Exit Humanity

"Exit Humanity" is one of the best zombie movies in its genre; that being a zombie movie set in a Western setting, more specifically during and in the aftermath of the American Civil War. Far better than "Undead or Alive", "Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies" and "Cowboys vs Zombies", "Exit Humanity" is a definite must if you are planning to watch a zombie/western movie.

I sat down to watch "Exit Humanity" with no particular expectations as I had honestly never heard about the movie prior to finding it by sheer luck. And being a fan of all things zombie, I was intrigued and just had to watch it. And now that I have, I must admit that I am more than pleasantly surprised.

The story in the movie is about an outbreak of undead starting in 1865 as the Civil War is at its last chapter. Flash forward six years, we find Edward Young in a small farm house, where his wife is dead and his son is missing in a country ravaged by hordes of the walking dead. Edward sets out to find his son, embarking on a task in a world that is dying.

I found the story to be rather good actually, and it managed to keep me interested all the way up to the very end. There weren't any particular surprise story twists or turn of events, and the movie went on straight ahead at a good pace. And that worked out nicely enough.

The people cast for "Exit Humanity" were doing great jobs, and if you are a movie fan, you will see a couple of familiar faces. I am not familiar with Mark Gibson (playing Edward Young), but he did a good job with his role. And I was more than surprised (and thrilled) to find Bill Mosely (playing General Williams)in the movie, as I've always enjoyed his movies. Then you also have Dee Wallace (playing Eve), Stephen McHattie (playing Medic Johnson) and Brian Cox (the Narrator). So there were some familiar faces and voices around.

As for the zombies in the movie, well most of them were really nice. Lots of good make-up and details. And there were also plenty of gore and wounds to go around to keep most of the gorehounds out there more than satisfied. And thumbs up on not having super agile zombies that run and jump around, I am most definitely not a fan of those type of zombies. Two things to point out about the zombies; I didn't get the black shark-like eyes, what was up with that? Wouldn't eyes glaze over and become milky-grayish after death occurs? And the tone of gray they used on the faces (but sometimes forgot to put on the zombies hands and necks) was a bit too gray, standing out in contrast. That sort of reminded me of the old 70's zombies movies. But aside from those two minor things, then the zombies were good, nicely put together and worked out well.

Being a big zombie fan, then I found "Exit Humanity" to be rather good. I was thoroughly entertained by this movie.

Not your typical horror flick or even to state not a normal zombie flick. But I liked it because it had a great story and the acting was sublime as did the effects used for the zombies and the way they narrated this flick.

North and South are at the end of the war but in one of the final battles suddenly some soldiers appear with an unusual look, zombies. From there on we see how Edward Young (Mark Gibson) survives and sees that the world has been overtaken by the walking dead. His wife and son are bitten, his son is out there as a walker, and he just got one goal, to find his son. From there on the zombies are second in the story and Edward Young becomes the main lead. We follow him by narrating (Brian Cox) and even in cartoon style.

The way it was filmed and the way John Geddes (director) directed it was really a relieve to see. It clocks in at 108 minutes and it never bored me. And just when you thought, what's next suddenly it changes completely.

But what a great performance by Mark Gibson. His first big lead and only his second feature, One to watch. Also nice to see was Dee Wallace as Eve and Bill Moseley as General Williams. I even didn't recognize Dee here as the so-called witch. Finally, Bill is back on the track after 2001 Maniacs:Fields Of Scream also as a soldier (mayor in fact). A small part for Stephen McHattie who did a great job a while ago in Pontypool (2008). Here he is again great with his typical face.

Yes you noticed it, I can't say anything bad about this 'zombie' flick even as they aren't the main cause to go watch this gem. There isn't really anything gory here to see but still the zombies looked really great. If you liked I Am Legend (2007) or The Road (2009) or Stake land (2010) then be sure to pick this one up.

Gore 2/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 4/5 Story 4/5 Comedy 0/5

A narrator (Brian Cox) reads a journal from the 19th century about the outbreak of the dead returning to life. It's 1865 Tennessee. Edward Young (Mark Gibson) is a Confederate soldier who encounters undead Union soldiers. Six years later, his home is attacked, his wife killed, and his son Adam goes missing. He finds him turned and has to destroy the body. He is in despair after losing everything. He finds Isaac in a desolate farmhouse.

This small Canadian horror indie is too slow and too long. There isn't enough to justify the extended length. I can deal with the indie factor but it needs to be tighter. The lengthening of every scene strips away much of the needed intensity. I would also definitely eliminate reading the journal aspect. This concept of a zombie apocalypse in Civil War era is intriguing and could be compelling for an indie. The execution here is unable to make this good enough to seek out.

Exit Humanity is an interesting approach to a typical zombie outbreak story. It is told by a narrator (Brian Cox) and in chapters from a journal by Confederate soldier, Edward Young (Mark Gibson) who details the story of a zombie outbreak that occurs just as the Civil War is ending. Director/writer John Geddes does give us a lot of the traditional zombie movie elements like the flesh eating, the shot to the head and the humans who are worse then the ravenous zombies but, also gives us a unique setting, some nicely visualized dream sequences and even some really cool flashbacks and montage sequences done with animation. The make up effects are good, although the film lacks the abundant gore fans look for, and Gibson makes a nice hero trying to keep his humanity despite what is happening around him. But, there are some flaws that keep the film from being a really strong entry in the zombie sub-genre, the pace is rather slow, the film is a tad long, and despite his novel touches and setting, there really isn't anything new story wise here or themes that others haven't touched on before in these films, although, the cause of his zombie plague was a cool twist once revealed. His cast also includes genre favorites Dee Wallce as "Eve" a healer thought to be a witch and Bill Mosley as "General Williams" a megalomaniac who wants to find a cure to the zombie plague so he may become rich and powerful and doesn't care how many innocents die while his outmatched doctor (Stephen McHattie) experiments on both the dead and the living. All in all it's not bad and certainly worth a watch if you like zombie movies and, most of all, John Geddes shows some nice potential as a filmmaker. He utilizes his more unique touches well, he frames his shots very nicely and pulls off some effective moments. A nice horror debut for Mr. Geddes.

Zombies. They're everywhere. They're on our DVD shelves, on our television screens and in our Netflix queue's. Their hunger for human flesh seems only equaled by their hunger for our entertainment viewing time.

We've long thought and wrote that zombies, by nature, are a boring antagonist. Whether fast (28 Days Later) or slow (Night of the Living Dead), zombies have little character, can do little more than moan, and are usually only scary when accompanied by a horde of other flesh eating zombies.

A quick Google search of zombie films listed over 700 titles which would suggest that the genre from which George Romero made a career has been done (dare we say it….) to death.

The oversaturation of the zombie genre mustn't have been lost on writer/director John Geddes. His awareness of the 'been there, done that' factor must have been electrifying the talented Canadian's synapses when he began scripting Exit Humanity – a zombie film set shortly after the American Civil War in the 1870's.

Exit Humanity follows a solider by the name of Edward Young (Mark Gibson in a thoroughly convincing role) who is returning to his homeland after the American Civil War. The War might be over, but the fight as just begun. Zombies run the landscape and when Edward's wife turns, Edward is forced to kill her in gruesome fashion. Edward then embarks on a journey to find his son – a journey that will be fraught with the undead.

Director John Geddes does a fantastic job of making the landscape and the era a character unto itself in the film. The location shoots standing in for America circa 1870's is what gives Exit Humanity a creative edge in a tired genre. But where praise can be lauded for the setting, issue can be stated for the length of the film combined with a seriousness that alienates a bloodthirsty audience hungry for splatter. Long stretches of monotone description and explanation fell flat and left us bored and indi-glowing our wristwatch to determine the remaining minutes of the ordeal.

There is a good story to be told here, it is just executed with such a lack of urgency that it wears down its audience and wastes supporting roles by Bill Moseley, Dee Wallace and Stephen McHattie not to mention a fascinating narration by Brian Cox that supports the animated sections of the film which are unarguably the film's high points.

While waiting in line and reading the Toronto After Dark program and their description of the film, we were hoping for a Dead Birds (2004) type of horror periodic. Instead, we got an interesting but ultimately defective experiment. One that slipped more than it gripped and was flawed more than it gnawed.

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