Zombie Night

Zombies come out at night and two families must survive until morning.

By now, I think we all know to expect bad things from the SyFy Channel and the movies they show. And if you are familiar with the Asylum, who makes these movies, you know that they spare every expense in order to pump out low-grade, low-budget fluff. Some of it is entertaining (I confess), but none of it has ever been good.

Somehow they managed to get some real actors on board for this one. Not just one washed up actor (I am looking at you, Eric Roberts) but some decent names -- Anthony Michael Hall and Daryl Hannah. Alan Ruck may not have the name recognition, but everyone recognizes him from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" or "Spin City".

The most unfortunate thing is that the director is John Gulager, who is a legitimately talented man -- "Feast" was incredible, and I absolutely loved "Piranha 3DD". Somehow not even he could save this picture... how did they all get roped into working for the Asylum?

This movie was an absolute train wreck! When you start rooting for the zombies, that's how you know you could care less about any of the characters surviving. 

Their choice in characters... They picked the best not to star in the best? Is that what we do know? Anthony Michael Hall ... Loved him way better when he played the nerd and geek (Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles). It's as if he was money hungry so he played this role. Darryl Hannah... Way better playing Elle (Kill Bill Vols). And lastly Shirley Jones, who was given such a bad script that I was actually rooting for a zombie to kill her. Why would any of these actors even take an offer that had to deal with Syfy? 

I mean, what kind of movie was this anyways? This didn't even fit the cliché version of zombies nor the modernized versions! This movie got more and more frustrating as it went on. I strongly recommend not watching this movie, for life is too short for these types of movies to even consider watching.

I wasn't going to write a review but I just wanted to comment on what one reviewer said.

He said he only watched the first 15 minutes of movie then went on to mention about the car blowing up near the start, well that car was around 65 minutes into the movie no where near the start and obviously he watched more than the first 15 minutes if he saw that lol.

He also mentioned about he couldn't sit through 2 hours of the movies, well... he is right no-one could quite simply because the movie was only 85 minutes long lol.

Oh well, I have to say that Asylum do seem to make decent zombie movies probably because the other movies in this genre are usually very low budget and Asylums 1 million budget is one of the bigger ones compared to other Zombie movies so they tend to look quite good in comparison.

Anyway I do agree with one comment the reviewer made and that was Shirley Jones playing Nana was very annoying. Overall there was plenty going on in the movie, the Zombies were quite good even though the acting and story was little cheesy I was entertained.

That's another Zombie/Infected movie seen and added to my ever growing list. :)

Ok. Went into this hoping for the best as I like Anthony Michael Hall, Daryl Hannah and Shirley Jones. I also can accept that a 'TV' movie will be a bit more dialed-down to appease the masses and the censors. Which is the only reason I gave it 4 stars...I could look at Daryl Hannah all day. What I can't accept is complete, and utter stupidity on the part of the characters. That, and the fact that all of the characters were eminently unlikeable and irritating, from Shirley Jones' blind mother to the petulant teenage boyfriend to Anthony Michael Hall's protective father character, they all come across as utterly unprepared for something as mundane as an empty peanut butter jar... "WHAAAT? There's NO peanut butter ? How am I going to make a P&J without peanut butter????" From leaving perfectly working automobiles, wondering if they can 'hotwire' a car when one member's car is in their garage to taking shelter in a SEE-THROUGH flimsy plastic structure to the family looking at someone as if they had just massacred a village for locking a hysterical person in a bedroom, the movie just irritates to no end...well...there IS an end, fortunately. But it takes a lot longer to get there than the stated run time.

Zombie Night was always going to be one of those movies that people shouldn't expect that much from, but even when judging it for what it is you do want evidence of some sort of fun. You don't get that with Zombie Night, instead you get a complete failure on all levels with unintentional humour that gets more increasingly frustrating than anything else. The best thing about the movie is the make-up for the zombies, even when the least amateurish asset it still wasn't that good. With the rest of the production values you could tell that Zombie Night was made in a rush- especially in the editing- and with little signs of care or love. The dialogue is vomit-inducing in how inane it is, the timing is also sloppy and the line delivery flat. It does provide some unintentional humour to begin with but very quickly hearing so many what the...? gets frustrating, plus it does get needlessly convoluted at times. There is no real narrative to speak of, what there is shows lots of predictability, endless ridiculously dumb moments(the bunker and cemetery scenes for examples), no signs of life and the thrills, fun and horror elements are so empty and scrappily done with no signs of surprise that they feel non-existent. The less said about the dull and abrupt ending the better too. The characters are either irritating(Nana) or infuriatingly stupid(Karen), at no point do we root for them and their actions are so stupid beyond belief makes them even less likable. If there are any characters we do root for it is the zombies, unfortunately that is not saying much as they are under-utilised and personality-less. The actors don't or can't do anything with their characters or dialogue, very amateurish. It is ironic that the Oscar Winner Shirley Jones ties with Jennifer Taylor as the worst acting performance in the movie, and Anthony Michael Hall and Daryl Hannah are pretty much wasted. In conclusion, if you want any delights with Zombie Night you will be disappointed. It is not quite as bad as the abysmal Vampegeddon(doubt that many people have seen it and for good reason) but there is a big emphasis on the quite. 1/10 Bethany Cox