Portrait of a Zombie

Awesome! A different take on the Zombie Genre! You find your self immersed in the story, wondering what you would be thinking if you were part of the crew filming this family. Also seeing it from the perspective of the family and what caring for a "special" family member would entail, can you even imagine? Makeup and effects for this movie were top notch, and they should be congratulated for their creativity in creating such horror! There is a humor here that compliments rather than detracts from the mood of the film, in a way it is more shocking to hear such normalcy in such a bizarre predicament it really speaks to the human side of us. Perfect movie for summer viewing, in the dark, with popcorn and a flashlight. The actors were the embodiment of their Parts (no pun intended), I can't imagine any other actor playing the mom, Geraldine McAlinden is fantastic! Congratulations to the Director for his different Point of View! To the Writers for the fantastic story, and to the cast and crew for a job well done! A must see!

Portrait of a Zombie is a witty re-imagining of the well worked undead theme. In this feature, an ordinary, working class family must deal with the fall out from their son's transformation to a zombie. What sets this piece apart from others is the down-to- earth feel, as if zombification were just another in a long line of working class problems. It is pretty difficult not to sympathise and empathise with Billy, the zombie son and his family and friends as they try to come to terms with the new situation. Billy's parents are central, unifying characters in the movie and the superb acting of Geraldine MacAlinden in particular brings a touch of humanity to tale. The sombre theme is elevated to pure black magic by the inclusion of witty, biting dialogue. POAZ will not disappoint hardcore horror fan. There is plenty of blood, goo and brain eating. However, some of the gore is strictly for those with an iron stomach. If you want a taste (sic!) of the real Ireland , infused with zombie apocalypse, Portrait is the one for you.

An American film maker documents the daily life of Billy the zombie and his family in working class Dublin during a zombie outbreak. For a start these zombie apocalypse movies have been done to death - and then some! It became boring years ago for me. But at least here there is a slightly new spin on the sub-genre. This is a very low budget movie so obviously this must be taken into account when reviewing. The acting varies from acceptable (Billy's parents) to dire (female character known as AD, I think she is meant to be an American but clearly is incapable of hiding her Irish accent!). Despite being in the midst of an apocalypse the budget obviously did not stretch to any military or police presence, it is down to local gangsters played by bad actors to save the non-infected!! The gory make-up was pretty decent and the film has an effective musical score, how many movies can boast musicians "Slow News Day in the Vampire World" on their credits?? Don't get me wrong, the film makers did a reasonable job considering the low budget and obviously lack of talent, but these rave reviews should be taken with a large dose of salt! I certainly could not give this a repeat viewing.

This film was a great example of what you can do with great talent and a small budget. The carraavgio coloration, the actors fanstastic performances and the directors skillful look combined with a very witty narrative made this film a unique and entertaining experience I thoroughly enjoyed

The first few minutes were promising: the documentary tone and the determined family looking after their zombie son seemed to set up a coming apocalypse or at least brutal family tragedy.

Well, we did get that tragedy and apocalypse yet nothing about the 'film' changed...it continued its boring-as-hell documentary style, sometimes switched to 'cinema' style (tho' it was filmed exactly the same way).

Lots of things wrong with this utter waste of time:

• people talking into the camera, constantly, is simply dull.

• no sense of how to use music...it was all over the place.

• very poor sound effects. As with the music there's no UMMFF!

• roly-poly choreography. Your average kid playfights with more conviction than the 'fight' scenes offered up here.

• cheap-looking zombie masks...you see better at Halloween parties.

• no sense of drama or pacing at all. Certainly no sense of horror.

• the attempts at humour probably looked witty on paper, but it just didn't work. It was all too self-aware.

• extremely poor camera work & uninspired lighting. Random focus and constant irritating shaking to hide the lumbering 'action'. I use cameras myself and could've guaranteed a more engrossing experience: you need to consider the angles, lighting, choreography and timing the camera movements, not to mention solid sound mixing and editing.

• the one single attempt at shock-gore fell so awfully flat.

• the only definable character was the mother, and she was only playing a two-dimensional mother archetype.

The actors themselves displayed at least a modicum of ability, certainly competent enough to be in a far better film, but there were too many of them. The 'gangster' characters were especially pointless.

For a budget of 100k you can do a lot more, better to go for less cheapo make-up and fewer cast members, and focus on the cinematography with a good editor. See "Rammbock", which had a similar budget.. It's not great but good enough to showcase directorial talent for future projects.

1 point for the idea, but there's nothing else to score it, making this probably my only 1/10 film, and teaching me a valuable lesson not to impulse-buy titles I've never heard of from the cheap bins.