of the Living Dead, I got my money’s worth.

The Last Man on Earth (1964)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.  I have made a few modifications here.

I first became aware of this movie through Epinions. I had done a review of Omega Man and decided to read a few of the other reviews, which mentioned Last Man on Earth. Both movies are based on the same novel, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. When I saw a collection of movies that included The Last Man on Earth, I had to buy it. (I got this and 8 other movies for $7.99 plus tax.)

Vincent Price plays Dr. Robert Morgan, a scientist who is literally the last normal human on Earth. You see, there was this worldwide plague that affected every other human on the planet. Many were killed and burned to prevent the spread of the disease, but to no avail. Those that are infected become sick and die only to reanimate shortly thereafter. Dr. Morgan’s best guess as to his immunity is a bat bite that he sustained many years ago.

Either way, he lived and had to watch his wife and daughter die while his coworker thinks that everyone’s turning into vampires. Morgan dismisses it at first, but thinks twice when his wife comes home…after he buried her. He realizes that humanity may really be doomed.

For several years, Morgan has spent his days looking for supplies and his nights scared out of his wits, hoping that the 'vampires' don’t get him. Morgan finds out that garlic and wooden stakes have the same effects as in legend and the zombies also have an aversion to mirrors. (Amazingly, mirrors and fresh garlic are easy to come by, even after three years.) He finds hope when he discovers a woman watching him. If he can help her, there may yet be hope for humanity.

The first thing that I noticed was that the acting left something to be desired. Granted, most of the characters were zombies, but Vincent Price was the only one who seemed to give much of a performance. Even with the zombies, the acting seemed more rigid than one might expect from the undead, but I’ll get to that later.

The picture quality also wasn’t that great. The quality was good, considering that it’s a black-and-white movie from 1964. However, there were several points in the movie where the transfer was terrible. It wasn’t a major point, but it was a little distracting at times

I don’t know if this is to be expected from all versions of the movie or just the DVD that I got. The name of the collection I got was called “The Living Dead”. It’s from St. Claire Vision, which is known for distributing public-domain material.  They don't seem to put a lot of effort into restoring the movies or getting the bet versions.

Even though I liked the movie, I didn’t think that the story was developed very well. I realize that 86 minutes isn’t a lot of time to go into detail, but how was it that out of a total population of several billion, only one person was lucky enough to have immunity?  I always find it odd when exactly one person survives.  He also had plenty of food, garlic and other supplies. I would think that after three years, either the food would have gone bad or the zombies would have gotten to most it.

On that note, why was it that the zombies were so one-dimensional? All they did was moan and make a very weak effort to get to Morgan. The only reason they even seemed interested in Morgan was that he was unaffected by the plague. In The Omega Man, the zombies and their relationship with the last human survivor were both developed more.

Overall, I’d give the movie three stars. It was entertaining to watch, but I don’t think that the movie would hold up well to today’s standards. For what I paid for it, it was worth it. If you’re interested in this movie, I’d actually recommend getting Omega Man.

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Note:  This is a review that was originally posted to my Epinions.com account.

Night of the Living Dead is one of those movies that’s relatively well known.  It’s not a particularly great movie, but it did seem to start the zombie-type undead movie.  (Note:  The undead in the movie aren’t actually referred to as zombies.  At best, they’re “those things”.)  Sometimes, you’ll see it on cable or maybe even broadcast if you’re lucky.  I managed to get it as part of a 9-movie collection that had a living dead theme.  (When I bought it many years ago, I think this is the only movie I had heard of.)

The movie starts out with Johnny and Barbara, a brother and sister minding their own business.  When radiation reanimates the dead, Johnny becomes one of their first victims.  Barbara manages to make it to a farmhouse where she meets Ben.  Having just lost her brother, Barbara can’t do much more than scream and wonder when it will all be over.  You see, the undead want to kill and eat the living.

At first Ben and Barbara think that they’re going to have to wait out the zombie apocalypse alone.  Turns out that there’s a family of three as well as a couple hiding in the basement.  They’re more than happy to wait there, feeling that it’s a more-defensible location.  Ben waits upstairs where he has access to television and radio and can see what’s going on outside.

Through television, the viewer is able to see how things are coming along.  Police and the military are trying to deal with the zombie threat as best they can.  They’ve figured out a few things that work, such as blunt objects and decapitation.  No one really knows what’s going on, but people are trying to rekill the undead.  Since there’s a sequel, you have to figure that the epidemic does eventually end with at least a few survivors.

Night of the Living Dead was George Romero’s first film.  This is not a big-budget movie by any means.  The version I watched wasn’t great in quality, but wasn’t horrible, either.   I don’t know if that has anything to do with the original production or the movie collection not being able to get (or willing to invest in) a better copy.  I’m sure that a movie like this has been remastered at some point in the last 46 years.

While the movie does deal with the undead trying to eat the living, the violence shown isn’t that disturbing by today’s standards.  People that grew up on later zombie movies will probably find it pretty tame.  (It’s strange how movies from 40 or 50 years ago don’t have the same kind of ‘horror’ in them, even if they are supposed to be horror movies.)

I’m not a big zombie/reanimated corpse fan, but I figured I might as well watch this movie.  It was worth buying; I did end up liking the movie and I got 8 other movies to watch and eventually review.  I don’t know that I’d recommend buying it to other people unless you’re a big undead fan, but it is worth watching.  If you can get it as part of a collection like I did, then go for it.  If not, maybe you want to wait for it to come on TV.

King of the Zombies (1941)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Some movies are bad.  Some are so bad that it becomes their main attraction.  You know a movie is going to be well beyond bad when most of the reviews list the short running time as an asset.  I don’t know if King of the Zombies was that bad, but it came pretty close.

The movie starts with three men in a plane.   James “Mac” McCarthy is the pilot.  It’s his charge to fly Bill Summers and Jefferson “Jeff” Jackson over the Caribbean.  (Exactly where, I’m not sure.)  Jeff asks if this is the area where Admiral Arthur Wainwright’s plane went down, to which the answer is yes.  Mac is lost, but is able to pick up some sort of radio transmission.  They follow it and end up crashing on a jungle island.

In the middle of this jungle island is a mansion that looks more out of place than it sounds.  They knock and enter the mansion, which they initially assume to be empty.  They’re soon greeted by Dr. Miklos Sangre, who invites them to stay until they can either repair the plane or call for help.  He seems harmless enough so they agree.  Mac and Bill, both being white, are given rooms upstairs.  Jeff, being black, is told that he can stay in the servants’ quarters.  (Keep in mind that the movie was released in 1941.)

Jeff is almost immediately told about the local zombie population.  When Samantha, the maid, is able to produce zombies on cue, Jeff immediately runs up and tells Mac and Bill about what he saw.  Sangre reassures them that they’re not really zombies, but that does nothing to reassure Jeff.  Mac and Bill are finally convinced when they find an earring in their room.

Admiral Wainwright is actually on the island and Sangre is a spy.  Sangre is trying to use some sort of hypnosis to transfer memory from one person to another so that he can steal secrets and pass them along to the enemy.  (This also implies that the zombies aren’t really undead, but it’s not mentioned what happens to them at the end of the movie.)

In terms of scariness, the movie is lame by today’s standards.  The zombies don’t attack anyone.  They don’t even groan for brains.  I think that there may have been more strict decency standards.  Consider that there’s no bad language, sex, innuendo or nudity of any kind.  There’s very little violence and what violence there is tends to be very mild.  The only warning I would have for small children is the whole hypnosis/zombie aspect.  Some children might have a problem understanding it.

Another sign of the times was the racial aspect of the movie.  Sangre makes no attempt to apologize for having Jeff sleep in the servants’ quarters.  When he offers drinks to Mac and Bill, Jeff reaches to take the third glass.  Sangre denies him and takes the third glass for himself.  Jeff (and many of the other black characters) tend to talk with stereotypical accents.

It’s one of those movies you don’t have to think about and are probably better off for it.  I mean, who builds a mansion/castle/whatever in the middle of a tropical jungle?   There isn’t even a driveway or a walkway or anything.  It’s just trees right in front of the main door.  If you can get past the racial overtones, it ends up being a very silly movie.  I’m afraid I can’t give it more than one star, though.