Automaton Transfusion

Oh another zombie movie that blew chunks.Imagine that.This movie promised the world on the DVD box but little did I know that this was another of those 8 Days of Horror or whatever they call it.Any of those movies I've saw were awful and this one was no exception.

First off I've no idea what the title means.It wasn't explained.After seeing this puke pile I'm guessing this homemade piece of junk was just given some weird mysterious nonsense title to give it a bit of class or mystique or whatever.

Anyway the mean old US government was doing more experiments in some little town on dead bodies to try and bring them back to life so they could fight our wars for us.Seriously.That was the reason given for this wave of zombies.The experimental zombies were released as a test and naturally and of course the experiment goes wrong.These zombies were made to be stronger and faster and able to think by the experiments so it was a bad decision to let these things loose on purpose it would seem.

Zombies run amok while a group of teens,the only ones left alive,run around trying to stay away from them.

Boy this thing stunk to high heaven.The acting was horrible.The script was worse.Special effects were clunky and badly done and just sort of thrown in here and there as opposed to sort of happening naturally during the course of the movie.These zombies were strong enough to rip heads and legs off yet seemed to be stopped by someone closing a door and turning the little lock on the knob.The continuity from scene to scene was a mess.The teens would run out the front door when a zombie came in the back way yet just a second ago they had ran in that very same front door with a swarm of zombies right behind them.The action jumped from scenes that looked to be out in the middle of nowhere to city scenes with no explanation of how the characters got transplanted so fast.

The camera was slashed around so fast during the fight scenes it was just impossible to follow what was happening.I eventually gave up trying.There's nothing really positive to say about this clunker.The info I read about this thing says it was shot in 9 days.From the way this mess turned out I would have guessed 4 days. This pile of garbage even ends with the words "To be continued..." on the screen.

It felt like I was watching a two part episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies" or something,like when the Hillbillies went to England when they learned they owned a castle over there and they just couldn't get all the Jethro fighting a dragon jokes in a one 30 minute episode,I see the reason for doing a TV show like that but who ends a movie like that?And to beat it all I read there was a Part 2.Anymore no matter how bad and unwatched the first one was they always convince themselves someone wants a Part 2 of it.

This was just another homemade piece of junk from people who have little talent for horror movies.Too bad today's technology is so easy that everyone who used to think they could write the next great American novel now thinks they can make the next great zombie movie.

Just because you got a camera and you can do a little CG on a computer doesn't mean you got any movie making talent.

This was without a doubt one of the worst movies I have ever seen. What gets me is that is ranks a 4.2 here at IMDb, the place that is extremely hard on horror movies. How is it ranked so high? I love horror movies, but never before have I considered stopping a movie in the middle of it as I have with this one. However, I persevered and was rewarded with more crap. The acting is horrible, I have never before wanted people dead in my life and I am not talking about the characters...I am speaking of the actual actors. Even the zombies were horrible in this one. The only reason this one must be ranked high is the gore, which is good, but even with that I could not rank this movie any higher. The plot, losers go to bar, other more popular losers go to house in the middle of nowhere, zombies go on the attack, general running here and there and then wham movie ends in the most stupid fashion ever. During which time we have the lead guy trying to save his girlfriend, and this lead guy is the most annoying dip in the film and his scream is very annoying as well. I so wanted him to die, but he just kept going. We have a scene where the streets were empty and our three "heros" are just looking, the next thing you know there are zombies all around them to the point they can not make it to their car two feet to the left. You have a girl that gets into a convertible and seems to relax like she is safe. You also have worse production values and worse acting than found in most porn films, and you do not even get to see a boob or two in this film. All you really get to see is a bunch of people covered in blood screaming with a few good gore effects here and there. I knew this movie was going to be trouble when we were introduced to the actors while incredibly bad music played. By the way what was up with the super zombies anyway, they can rip a jaw off a girl, but can't get into a bar block off with a chair? To much bad stuff, just to much...must seek out filmmakers, make it so sequel can not be made.

In Downey, the teenagers Chris (Garret Jones), Scott (William Howard Bowman) and Tim (Rowan Bousaid) are best friends and decide to drive to a bar downtown to watch the gig of a grungy band while Chris' girlfriend Jackie (Juliet Reeves) goes to a party with her preppy friends. While heading to downtown, the trio of friends notes that there is no car in the road despite the rush hour and then they find that the streets are empty. When they arrive in their destiny, they are chased by zombies and run to the bar. Chris decides to return to Downey while Jackie and her friends are attacked by a bunch of zombies.

Despite the awful camera-work and the flaws in the screenplay that uses all the clichés of zombie movies, the first half of "Automaton Transfusion" is not so bad. The gore special effects and the acting are indeed very reasonable for a B-movie. There are funny moments and like in many Ed Wood's movies, there is not continuity in many sequences, with the sun shining when it should be night and so on. However, when Chris decides to return to the high-school with his friends, the plot becomes more imbecile culminating with attitude of Scott and the ridiculous explanation for the outbreak given by the military janitor. But the worst is the inconclusive ending "to be continued": the director and writer Steven C. Miller must be kidding. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

This is a strange hybrid of a movie that had only enough ideas for a trailer (which is what it started out to be, apparently) and a movie that spent what little budget it had on make-up effects. The effects end up being OK (possibly six stars out of ten) but the complete lack of any plot, realistic dialogue, characters, actual acting ability, comprehensible editing, or decent photography shoots the whole thing down. The film-makers did not seem to understand that violent and gory scenes have to balanced against other scenes and that the key to entertainment in horror films is to elicit concern or sympathy from the viewer.

The most irritating aspect of this movie, though, has to be the "synch" problems in many of the scenes. Not audio synch, but frame rate and editing. If you go to the forums, you'll see several explanations of what caused this, ranging from an intentional statement of the director to a setting error on the video editing equipment. Whatever caused it, it's inconsistent from scene to scene and is irritating as hell. I mean, fast zombies are already a bit jerky, but they're really bad in this film.

Don't waste your time on this film.

Two things more confusing than the title of this zombie flick (what the hell does Automaton Transfusion mean?): the film's directorial style, a messy mish-mash of rapid editing and shaky cam that makes following the action nigh-on impossible at times; and the muddled plot, which contains many ridiculous moments and no satisfactory ending (yup.... the film stops mid-action, with the words 'To Be Continued' leaving viewers feeling cheated!). A shame really, because the film showed a lot of promise at the start, with a scary opening sequence set in a morgue, and the introduction of a reasonably likable group of characters. The production values also seemed to be fairly good, with some particularly good gore effects that are way better than one might expect from a film made on such a small budget. By the end of the film, director Steven C. Miller has quite obviously lost all control of proceedings, with several sequences making no sense whatsoever. My tips for Mr. Miller when making the sequel to this film (Automaton Transfusion: Contingency, due 2009): calm down the camera-work (buy a tripod, perhaps), hone the script a little more, and get yourself an ending (they always make a film so much better, don'tcha think?).