Dead Meat: O Banquete dos Zumbis

Say what you like about writer/director Conor McMahon's debut, but he knows his walking dead movies from the entrails out.

This loopy, atmospheric and gore-splattered low budget tale set in rural Ireland about mad cow disease jumping to humans and turning them into gut-chomping zombies is teeming with references and visual nods to a dozen other movies.

But whereas Shaun Of The Dead stuck largely with George A Romero's canon, McMahon's clearest inspirations are the brooding autumnal landscapes of The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue, the invention of The Evil Dead and the unhinged splatstick of Peter Jackson's Brain Dead.

The tonal shift between horror and black humour isn't always smooth but McMahon and his enthusiastic cast hurl themselves into it with gusto, whether dwelling gleefully on the obligatory slippery red zombie picnic or ratcheting up the tension for some genuinely harrowing moments.

This film had some good potential but just sort of fizzles out instead.Oh this movie was close to being one of the good ones.

The story takes place in Ireland which provides some good horror film locations---castles,woods,isolated cottages and the dark gloomy countryside itself.And they were all used but just not that well.The movie is about a few folks fighting off flesh eating humans and cows,yes cows,after a really bad strain of mad cow disease infects both cows and humans.Right off the bat I'll just say the zombie cows were just silly.Didn't work at all.There were also several silly scenes that just didn't ring true,for instance,one of the surviving women fights off a zombie by throwing her shoe and sticking her high heel in it's head.Now what are the chances of killing a zombie like that in real life? Well you know what I mean.

But on the plus side are some really good fight scenes with the zombies and some good gore and blood. This movie was on the verge of being really good several times and just didn't get over the hump due to weak areas in the plot and those silly mad cows.

I'm really disappointed in this film,I'd rather a movie completely suck than be so close to being good and not quite making it.

That movie is not funny, not horrifying it's a total mess.I don't care if it's a low budget movie they could have done better. Usually i'm easily satisfied by horror movie but that one totally suck. Guys eaten by cow, a zombie in a rolling chair, a guy loose his eye suck by a vacuum and a girl who killed zombie with her shoes. Did i smoke something bad ??? Don't loose your precious time and if you want a good zombie flick, watch something else!.There is ton of other movies of this kind in the world. Maybe the author want to pay an homage to the other film he like, but that one is a pale copy of the originals.I just hope they don't plan to make a sequel....

One thing is for sure: this one isn't recommended unless you're into the genre. The movie itself feels like something of Peter Jackson's old works, judging of the splatter, the camera work and the neatly applied effects. The plot didn't really catch me and there were a few moments which I just found plain boring here due to the lack of action. At the same time I have to admit that there were some scenes which made me choke of laughter. What about a crazy cow facing her death through a baseball or a different approach to drive-by's with swinging bats chopping off zombie heads. Now that's some joy I tell you. The Irish accent tops it all.

This was a great movie. Obviously shot on tape this normally brings problems technically to viewing pleasure, combined with some performances that had great weakness one might be led to thinking that you were viewing another straight to video rubbish film. However quickly the dimensions of the character and the inventiveness of the director with his choice of camera set ups led to an exciting and dramatically interesting film in which one had interest and emotion invest within unlike many bigger zombie films with far greater budgets as was sadly the case with Land of the dead. To be highly recommended for those who not only like gory and inventive horror but also to those who wish for greater depth within the film.