Virus Undead

I just watched Virus Undead and I have to admit I'm disappointed.

First off, I was stunned that somebody on this production had the really stupid idea to have German actors speak English. While the guys certainly aren't bad with the language, some of them still have a pretty strong German accent, making the whole ordeal somewhat of a joke to me.

On top of that, the movie tries way too hard to have your typical US hillbilly scenery and character clichés, which are already a vast exaggeration when set in the middle of nowhere in the US, but just don't work at all in a town in the middle of Germany. You have the default unfriendly "town sheriff", complete with sunglasses and donuts, the commonly known town ruffian, including tons of tattoos, a goatee, leather clothing and a pea-sized brain and they even have a "restaurant" in the middle of the woods making sausage out of any dead animal they can find. Those two things made me wonder why the writers were too afraid to actually try something fresh and simply go with the "set in Germany" thing and pull through with it. Instead, they chose to take the generic "hillbilly town" cliché and move it over here. Kind of idiotic. Just like the hillbilly town in horror flicks is a big exaggeration of clichés about American towns in the middle of nowhere, an exaggeration of clichés about small German towns would have been far more entertaining and would have worked a lot better. Basically, this movie tries very hard to be an American B-movie set in Germany played by German actors, which was what I found very disappointing.

The story covers the basics of "virus causing zombies", but doesn't go any further than a rough outline and the characters are walking clichés with some odd moments here and there. I agree with NeilCassidy, though, that the movie at least looks professional.

Overall it has some mildly entertaining moments and is well done on the technical side of things, but to me the story and setting were pretty much atrocious. I've seen a lot worse films, but this one stands out for almost intentionally ruining any potential it might have had.

"Virus Undead" is a 200% retarded and incompetent horror flick, but then again, what else do you expect from a director who's named Wolf Wolff? If his cinematic skills are as inspirational as his choice in artist names, you just know we're in trouble. The film was cleverly released at the heights of the bird flu paranoia a few years ago. In Europe – and particularly in Germany, since there fell a handful of casualties if I remember correctly – this epidemic caused quite a lot of disturbance and chaos, so it's only logical that sly writers/directors would exploit it in gratuitous and low-budgeted horror movies. So actually, this could have been a cool movie, but sadly it's not. The one thing that immediately (and irreversibly) ruins the film straight from the beginning are the entire cast's atrocious German accents when they recite their lines in English. I don't blame native German speakers for having an accent, but why not simply allow them to talk in German? Were the producers really that worried that the film would lose potential viewers in case of subtitles? Of course, there are a lot more issues than that. The screenplay is as incoherent and derivative as can be and literally ALL the main characters are insupportable. Certain of them are even downright bizarre, like that guy named Eugene, for example … Why is he such a weirdo and how come he even has acquaintances to begin with? The story centers on Robert returning to his rural hometown, along with two of his college buddies, to arrange some formalities after the death of his grandfather. Supposedly he died of Alzheimer's disease, but granddaddy was really a retired scientist and still secretly experimented with possible cures for the bird flu epidemic. During one of these experiments, the birds carrying the virus attacked him and escaped into the countryside. Not long after Robert's arrival, more and more villagers become infected with a much harsher form of the virus; turning them into slowly rotting but nevertheless still hungry zombies. Robert and his friends are locked inside the isolated mansion, just when they're throwing a party with two sexy chicks they met in a gas station! Bummer!! "Virus Undead" is completely devoid of tension and atmosphere, and you literally don't care if any of the characters survives the ordeal not. The zombie make-up effects and splatter are definitely not the worst I've ever seen, but the film doesn't contain any truly memorable gory parts, neither. As said, the dialogs and acting performances are horrible. In fact, the only remotely acceptable reason to be interested in "Virus Undead" is the astounding rack of supportive actress Anna Breuer

Considering the fact that most German horror movies of recent years came from amateurs with their video cameras and varying degrees of talent and that there hasn't been any real tradition of this kind of genre films for decades in this country, VIRUS UNDEAD certainly seems like a welcome breath of fresh air.

Not only was it actually filmed on 35mm, the whole workmanship on display here is miles above what you'd expect from a little low budget horror movie from Germany: The credit-sequence is extremely stylish, the digital special effects of helicopters and birds are surprisingly well done, there's some rather spectacular stunt work to be seen - in short: VIRUS UNDEAD looks professional.

More important, the movie's not only very well made on a purely technical level, it displays a very good eye from its two directors as well. There are some quite impressive shots and sequences to be seen here, especially in the second half of the movie, when the main characters are besieged in an old mansion. This was actually the part of VIRUS UNDEAD I enjoyed the most, because the skilled use of that beautiful location made for some chilling moments that reminded me of the haunting atmosphere of European horror classics from decades past.

So is this a flawless movie? No, of course not. I was a bit annoyed by the use of the English language, which sounded quite unnatural to me most of the time and seemed in harsh contrast to the obviously German locations. I got used to it as the movie went on though, and I understand it had to be filmed in English to get the financing done. I wasn't very fond of the main characters either who just didn't seem likable to me. The guy who turns psycho in the end did a good job though and was pretty convincing.

So while VIRUS UNDEAD is certainly far from perfect I definitely can't agree with the comment from another user that this was "the baddest Movie ever". It may not be 'the gooddest Movie ever' (ahem), but there's much to enjoy here.

where to start, i actually liked several aspects of this film. the effects weren't half bad and the nudity, although brief, was very sweet on the eyes...

the story didn't really hang together in my eyes, it was an attempt to involve a lot of different aspects and i sort of missed the whole point of the film. the story was quite lacking in imagination, the acting was quite bad - a bunch of Germans trying to sound extremely American by simply using the f**k word in almost every sentence does NOT take away the heavy German accent, OK guys? - and several scenes really called for a LOT more reaction from these stone faced actors.

Sure it's a horror film and I'm not expecting DeNiro to step in, but come on, at least PRETEND to be actors, OK? 4/10, that's all.. Nice cinematography though...

Germany is rightly credited with making outstanding cars and world wars but is not known for making good horror movies. Unfortunately this trend continues with Virus Undead.

The plot isn't too complicated, a mad scientist dies and his heir and two friends go to take care of the estate. It's not long before they meet an evil biker / hot dog salesman who has it in for the young scientist. The acting isn't just wooden, it's hewn from the Black Forest. Not one single character is in any way believable but the 'ich bin ein dude' character finally proves Germans can be funny.

The plot is stupid and badly executed but the real laughs come from the wobbling head effect when people become zombies. I noticed another reviewer praising the attention to detail and if you are also stunned by the sight of blood on a cockoo clock then knock yourself out with this movie.

There's some laughs to be had at the plain awful execution of this film but not a lot. If you're a zombie fan then it might be worth a watch, it has its moments but a three out of ten still feels a bit generous despite this being a low budget effort.