Joejoesan

When I judge the "quality" of a zombie movie I usually take into account the budget. "Okay, it's not that good, but it was made for just 500.000 dollar so what could you expect?" This weekend I checked out World Ends at Camp Z that only costed 300.000 dollar. Frankly, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, there is bad acting. Yes, there is bad dialogue. And the zombies look very bad too. But I thought a lot of things were done okay.

The story takes place in Canada. Young Dean has lived and worked all his young life on this camping La Tuque. He's not happy to learn that his "home" will be sold to some rich guys. His uncle just couldn't pay the bills anymore. To make matters worse the new owner Aaron, a spoilt kid in his twenties, wants to check out the camping with his friends before purchasing. They start a big party. Now Dean must be their butler before the deal is done. He does have a connection with Vanessa, a young lawyer who must check the paperwork. However, she turns out to be the girlfriend of the owner. Damn! When a friend of the owner gets injured, they must go to town to take him to the hospital. And then the zombies turn up...

What I liked about World Ends at Camp Z was the beautiful locations. The makers used drones to film the camping (which is located near Quebec?) surrounded by trees and water and it looks great.

Also a good point was the fact that one of the heroes is a Native Canadian named Clay. Clay is a father figure to Dean and knows how to deal with the threat when the zombies take over the camp. I think we should see more Native Americans or Canadians in movies, also in "normal" roles.

Lastly, I enjoyed the two leads. Of course Dean and Vanessa don't really get along at the start of the film. But the way they get closer to each other wasn't bad. Overall Vanessa (played by Anne-Carolyne Binette) gives us the best performance.

When the first zombie appears in the movie (after 55 minutes!) the film goes downhill. The action scenes with the undead aren't the best part of the movie but it does have a satisfying ending.

Not brilliant, maybe not even good, but I did like World ends at camp Z.

7/10.

The story of Endzeit is kinda similar to The Walking Dead World Beyond's. It has been two years since a zombie virus epidemic infected all but two German cities. Vivi and Eva want to flee the struggling community in Weimar for the one other safe-haven: Jena. They board an unmanned train between the two cities and hope to safely arrive. But of course the train breaks down and in the middle of nowhere they have to navigate themselves safely to Jena.

What I like about Endzeit is its atmosphere. It's filmed at some beautiful spots in Germany and that makes it look very different from, let's say, American zombie films. The two leads perform well. On their way to Jena they encounter strange abandoned places (a castle) and even a strange woman who calls herself 'the gardener'. Is she real? We don't know. In the end there's a nice scene with a blind zombie.

Of course there are some things that don't make sense. In the trailer you see the girls escape from a zombie herd. Where the hell did the zombies come from? In the woods they hardly encounter anyone and here the whole street is filled with them.

Also, the way our lead comes to terms with her past is... too convenient. But it's a nice scene anyway.

Not your cliché zombie flick, but I really enjoyed Endzeit.