Remains of the Walking Dead

REMAINS is yet another zombie movie, not quite as low budget as the very worst of the genre (DEADHEADS or THE ZOMBIE CHRONICLES) but pretty low budget all the same. I mean, the budget is enough to reasonably execute the premise and bring to life a ruined city and its environs, but not enough to provide a halfway decent script or memorable actors.

The storyline involves a group of survivors holed up inside a casino after a zombie apocalypse. The casino setting is featured heavily in the film's poster and box art, but is severely underutilised; they could have been in any old building. This is an action-focused narrative with lots of shoot-outs and run-ins with fellow survivors. It's all low rent and rather cheesy, but not unentertaining.

The story is based on a comic by Steve Niles and has some fun with zombies, making them more human than seen elsewhere. There's an undercurrent of black comedy running throughout, but it hurts that the human characters are less than interesting and you never really feel involved or care about what's happening to them. REMAINS is mildly watchable but entirely forgettable.

Watching "Steve Niles' Remains" without having any knowledge about it prior to sitting down and watching it turned out to be a rather nice surprise. This movie really knocked me over and surprised me quite a lot. This is a zombie movie well worth a place up amongst the heavy-weighter's like Romero's zombies movie legacy and the "28 Days Later" movies.

Given the story is essentially as it is in all other zombie movies, the end of the world is coming fast, and with it comes the walking dead. A mysterious explosion devastates Reno and only a couple of survivors make it out alive. However, radiation sickness is not their worst enemy, it is the dead that have returned back to life. Trapped in a casino hotel with dwindling food supplies, a couple of survivors board themselves up, hoping for a rescue.

Not much innovation to the storyline, but regardless, the movie turned out to be entertaining and fun to watch. At certain points throughout the movie there was a very "Resident Evil 2" game and "Left 4 Dead" game atmosphere to the cinematography, which I enjoyed quite a lot.

There was a good level of action in the movie, spiced up with an adequate amount of blood and gore. "Steve Niles' Remains" doesn't over-indulge in the macabre gore like many other zombie movies do, but it is done with tasteful modesty. I enjoyed it, at least. And the zombie make-up was actually quite good. However, the eyes, that I didn't care much for. Contact lenses to make your eyes look weird, doesn't make it look like you are dead, use contact lenses that totally glaze over the eyes with a matted grayish-white color instead, that works.

I must admit that there was a couple of scenes in the movie that would have been better if they were not actually in the movie, or if they had decided to go in another direction. The first scene was the one where the zombies chased after a radio-controlled toy car, giving up the living meals that was within their grasp, that was just ridiculous. The second scene that I didn't care much for, was the one where the zombie stood face to face with Tori and she held up the two cut off fingers, and the zombie decides to chase after the two fingers when she throws them instead of gorging itself on the full-grown woman buffet in front of it, again, just downright ridiculous.

"Steve Niles' Remains" had a great musical score that accompanied the movie quite nicely. Mostly background music though, that you don't really pay that much attention to, but it is there and it works.

As for the title, well they should have cut out the Steve Niles' part of it, that would have worked so much better. That part just gives it a sort of low-budget self-gloating quality, which isn't particularly flattering. But of course, the title of the movie have no impact on the outcome of the entertainment of the movie, which was good.

The people they had cast for the various roles were doing fair enough jobs, though the characters did come off as rather shallow and lacking personalities and depths. In the face of the end of the world, people seemed to be rather indifference or just totally lacking motivation to act accordingly. They could have fleshed out the characters a bit more with a better script and some more in-depth dialogue. The two lead people, Grant Bowler (playing Tom) and Evalena Marie (playing Tori) were actually the ones with the most memorable performances.

I was impressed with the quality of the production of this movie, especially since I had never heard about it, nor were familiar with it in any way. I just randomly came across it on Amazon while browsing for zombie stuff, decided to give it a go, and must say that I was more than thrilled that I did, because it was really one amazing surprise of a movie. "Steve Niles' Remains" is well worth a place on the DVD shelves of any zombie aficionado's movie collection.

On the day of the celebration of worldwide peace, there is a nuclear accident and people are turned into zombies. In Reno, a group of survivors are trapped inside a casino: Tom (Grant Bowler), his girlfriend Tori (Evalena Marie), the gay Jensen (Miko Hughes) and the stranger Victor (Anthony Marks) clean the place and stay inside with supplies for a long time. When Tom hears a transmission in the walkie talkie, he believes that help is coming and the use a searchlight to indicate their location. However, Tori suspects that the group under the leadership of Ramsey (Lance Reddick) is not what they think they are. Would her feeling be accurate or is Tori paranoid?

The trash "Remains" is a funny zombie movie despite the bad reviews. The plot is uneven, with good but also bad moments but the result does not disappoint at all. There is a hook in the conclusion for a sequel. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Devorados Vivos" ("Devoured Alive")

Though not the worst zombie movie ever made, "Steve Nile's Remains" disappoints and bores. For one thing, if a creative's name appears in the title, he or she should earn that place in the marquee with a script that goes somewhere. Sadly, neither the story, nor the characters in it do much more than shuffle around, running away from zombies.

Worse, one doesn't really care what happens to the people left alive in the zombie apocalypse. They're largely uninteresting at best, awful and selfish at worst. Even if the script had given them rich personalities, the actors are unconvincing and often wooden (especially Evalena Marie). The directing is methodical and the camera work uninspired.

The plot is, in essence, DAWN OF THE DEAD in a hotel. It's largely influenced by (if not derivative of) Steven King's FIRESTARTER and THE STAND, as well as Justin Cronen's book _The Passage_. About the only innovative aspect of this of this movie is who survives. But really, by the end, you just won't care.

Watch it if you're folding laundry. Or really loaded.

Cheaply made but entertaining nonetheless. Decent setup but fell away due to dodgy characters.