Zombie Wars

Although this is one of those low-budget zombie productions which seem to crop up just about everywhere these days, this film had some real potential. Unfortunately, it had too many things going against it to succeed. For example, it starts off with a very shaky concept of zombies harvesting humans for food. Add in a bad script, poor action sequences, miscasting, terrible zombie makeup along with horrible acting on the part of the zombies and you can get an idea of how badly directed it was. And that's a shame because it had some good qualities which could have saved it. For instance, the acting on the part of the brothers "David" (Adam Mayfield) and "Brian" (Jim Hazelton) was pretty good. Likewise, although Kristi Pearce is probably a decent enough actress, she was badly miscast and gave a totally unconvincing performance as the leader known as "the General". Additionally, the talents of Alissa Koenig (as "Star") were also seriously wasted. In short, this movie had some good talent to draw upon. But they weren't used properly and the film suffered because of it.

50 years after a zombie infiltration a small group of nomadic survivors are still fighting the undead ghouls who've gotten smarter and kidnap nubile young women to feed off of. Two brothers save some girls from the ghouls, and one of the guys falls in love with one of them who he nicknames Star. Trouble ensues when the zombies follow them back to their camp.

It's been awhile since I've seen a David Prior film (1986's Killer Workout) So it was time to put my prejudice of that film aside, perhaps he took a turn for the better within the intervening two decades. I always give people the benefit of the doubt. After watching this movie,he good knew is he did take a turn, the bad news is it's definitely not for the better. This film is amateur hour from start to finish. Grade school special effects, combines with hideously stunted dialog, terrible acting & shoddy camera work. This makes his previous Killer Workout look like a masterpiece by comparison.

My Grade: F

DVD Extra: trailer for this film

I've been working my way through the entire David A. Prior catalog over the past month. He's mostly famous for his action/exploitation films in the late 80s/early 90s. Zombie Wars was one of 2 films he made in 2007 after a 8 year hiatus. If you're reading this review just to get info on a zombie film you've never heard of then quit reading now.

This film is primarily going to be of interest to David A. Prior fans and not zombie-movie fans. That said, it is a solid Prior movie and bears many of the hallmarks of his action films from decades earlier (gun play, pretty girls, dudes on a mission). Much has been toned down--stunt work is scaled back, big action scenes (e.g. firefights) are absent BUT there's still enough action to satisfy. Although this film contains some CGI it primarily utilizes practical FX which is refreshing. I have no complaints as it pertains to FX.

Aside of the abject weirdness of the zombie plot, the script is actually pretty solid. Motivations are clear, things that are set-up in the script have pay-offs, the dialogue is good. Look, this isn't Citizen Kane...it's a direct-to-video B-movie capitalizing on the zombie trend in 2007.

Like most Prior films from the 80s, the acting in this film ranges from good, to adequate, to bad. As in most Prior films, the leads do pretty well whereas the secondary players are all over the map. Prior (or his casting agent) actually had a pretty good eye for talent and often found leads that elevate his movies--this trait is certainly on display in Zombie Wars.

I honestly had very low expectations for this film. I figured that given his long absence from directing that his return would be more akin to the poor schlock of that era as opposed to the GREAT schlock that he was so skilled at producing in the 80s & 90s. This isn't a "great" film by any definition--it's not even a "great" David A. Prior film--but it's a decent David A. Prior film and definitely watchable. RIP David A. Prior.

David A. Prior, I will respond with Sledgehammer from 1983. From there on it's downhill with flicks from prior but still he kept making movies and still sell them. When you are in Germany as a horror geek you will always be attracted to the sleeves of DVD's and Blu Ray's. But Germany also has a speciality to change names from flicks towards more attractive names, this is called Zombie Wars but in Germany it came out as War Of The Living Dead. Admit, nice title, and that's the best thing of this stinker.

The acting isn't really good, as was the script, zombies capturing humans, really. the zombies really are looking cheap. The flick starts pretty well, but after a while you get it, zombies being shot in the head, next zombie being shot in the head, next zombie....and it goes on and on with nothing happening at all. Really, it was a war to get through this.

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

I saw this on Tubi and I went into it hoping that it was going to be good, what I ended up getting was bottom of the barrel, low budget. I have seen better fan films than this, there is just more wrong with this movie, than there is right with it. I saw it once and had to fight my way through it just to get to the ending.

This was a total cheese fest, horrible effects with even worse acting. Right out of the box, they hit you with some of the worst dialog I've ever heard, and the sad part is they had a pretty good idea, that was just poorly executed. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, ever.