Zombie Night

This movie was an absolute train wreck! When you start rooting for the zombies, that's how you know you could care less about any of the characters surviving. 

Their choice in characters... They picked the best not to star in the best? Is that what we do know? Anthony Michael Hall ... Loved him way better when he played the nerd and geek (Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles). It's as if he was money hungry so he played this role. Darryl Hannah... Way better playing Elle (Kill Bill Vols). And lastly Shirley Jones, who was given such a bad script that I was actually rooting for a zombie to kill her. Why would any of these actors even take an offer that had to deal with Syfy? 

I mean, what kind of movie was this anyways? This didn't even fit the cliché version of zombies nor the modernized versions! This movie got more and more frustrating as it went on. I strongly recommend not watching this movie, for life is too short for these types of movies to even consider watching.

Zombies come out at night and two families must survive until morning.

By now, I think we all know to expect bad things from the SyFy Channel and the movies they show. And if you are familiar with the Asylum, who makes these movies, you know that they spare every expense in order to pump out low-grade, low-budget fluff. Some of it is entertaining (I confess), but none of it has ever been good.

Somehow they managed to get some real actors on board for this one. Not just one washed up actor (I am looking at you, Eric Roberts) but some decent names -- Anthony Michael Hall and Daryl Hannah. Alan Ruck may not have the name recognition, but everyone recognizes him from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" or "Spin City".

The most unfortunate thing is that the director is John Gulager, who is a legitimately talented man -- "Feast" was incredible, and I absolutely loved "Piranha 3DD". Somehow not even he could save this picture... how did they all get roped into working for the Asylum?

Made a full decade after Zombie Night (2003) which I'd consider one of the worst zombie movies ever made, the title is recycled and we're presented with another zombie piece.

I was conflicted what to expect initially, it's a Scyfy original and I actually think the Scyfy channel do horror quite well. However on the flipside it's made by the rather infamous The Asylum and they seldom make anything even remotely watchable.

So a zombie outbreak occurs, a town becomes panicked and crazed and we follow a group of survivors of whom you'll recognise quite a few.

Anthony Michael Hall, Daryl Hannah and Alan Ruck demonstrate here with their inclusion just how low their careers have sunk. Remember when Hannah was a prominent Hollywood star? Those days are well behind her.

Directed by horror legend Clu Gulagers son he does a decent enough job here in fact the whole thing has clear influences from both Romero and the Return of the Living Dead series (And in competent fashion).

It feels like an old school zombie movie and though it staggers in the centre it is actually better than you'd expect all things considered.

However, zombies have certain "Rules" present in their lore and here they decided to tweak a couple and that damages the movie more than I can express here.

Zombie Night would have been a passable affair if the writer hadn't decided to go into business for himself.

The Good:

Old school zombie movie

The Bad:

Some poor music choices

Zombie "Rules" changed

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

During the zombie apocalypse the police need to be vigilant with looters

Little known fact, zombies enjoy playing fetch

Warning: Parked cars can randomly explode for absolutely no reason

I wasn't going to write a review but I just wanted to comment on what one reviewer said.

He said he only watched the first 15 minutes of movie then went on to mention about the car blowing up near the start, well that car was around 65 minutes into the movie no where near the start and obviously he watched more than the first 15 minutes if he saw that lol.

He also mentioned about he couldn't sit through 2 hours of the movies, well... he is right no-one could quite simply because the movie was only 85 minutes long lol.

Oh well, I have to say that Asylum do seem to make decent zombie movies probably because the other movies in this genre are usually very low budget and Asylums 1 million budget is one of the bigger ones compared to other Zombie movies so they tend to look quite good in comparison.

Anyway I do agree with one comment the reviewer made and that was Shirley Jones playing Nana was very annoying. Overall there was plenty going on in the movie, the Zombies were quite good even though the acting and story was little cheesy I was entertained.

That's another Zombie/Infected movie seen and added to my ever growing list. :)

3 stars for the gore effects, quite obviously the majority of the limited budget went into them. If the writers would have tried to make this a humorous affair, the appalling acting, script writing and storyline might just have worked. In fact, it could have been good if the film didn't try to take itself seriously. The film almost titters on the brink of humour before you realise it's a very serious affair failing badly.

Even Zombie fans should be upset with the film. We all know Zombies don't care, they just amble directly at their target. No moving obstacles out of the way or bypassing defenses or defending themselves from attack. All of which the Zombies do in this film... ruins the 'Mindless Zombie Killer' effect we all know and love.

In the end we are left with a film that has you thinking "that would have been funny if...." and "some of the effects are not too bad" and... "Wow ! I could drop a piece of paper in a cage full of Monkeys and find a better script written on it ten minutes later. Then hire the Monkeys to act it out".