Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard

Engaging horror movies can be made on a low budget. This had a budget and it's terrible. It doesn't challenge the audience or up the ante to where we care about the characters. There was little drama, gore, and horror, all destroying even a little chance of a decent climax. The acting was decent enough throughout.

By the end credits, I was happy that it was over.

It's a rough, choppy watch that somehow makes intersquad paintball seem more interesting than actual zombie fighting. This mentality leads to some atrocious examples of how overused CGI can sink an entire production when done wrong. Who knew that a horror movie could drain all the fun out of mutated zombie animals?

A young militia is all that stands between a coming dead horde and their rural town decimated by the fracking industry.

Harrison Smith has said he would never do a zombie film, that zombies are "the NASCAR of horror". His position on avoiding the zombie subgenre was probably wise, as the market is flooded and trying to break through is not easy. As for what he meant by "the NASCAR of horror" is a bit more unclear. Clearly it is meant as a derogatory comment, but NASCAR does happen to be the second-most-watched sport in America, so maybe it is not the insult it first seems.

Where zombie films work best, when not just being an opportunity for gratuitous gore, are when they have a sense of satire. The classic example is Romero's "Dawn of the Dead". Does this film have a political message? There seems to be a strong subplot with the fracking mines, but it never quite comes to a head... the punch is pulled.

Director Harrison Smith brings in his regular Felissa Rose, this time casting her as a cult member who speaks to God. This is a strong role, and Smith should be commended for bringing Rose back to acting and the horror genre. We also get Billy Zane, the director's best catch since Cloris Leachman. In fact, probably his best one yet.

One positive about "Zombie Killers" is how it is aware of its own existence in zombie films, with mention of "those old zombie movies", though direct references tend to be few. One of the most obvious is actually to "They Live", which is not a zombie film at all. But we are made clear that this is our world, not some bizarre film world where the living dead are a complete shock to those around them.

The film is decent, and visually very well done, but suffers some obvious problems. The biggest, again, is the uphill fight of being in the zombie subgenre. Although better than the average zombie film, it still carries the stigma. There is also the unfortunate situation with the title. "Zombie Killers" was already taken, which is probably why the subtitle "Elephant's Graveyard" was tacked on. But this presents confusion: is it a sequel? No. Is it in Africa? No. The title makes the casual video store customer wary.

Despite the very low rating and the other reviews, this was MUCH better than many low budget zombie movies.

A minimum of 'dumb blond' moments! Little 'bad acting' that one expects. Little of that fake fighting we've learned to expect.

It has decent acting, multiple story lines, a good score, and a somewhat unique story.

If you're not looking for wild zombie action out of the block, then the story builds up in a regular fashion.

Don't listen to the nay-sayers, this one is worthy of a look.

I believe that it deserves at least a 5.0 rating, if not better.

I love this movie it's different from other zombie movies see the other people who talking crap about the movie is a hater cause they mad cause that ain't in a movie and plus the movie is mostly a survival movie they was focus on the characters then the zombies and that's good in away I love the story these other people out here are hating so all the actor's was good so and yep they are making a sequel so I'm get ready for it and plus Harrison Smith did a good job on the movie I liked everything about some people are use to like other zombie movies cause of more gore and seeing people getting ripped to shredds well I can careless what other people think of the movie cause it haves a great story and that's what people be missing out on in Zombie movies and I can't wait till the sequel comes and Michael kean he a good actor I don't know why people are hating on him for at least he making money I'm just looking for it to the Sequel I know the sequel will be good as the first one

I have just watched one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It's like the writers set out to make a bad movie. And it's not "potential cult classic" bad, it's Uwe Boll bad. All of the acting performances were forgettable (I hope). The writing was garbage. I think another line of work is needed here. The zombies only showed up at the end. Do yourself a favor and avoid this dumpster fire of a movie.