Meltdown

After awakening from a birthday party, a man and his friends discover the news of a viral zombie outbreak in the area and have overrun the streets turning everyone into flesh-eating zombies, and after getting to safety they realize the greatest threat may not come from the creatures as they suspected.

This was a pretty solid if troubling zombie effort. This one is pretty much based solely on the enjoyable zombie action present here which goes a long way towards being fun. The attacks and encounters here are generally fun, with the zombies screaming out of the darkness to bite victims in utterly over-the-top showers of blood spray that drenches everyone around the incident, barricading themselves in a group to shoot at the oncoming hordes in all directions and the battles with the creatures at the campground at the end which uses the swarming tactics to great effect featuring tons of great action. That doesn't take into account the gore and blood-shed on the zombie deaths which range from gunshots blasting their head apart to being run over by cars, machetes run through their bodies, and much more which all work as well as the great make-up effects to give this a lot to like. There are some flaws to be had with this one. The main drawback here is the utterly uninteresting and just plain moronic storyline featuring the guy and his cheating girlfriend that everyone else's aware of. That this is such a cliche move that he's too stupid to realize just comes off as lame and ridiculous, much like the inability to recognize it due to how blindingly obvious it is with the treatment towards his friends and leaving him alone on the birthday to go with the guy from work. This storyline doesn't make any of this endearing or impressive but rather infuriating how stupid he is to take the chances to save her which puts them in jeopardy. That this is thankfully dropped doesn't make the inclusion of this storyline any less uninteresting. The last problem here is the film's sudden change of pace and tone in the second half where it becomes a post-apocalyptic drama about his leadership skills rather than about the zombies. They're taken out of the picture and used as a background threat dealing with either his relationship from before the apocalypse or the strange new cult that emerges out of nowhere and has no real connection to what's come before. That we just throw the zombies away for this bizarre gang of unknown, Bible-toting psychopaths rather than the zombies that had been responsible for so much fun beforehand is a bizarre choice, much like the decision to end the film on such a cliffhanger that obviously sets up the notion of an unfilmed sequel for no real reason, leaving this one to end on a sour, unfulfilled note. These manage to drag the film down the most.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Sometimes I really wish that IMDb offered negative ratings.

I want a button to push that says "I want my money back!"

Or one that says "I want that hour and a half of my life back!"

Like this is so badly done I want to file a class action suit to make sure these filmmakers never make another film.

This movie would have been better if hey had left the lens cap on.

I try to imagine the production meetings that were made to bring this...thing to life.

"Hey man, I wrote this script. It doesn't make any sense. There is no overall arc, and the characters aren't ever developed. But let's make it anyway!"

I wonder how these crappy independent filmmakers have zero self-awareness.

At no point was this story ever good.

So. I want to start by saying, I did kinda enjoy the 80s B movie feel. And while the writing was... Mediocre and predictable, I enjoyed it more than my star rating suggests. The practical effects are both over the top and ridiculously bad all at the same time. But even that isnt why it is 3 stars. It doesnt end. And I dont mean its too long. I mean, it literally doesnt have an ending. It just... stops. Like a book where someone removed the last few chapters. There is no conclusion, not even a bad one, it doesnt tie up a single lose end, and you never get any question answered. It was left open, extremely obviously, for a sequel, and honestly, I would have watched it. But if one exists, I cant seem to find it. So do yourself a favor, and skip this movie. You will thank me for it...

I'm sure the people involved believed this was not only there big break but also that they captured Romero magic none of which is true and unfortunately probably made some of them to continue trying to be actors. I'm not sure why I'm not sick of zombie movies but I'm not. I more likely will watch a bad zombie movie before watching something I know will be ok. I have to say one thing that was done very well was close up wounds, other then the tiny ladies mans crotch. The wound and bullet removal from the cuckold was very good and my guess is it was a continual closeups for a reason. The tiny blonde girl was the acting star and the friend of the male lead was solid. The rest were poor to horrible and were given roles based on how much money they gave to the project. Unless you have no choice watch something anything else.

I'm in this movie and I can't even watch it. The writer/director/producer lied the whole shoot. Still haven't been paid. Most of the actors have no talent or just phoned it in. But that's what happens when you hire Union talent that work under the table.

I know SAG has been notified about the actors working without a SAG CONTRACT.

Anyway, this thing will be bad. Don't watch. I know I won't be. Not even using this for my reel. But I mostly feel bad for the people that thought this was a "real" movie. And th SFX are cheese. Not even like campy cheese but just straight up bad.

Save your money.