Cacería de zombies

THE MAD concerns a family vacation interrupted by a hamburger-induced zombie outbreak. Billy Zane is the dad who must face the hideous horde, with the help of his daughter, her boyfriend, and a handful of other survivors.

The first half of the movie is very good. Zane and company are hilarious. Things bog down a bit during the middle part, but there are just enough funny bits to keep it rolling.

Besides, how often do you get a chance to witness a hamburger patty crawl around, bubble green goo, and fly onto someone's face?...

In the increasingly popular movie genre of zombie comedies, The Mad is an excellent entry. I saw the premiere of this film at the Canadian Filmmaker's Festival last week and it was a bucket of fun.

The film stars Billy Zane (Dr. Hunt) and Maggie Castle (his daughter Amy) as they attempt to navigate the usually rocky terrain of a family road trip, complete with Amy's boyfriend and the Doc's girlfriend (played to bitchy perfection by Shauna MacDonald).

I can't say too much without giving the premise away, but suffice it to say, when the zombies appear, there's a pleasant amount of blood and gibbets of flesh to go around.

Zane does well in a comedic role, and the supporting performances are strong.

This movie does exactly what it's supposed to do: makes you laugh, frightens you, and leaves you feeling satisfyingly entertained.

One additional thing I have to mention: saw the cover art for the upcoming DVD and it doesn't really speak to what the movie's about: this is a zombie comedy, not a purely gruesome horror flick. Just my opinion.

I take any bet that everyone rating/reviewing The Mad lower than with a humble 3 never had the experience nor joy to watch a really bad movie - and the zombie genre really got a lot of unwatchable schrott produced. Anyway, The Mad is a zombie comedy that is no revelation or new cult but got me here and there smiling (including a tango dance of the father with a zombie girl) and on top we get here and there some little gore injected. For sure a B-movie that got a decent level of cheese and trash, maybe with some lengths here and there that could have easy cleaned up with some cuts. Recommended only to the lover of the genre that does not mind to dig in trash to reveal something worth to watch.

"The Mad" is without a doubt meant to be bad. There can be little doubt that both the cast, the director, and most likely the screen writer foreordained this to be a laughably bad film. There are time in which Billy Zane's performance not only breaks the forth wall it shatters it into a thousand pieces, leaving the viewer in a vortex of both confusion and pure hilarity. If it's not zombies, who's only zombie like aspect is alka-seltzer driven mouth foam, it's seemingly omniscience beef patties that attack the characters in-mass. The full affect of this leaves one with more per-zombie-giggles than "FIDO". If you happen to have a group of pro-zombie minded friends and what a movie to put everyone in stitches try "The Mad".

I'm not sure what the fate of The Mad is but lovers of zombie films should give it a go whenever and however it becomes available for public consumption. The Mad is a surprisingly funny and twisted addition to the zombie genre. I laughed really hard at a few moments in the film and I am usually immune to laughter. But the script is very funny.

Billy Zane is pitch perfect, as is the actress who plays his daughter, Maggie Castle. The rest of the cast is admirable but the real standouts are this father and daughter duo.

It took too long to get going and lost a bit of it's steam throughout the second half. And only because it could have used more zombie action and less meaningless effects segues have I rated it as such.

Family bickering during a zombie crisis was never this good.