Demente

4 friends get together at another friend's house to have fun. Along with his girl, this makes 3 couples. At some point during the course of their get together, they receive news of a terrorist attack via a telephone call from their friend's father who owns the house they're partying in. They are freaked out, naturally, and wonder if they should leave or stay put. They decide to stay (Hmmm...this can't be good).

They later become besieged by zombies of the fast-moving kind who for some reason at one point in the movie can't figure out what to do about a gate that is only a few inches taller than them. Reminds me here of the zombie movie with Dolph Lungren. Steep stairs are a breeze, but apparently this ability is not transferable to going over a gate 2 or 3 inches taller than you. Ah, well, can't have everything.

Let's see now... In this movie there's a lot of running, panicking, screaming, yelling as the zombies try to thin out the herd (the weak, the infirmed, the stupid...you know how it is). And what would a zombie movie be without some occasional "laying low". Or to put it in less cool terms: "Waiting until the dead stinking things leave". It becomes kind of like a video game. The group (whats left of them), learn that choppers are picking up survivors at strategic locations. Can they get to a rescue point without being the main course at a zombie banquet? If they can they get to fly away and give everything below them the middle finger.

The ending of the movie might be somewhat puzzling. There are 2 possible endings depending on WHEN the woman was dreaming or imagining things. You have to decide for yourself. Oh yeah, before I close, I must tell you that this movie strain of zombies are often in some kind of trance or suspended animation; dormant and "statue-like" until their food unwittingly wakes them by making too much noise. Then they become Olympic material. In a way it's kind of flattering though. You know, that something thinks you're so delicious that they break all kinds of records to get to you. Now that's love. Boloxxxi.

"The Demented" is sort of a reminiscent of a lower-budget version of "28 Days Later". So is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well that depends on what kind of zombies - or infected - you enjoy in movies.

Story-wise, then "The Demented" is a very standard movie as movies go in the zombie genre. A group of young people find themselves trapped in a rural setting when a biological outbreak takes place - turning people into crazed killers. And I would use the term zombie loosely here, as they aren't exactly zombies, if you measure them up by the standard of many movies in the genre.

The infected in the movie, like in "28 Days Later", are agile and fast running. And for some reason they have to make sounds like prowling animals. And also, once you become infected, your clothes become shredded and ripped. Try looking at all the infected, their clothes is all torn and ripped, and they are smeared in blood, yet they don't have any visible cuts, wounds, bite marks and the like. It was a little bit too ridiculous.

The way the movie ended was actually a nice twist to an otherwise generic zombie movie. I will not spoil anything by mentioning it here, but I didn't see that ending coming, not by a long shot.

As for the title of the movie, well, they could have found something more appropriate, as "The Demented" doesn't really do a zombie movie any kind of justice in any possible way.

For a zombie movie, then "The Demented" didn't really bring anything new or innovative to the genre. Everything in the movie has been done or seen before. But still, the movie was enjoyable and actually fared well for a movie of this production value.

I don't know why this got such a low rating on IMDb. The acting wasn't top-notch, but it was good enough, certainly better than the 3.8 stars that it currently has.

It's a low budget take-off of 28 Days Later, but they do a fair enough job on it. Sarah Butler's the reason I watched this, but she wasn't used to her full potential. Kayla Ewell is the protagonist. Her acting's never been that great, even in The Vampire Diaries. And she kept yelling at very inappropriate times, such as when they needed to be silent. Gosh, that was annoying.

They had a subplot between Charlie and Naomi. I thought they'd have Charlie somehow tell the others she let Naomi die, but that never happened. I don't know why they bothered putting that in the movie unless they just wanted the audience to dislike Charlie.

Overall, I was entertained. Again, the acting wasn't top-notch, but the movie was fun. I gave this movie a 5-star rating. If you like virus movies that make people turn into drooling, blood-thirsty cannibals, you'll enjoy this. If you're expecting The Walking Dead or Dawn of the Dead, forget it.

There are movies that have in-depth plots. There are movies that have interesting, complex characters. These films often make us contemplate our existence through obtuse themes that require introspection and careful pondering. And there are movies that are none of these things and yet still maintain a level of entertainment - visceral experiences that emote excitement, or fright, or romance, or comedy... perhaps even all four if we're lucky.

The Demented has none of these traits. It is devoid of any artistic originality. It is predictable and bland. Watching it makes me contemplate how much I value the hours I have left on this earth, and whether or not I should choose to go do something else right at this moment. But The Demented is a cheap zombie flick, and this fact alone forgives many sins.

The ending however, catapults this film past redemption. It makes me angry in ways that other things make me angry, like willful ignorance, 3rd world poverty, and excessive Facebook selfies. In the last few minutes of the film, just before the credits rolled, had there been a baby present, I would have punched he/she in the face. Had there been an invaluable painting handy, I would have smashed it into oblivion and declared art dead forever.

This is what you can look forward to if you decide to watch this film. Perhaps that's what you're after: a reason to be depressed and angry at the world. Perhaps you're manic and need a reason to not love yourself anymore. Then this is the film for you.

I wanted to like this one, I really did. But when they make characters so stupid, or annoying that you want them to die, I don't think the writers did a good job. A good movie will make you feel bad when people die, not cheer that the annoying girl has died. This is one of those movies that really annoys you when they make bad decisions. I get maybe they didn't realize they were going to be in a zombie movie, but screaming and making as much noise as possible all the time is never a good choice. Walking down the middle of the road isn't smart. When in a town of zombies, you don't walk into new buildings screaming hello for example. The girls have to scream and cry at every possible instance. Half their lines are screaming the second half of the movie on.

I don't know what to think of that ending, I'll give it credit for some out of box thinking.

In the end, this wasn't a total waste, but it felt like it could have been more. It has most of the generic characters and generic scenarios you would expect, except for the ending.