Zombie Wars

I've been working my way through the entire David A. Prior catalog over the past month. He's mostly famous for his action/exploitation films in the late 80s/early 90s. Zombie Wars was one of 2 films he made in 2007 after a 8 year hiatus. If you're reading this review just to get info on a zombie film you've never heard of then quit reading now.

This film is primarily going to be of interest to David A. Prior fans and not zombie-movie fans. That said, it is a solid Prior movie and bears many of the hallmarks of his action films from decades earlier (gun play, pretty girls, dudes on a mission). Much has been toned down--stunt work is scaled back, big action scenes (e.g. firefights) are absent BUT there's still enough action to satisfy. Although this film contains some CGI it primarily utilizes practical FX which is refreshing. I have no complaints as it pertains to FX.

Aside of the abject weirdness of the zombie plot, the script is actually pretty solid. Motivations are clear, things that are set-up in the script have pay-offs, the dialogue is good. Look, this isn't Citizen Kane...it's a direct-to-video B-movie capitalizing on the zombie trend in 2007.

Like most Prior films from the 80s, the acting in this film ranges from good, to adequate, to bad. As in most Prior films, the leads do pretty well whereas the secondary players are all over the map. Prior (or his casting agent) actually had a pretty good eye for talent and often found leads that elevate his movies--this trait is certainly on display in Zombie Wars.

I honestly had very low expectations for this film. I figured that given his long absence from directing that his return would be more akin to the poor schlock of that era as opposed to the GREAT schlock that he was so skilled at producing in the 80s & 90s. This isn't a "great" film by any definition--it's not even a "great" David A. Prior film--but it's a decent David A. Prior film and definitely watchable. RIP David A. Prior.

As usual I checked this site before watching this movie and from the rating and some of the comments I was pretty skeptical going in. If you check the break down of the votes on this movie a bunch of people actually gave this a 1 star out of 10 which now after watching the movie I can't explain, maybe they've only ever seen the 'Romero' Zombie flicks and compared this to those or something.

Granted, this movie doesn't do itself many favors at the beginning, the acting is really cheesy and strained and there's an early character development scene that's like watching paint dry, and the makeup on the zombies... well it is a B movie.

However, after the first 20 minutes or so this flick really changes, it's like everyone involved in the movie got warmed up and things seems to come together. The acting, directing, editing.. everything but the makeup seemed to go up a few notches and make this movie worth watching.

There's a few holes in the plot, as pointed out in the comments earlier by imdb1 but if you're watching a movie called Zombie Wars you can probably get past those without too much trouble.

All in all if you like Zombie flicks I'd add this one to the list to watch, there's definitely many (much) worse zombie movies out there.

Although this is one of those low-budget zombie productions which seem to crop up just about everywhere these days, this film had some real potential. Unfortunately, it had too many things going against it to succeed. For example, it starts off with a very shaky concept of zombies harvesting humans for food. Add in a bad script, poor action sequences, miscasting, terrible zombie makeup along with horrible acting on the part of the zombies and you can get an idea of how badly directed it was. And that's a shame because it had some good qualities which could have saved it. For instance, the acting on the part of the brothers "David" (Adam Mayfield) and "Brian" (Jim Hazelton) was pretty good. Likewise, although Kristi Pearce is probably a decent enough actress, she was badly miscast and gave a totally unconvincing performance as the leader known as "the General". Additionally, the talents of Alissa Koenig (as "Star") were also seriously wasted. In short, this movie had some good talent to draw upon. But they weren't used properly and the film suffered because of it.

Wow...OK. So, after reading the little feud on here, I decided I had to see this movie for myself. This movie is HORRIBLE. I stopped watching it. I strongly recommend cleaning a closet instead of watching this movie, you'll be more spooked/entertained.

It's low budget with bad acting.

Whoever is giving this "movie" (because this is totally garbage) 10s is completely incorrect and should be disregarded.

I am in no way connected to any of the other reviewers.

Simply put, this garbage is not worth watching.

Very, very, very, very BAD "MOVIE".

Following a worldwide zombie epidemic, a small band of survivors that fight back against the creatures manage to free a group of women being used as breeding fodder but are taken back to their compound, and learning of their capabilities launch a full-on assault to destroy the zombies.

There was some really good stuff to this one. One of the greatest aspects of this one is the film's incredibly interesting and original story which is insanely clever and actually believable. This is mostly brought about by the concept of the zombie's farm since it's portrayed as not coming from them but are conditioned to accept it, which is a new touch and figures to include some new elements into the film based on its sheer integration. The scenes showing the early workings of the facility are great fun, where the zombies' lives are shown in different levels of interaction and a social order is clearly established. That it's done in the middle of a war is really great as it allows for a spectacular series of scenes that carry on the action from the beginning. The big shootout which takes place in the fields is really good, the big battle at the campground is pretty exciting and manages to get really chaotic in what's going on and a great series of encounters in the woods around the camp as they come up with their rescue plans that makes it all the better. There's also the big scenes at the compound which is where it gets really enjoyable, with the first escape attempt making for a rather enjoyable sequence, while the big assault is a lot of fun mixing in everything from gore to action to a little bit of humor as well. These, mixed with a really nice amount of gore and really nice looking zombies with a ton of scars and facial wounds and even missing or burnt away skin create impressive-looking creatures, make for a highly enjoyable effort. There wasn't a whole lot of stuff wrong with this one. One of the biggest flaws is the films' few storyline instances that don't make a lot of sense. Despite being told that the camp was a rehabilitation effort, nothing is shown of teaching the captives anything, and the only one that has any sort of contact is the one who has a name. When the place is attacked and the captives are taken out for protection, they are said to escape and no one goes after them, despite being told tons of times about the importance of keeping them away from the zombies. Another one is the revelation at the very end about what kind of compound it actually is, which is a missed opportunity and really should've been told earlier. The only other part that becomes much of a flaw is the apparent shying away from using a lot of variety with its gore. Most of the blood tends to come from head- shots of varying degrees of blood-splatter, which isn't all that unique or impressive. Usually, the genre tends to come up with a few inventive gags with each entry, but this one doesn't do that and doesn't tend to give a lot of options. As it also rips off a famous ending from another film with it's ending here being another minor problem, these here are all that's really wrong with the film.

Rated UR/R: Graphic Violence and Language.