Remains

REMAINS is yet another zombie movie, not quite as low budget as the very worst of the genre (DEADHEADS or THE ZOMBIE CHRONICLES) but pretty low budget all the same. I mean, the budget is enough to reasonably execute the premise and bring to life a ruined city and its environs, but not enough to provide a halfway decent script or memorable actors.

The storyline involves a group of survivors holed up inside a casino after a zombie apocalypse. The casino setting is featured heavily in the film's poster and box art, but is severely underutilised; they could have been in any old building. This is an action-focused narrative with lots of shoot-outs and run-ins with fellow survivors. It's all low rent and rather cheesy, but not unentertaining.

The story is based on a comic by Steve Niles and has some fun with zombies, making them more human than seen elsewhere. There's an undercurrent of black comedy running throughout, but it hurts that the human characters are less than interesting and you never really feel involved or care about what's happening to them. REMAINS is mildly watchable but entirely forgettable.

I can understand why a lot of people haven't rated this movie above 5. I thought this movie was pretty decent for something of a lower budget, but I'm really into the survival horror and zombie genres. If you aren't a fan of those types of movies, then it's unlikey you'll think much of this film.

Though not the worst zombie movie ever made, "Steve Nile's Remains" disappoints and bores. For one thing, if a creative's name appears in the title, he or she should earn that place in the marquee with a script that goes somewhere. Sadly, neither the story, nor the characters in it do much more than shuffle around, running away from zombies.

Worse, one doesn't really care what happens to the people left alive in the zombie apocalypse. They're largely uninteresting at best, awful and selfish at worst. Even if the script had given them rich personalities, the actors are unconvincing and often wooden (especially Evalena Marie). The directing is methodical and the camera work uninspired.

The plot is, in essence, DAWN OF THE DEAD in a hotel. It's largely influenced by (if not derivative of) Steven King's FIRESTARTER and THE STAND, as well as Justin Cronen's book _The Passage_. About the only innovative aspect of this of this movie is who survives. But really, by the end, you just won't care.

Watch it if you're folding laundry. Or really loaded.

I'm really getting burned out on modern day zombie films, so here we go with yet another walking dead film that sometimes is good, but for the most part falls into all the usual traps that drag these films down. Munch munch, argue argue, dwindle cast, dwindle, drama here, gut munch there, textbook doggy.

A bunch of hugely unlikeable people survive a blast of some sort in Reno and find themselves surrounded by the living dead. There's our hero (I've forgotten his name), waitress Tori (who is really annoying), a tiny magician, and a jerk. At first thing go quite well for the film as these folks try and survive various zombie attacks, but far too soon into the film it becomes obvious that we're going to get a lot of bored folk trapped in a building surrounded by the living dead. Remember that bit in Dawn of the Dead where the characters gain power over the shopping mall and realise that all those material goods mean nothing spiritually when you're under siege by zombies? Well, that happens here too, within the first half an hour.

Eventually some other survivors crop up, armed to the teeth, and there's some bickering and double crossing and what not. You've seen it hundreds of times before. Reamins doesn't do anything new really. They should have kept up the zombie attacks and kept down the interpersonal drama, because when these folk go toe-to-toe with the zombies, it's fine. When they're shouting at each other, you can't help but wonder how much time you've got left before you can switch it off. The stop start nature of the film really drags it down, despite some subtle humour and the introduction of super powered zombies.

I'm gaining nothing from watching films like this now. If anyone knows of any recent zombie films that actually do anything new – give me a shout.

I have definitely seen worse movies but given its premise Remains should've been much better. It gets brownie points for its idea, a good music score and Grant Bowler's likable lead performance. Unfortunately that's it for the good points. Remains is very poor technically, with slapdash special effects and choppy editing. The make-up also makes the zombies look goofy rather than menacing. The story had potential but doesn't come anywhere close to living up to it. It isn't dull pacing-wise as such, but the whole thing doesn't flow, there isn't much of a focus and the sense of suspense and horror just aren't there. The dialogue is truly dire, always coming across as trite and hackneyed, and the direction goes through the motions but does nothing else. The characters are as interesting as a plank of wood, and with the exception of Bowler the acting especially from Evelanda Marie does nothing to elevate that. All in all, Remains has its moments but essentially it is limp and not recommended. 4/10 Bethany Cox