Zombie Bloodbath

Well, I bought the Zombie Bloodbath trilogy thinking it would be mindless gory fun. That's what it is, without the fun. This film truly is mindless, it is absent of any plot or character development, or any sort of storyline. The basic problem with this movie is the kills and gore. Basically, every kill looks EXACTLY the same. ZOmbies ripping someone apart. Yeah, that's okay, but you need some original kills too. I mean it got really lame, every kill looked exactly the same, filmed exactly the same way. Thats what killed me. I love gore, and the gore in this film did nothing for me. It was just boring. No storyline, just the same lame scene over and over again with a different person. I wanted to like this movie, too. I love shot on video gore movies...like Redneck Zombies. But I couldn't kid myself. This film has it's good points, but none of those are in the film. I understand that many of the "zombies" helped out with the flood and there were like over 100 zombies, which is pretty cool how they got so many people involved and helped out in the world. But overall, this is a terrible film.

Every once in a while, a group of friends, with a minimal budget but bags of enthusiasm and talent, will create a low budget masterpiece that takes the world of horror by storm. Raimi and co. did it with The Evil Dead, Jackson and pals succeeded with Bad Taste; and Myrick and Sanchez made a mint with The Blair Witch Project.

Director Todd Sheets and his chums, however, are destined to wallow forever in relative obscurity if Zombie Bloodbath is anything to go by. A lesson in how not to make a cheapo horror, this miserable effort (about a plague of flesh-eating zombies—natch) serves as a reminder that, whilst many people these days have access to a video camera, most shouldn't take that as their cue to try their hand at making a full-length movie.

It's not that Sheets hasn't got an eye for a nicely framed shot (some of his camera angles and movements are actually pretty good), but rather that a) he has a lousy script b) he has a lousy cast, and c) he doesn't realise that he has a lousy script and cast. Which means that the final film is amateurish in the extreme, and unlikely to be watched in its entirety by anyone other than zombie film completists (like me) or members of the cast and crew (like those who have given the film favourable comments).

Zombie Bloodbath is obviously aimed at undiscriminating gore-hounds, and Sheets (who currently has an incredible 34 titles under his belt as a director) certainly goes out of his way to please, with buckets of offal and blood thrown about at every opportunity. But whilst these moments are undeniably yucky, they aren't particularly convincing, and soon get rather tedious.

So, to summarise, this is a really bad film, with almost no redeeming features. Except for two:

Firstly, it features the single greatest mullet in the history of film, as sported by Jerry Angell, who plays Larry (as well as several zombies). The magnificence of his barnet (coupled with a fetching moustache) is reason alone to watch this film.

Secondly, it has 'pathetic stealth zombies': flesh-eating corpses that lie in wait for unfortunate victims to wander by, before leaping from their hiding place to launch a feeble attack, which requires almost no effort to escape from. Best known for lurking behind a door for hours waiting for someone to open it, 'pathetic stealth zombies' also occasionally hide behind low walls, or sit in churches posing as members of the congregation.

Normally a film this bad would get 1/10 for me, but, in celebration of Jerry Angell's flowing locks, I will generously raise my rating to 2/10.

Yeah, these movies are LOW-budget!!! Imagine if you and a group of friends had a hand-held camera and decided to make a horror movie...that's what "Zombie Bloodbath" is. The actors are armatures and friends and family of the director. The video quality is really poor...but they did the best they could do with the original print i bet. There are a couple decent gore effects but there isn't enough to make up for the other 85 minutes you spend watching these boring people TRY to act. I don't know how these even got released, let alone someone produced and directed 3 of them!?!?! i guess if you were wanting to watch something you and your buddies could laugh at drunk...then MAYBE this could be for you. But overall, this is prob the worst zombie movie i've seen...and i've seen Zombie Lake.

I watched "Zombie Bloodbath" expecting gore and not much else. I was surprised at how much more it had to offer.

First, its flaws.

1. It's extremely low-budget. For many of you, it will be the lowest-budgeted movie you'll ever see. Shot on video, no professional actors, a couple of nonsensical things. Despite being gory, the effects are all quite simple. (If this is a deal-breaker for you...what the heck were you expecting?)

2. It's only an hour long. An hour and ten minutes, actually, but the story ends after an hour. This is lame, but the film gets credit for not ruining the pacing just to fill out the running time.

3. Takes awhile to take shape. Starts off with a few subplots that never go anywhere.

Now, the awesome things.

1. Scary. Not like "The Ring," but much more so than you'd expect. It's got a couple of predictable-but-effective scenes where someone slowly gets ready to do something like open a door, and then something jumps out at us.

MUCH cooler, though: Usually in zombie movies, a person who gets close to a zombie IMMEDIATELY either gets away, bitten, or ripped to pieces. In ZB, there's always an uncertain, extended struggle, and usually it involves a person dealing with a bunch of zombies at once. Despite the fact that all the zombies look like your little brother on Halloween, these scenes are INCREDIBLY tense and nerve-wracking! I was really amazed that these scenes were so effective, and even while I was watching them, I was wondering how I could possibly find them scary.

2. Soulful. Just because a movie is low-budget doesn't mean it's got more spirit than a Hollywood movie. Countless straight-to-DVD zombie movies are paycheck-motivated more than anything else. Some aren't. This one REALLY wasn't. ZB has so much heart that it's sometimes awkward.

Example: a woman has a nervous breakdown and weeps uncontrollably after the death of her husband. If I was watching the movie with friends, I would have been obligated to laugh at it due to the low production values. But Sheets gives you permission to take it seriously, if you are so inclined.

Later, when a character commits suicide with a pistol, the otherwise abundant gore is tastefully absent. Rather than just childishly trying to shock the viewer, Sheets has enough balls to assume that you will care about his characters as much as he does, and not want to watch them blow their brains out.

3. Engrossing. After things got started, the pacing was incredibly tight. Additionally, it had a really "big" feel to it, which is incredibly rare in low-budget horror. It had a few scenes in open, urban areas, and the central action continually was moving to new settings. I was a little worried that it would be another board-up-the-house movie, but it was actually quite an adventure.

4. Gross. Pretty much what you'd expect :)

I loved this movie! It was excessively gory, it had horrible acting, but it kept you on the edge of your seat! Not a frame of it was boring. I didn't like how it lingered on the gore scenes forever. It made the overall shock less appealing. I did, of course, love Jerry Angell's character. You know, the guy with the mullet. I swear, he is the reason why these type of movies are made! I particularly loved his death scene. It was gory to the max! But I won't tell you about because you'll just have to see it for yourself. There was one death scene that I didn't like, though. You can actually hear them spraying the blood on the guy! But it kind reminded me of Ed Wood's type of filmmaking. If you have seen Plan 9, then you know what I'm talking about. I give it a 7 out of 10! There were some things that were just plain bad but I still enjoyed it! A great party tape to watch with friends!