Zombie Farm

In ZOMBIE FARM, the FBI develops a chemical agent for use during terrorist interrogations. Alas, the drug has a nasty side effect, turning people into -all together now- flesh eating zombies. Not-surprisingly-at-all, a rampage soon erupts.

Absolutely inept and absurd in every way.

A local, musclebound psycho with a pile of guns, and some hillbilly cannibals round things out.

Watch for the zombie mailman!

WARNING; This movie contains rat eating!

If only the sole existing print of this "film" had been eaten as well...

Desperate to end her husband's domestic abuse, a young woman seeks asylum fro ma local voodoo priestess. When warned that her husband may "change" if given a special potion, the abused wife is relieved. But waking up in bed next to a zombie isn't exactly the transformation she was hoping for!

The film opens panning over the waters of Louisiana with some light guitar playing in a Spanish style. The film is definitely of a Hispanic or Latino flavor, with the cast and crew being of that background. And I hate to lump Latino films into one group, but they have not fared well -- even the ones that featured known actors, like "Day of the Dead", were pretty awful. I have not seen a good film from the Hispanic community since the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Perhaps you're wondering why the film took two years to be released? Or why it is named the same as a 2007 film, which was also overlooked by most people. I do not have those answers... you would have to ask the writer and director, Ricardo Islas.

I am not going to lie. I opened my mail, found this film, and immediately groaned. One, zombies are overdone. I do not need more zombie films. Two, I have not heard of a single cast or crew member associated with this film, so I had no base to work from. And three, it came from Maya Entertainment, which I have no idea what that is. So my expectations were about as low as they could possible be. And, luckily, it was better than those expectations.

The film tries to make social commentary by mentioning pedophile priests and Homeland Security tearing families apart (their words, not mine). There is talk of Marines invading Panama and raping the women, and how those babies (brown with blue eyes) are an improvement of the race. What the heck? These commentaries are just so haphazard, thrown in without cause. Maybe to stir people up, but for no reason I can tell.

As for the zombies, well, they come from a voodoo priestess (who is Hispanic, not Caribbean, but does live in Louisiana). And they do not show up until a good while into the film. This is a family drama about domestic abuse... the zombie aspect of the story is just sort of thrown in, and I am not sure why. If there is supposed to be a subtle satire, they lost it on me.

It sounds like I am bashing the film, and I am. Yet, you will see I gave it a decent rating. Here is why: although it is not really a horror film, but a drama about race and abuse with some horror elements, it is decent, and probably a good film if you go in with the right mindset. I think horror fans will be mislead and disappointed, but the Latino community may identify with it... I, unfortunately, am not part of that community and can only speculate.

If you're like me and can enjoy a drama that injects horror motifs, I think you might like this movie. Otherwise, it's probably going to be too talkative, with disappointing amounts of gore. To some extent, I might compare it to Dawn of the Dead (1978), my personal favorite of Romero's zombie saga (and one of my favorite movies ever). It's not nearly as good, but it has a lot of similarities: left-leaning political message, sparing use of zombies, more emphasis on human drama than gore, and a very raw, low budget look. Compare this to the Dawn remake, which streamlined away just about everything but the zombies and gore. If you're more a fan of the original than the remake, maybe you'll find something to like here. The big problem is that, despite how heavy-handed Romero's political and social commentary are, this movie is even more preachy and less subtle, with characters outright lecturing each other. Also, the gore is very low budget, looking a bit unimpressive. I've seen Troma movies that looked like they had a bigger budget than this movie. Still, if you can get past the faults, and you can withstand some preachy commentary, I think you might like this movie.

The plot revolves around a Voodoo priestess raising a zombie horde from poor (and probably illegal) immigrants -- people that nobody will ever miss. When a battered wife, who had consulted the Voodoo priestess, seeks help from a feminist reporter and a Marxist con man with a heart of gold, the zombies and the priestess seek to kill them all, to keep the operation quiet. If this sounds a bit confused, cluttered, preachy, and silly, then yeah, you'd be right... but it's still fun.

Admittedly, I'm being quite generous in giving it a 7/10, but the liberal political message resonated with me, and I liked the characters. The zombies were also somewhat creative, being an even mix of Haitian zombies and Romero ghouls, which might annoy some horror fans, who expect a movie to pick one style and stick with it. If you're looking for something higher budget, with good SFX and lots of gore, I'd suggest the Dawn of the Dead remake, instead of this. If you like this, you might also like Deadgirl, another rather talky, low budget drama that uses zombies and other horror motifs in order to deliver social criticism.

A Latina documentary movie maker who can't sell her projects because they lack Latin flavor, in desperation decides to make a documentary on a corrupt Latin faith healer. Turns out he has a heart of gold and a real concern for his people. He can give great speeches on the hypocrisy of Latins who always aim for the white standard of beauty: blonde hair blue eyes. You get a sense where this is going...

One of his customers is a woman who gets constantly beaten by her possessive husband. He can't and won't help her. She goes to another of these faith healers, a woman who practices Macumba. She gives her a potion to give to her husband. He drinks it and becomes a zombie. The reporter and the reformed charlatan who is now her sidekick in the investigation track down this voodoo priestess only to end up getting in trouble themselves. It all ends up in a violent showdown, Hollywood style.

This movie is slow, performances are uneven, equipment used is not the best, lighting and camera-work are rather poor. The story though has a lot of potential and shows signs of intelligence, but also plenty of your standard college intro level minority politicking. I can't really recommend this movie unless you are the intended target audience for these sort of films that use some genre (zombie horror) to deliver a tired sociopolitical message. And the zombie horror doesn't really take up a lot of time either.

"Pilar Franco" (Adriana Catano) is a film maker who desperately wants an opportunity to showcase her abilities. So one day she sees a mystic on television named "Roque" (Roberto Montesinos) purporting to be able to cure people through spiritual means and she decides to film a documentary on him. Even though he is clearly a phony he figures he could use a little publicity so he agrees. Yet as it so happens the first patient that comes in named "Ana Marie" (Monika Munoz) has a serious problem which eventually leads both Pilar and Roque to a Brazilian high priestess who is very skillful in the black art of voodoo-and unlike Roque she is the real McCoy. Now rather than reveal any more of this film and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that I honestly didn't expect too much from this movie. But after the first 10 minutes or so I realized that it was much better than I expected it to be as it combined touches of humor with a rather decent zombie plot. Additionally, the fact that both Monika Munoz and Adriana Catano were rather attractive certainly didn't hurt either. In any case, I liked this movie and therefore rate it as slightly above average.