Zombie Night

This movie was an absolute train wreck! When you start rooting for the zombies, that's how you know you could care less about any of the characters surviving. 

Their choice in characters... They picked the best not to star in the best? Is that what we do know? Anthony Michael Hall ... Loved him way better when he played the nerd and geek (Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles). It's as if he was money hungry so he played this role. Darryl Hannah... Way better playing Elle (Kill Bill Vols). And lastly Shirley Jones, who was given such a bad script that I was actually rooting for a zombie to kill her. Why would any of these actors even take an offer that had to deal with Syfy? 

I mean, what kind of movie was this anyways? This didn't even fit the cliché version of zombies nor the modernized versions! This movie got more and more frustrating as it went on. I strongly recommend not watching this movie, for life is too short for these types of movies to even consider watching.

Ok. Went into this hoping for the best as I like Anthony Michael Hall, Daryl Hannah and Shirley Jones. I also can accept that a 'TV' movie will be a bit more dialed-down to appease the masses and the censors. Which is the only reason I gave it 4 stars...I could look at Daryl Hannah all day. What I can't accept is complete, and utter stupidity on the part of the characters. That, and the fact that all of the characters were eminently unlikeable and irritating, from Shirley Jones' blind mother to the petulant teenage boyfriend to Anthony Michael Hall's protective father character, they all come across as utterly unprepared for something as mundane as an empty peanut butter jar... "WHAAAT? There's NO peanut butter ? How am I going to make a P&J without peanut butter????" From leaving perfectly working automobiles, wondering if they can 'hotwire' a car when one member's car is in their garage to taking shelter in a SEE-THROUGH flimsy plastic structure to the family looking at someone as if they had just massacred a village for locking a hysterical person in a bedroom, the movie just irritates to no end...well...there IS an end, fortunately. But it takes a lot longer to get there than the stated run time.

3 stars for the gore effects, quite obviously the majority of the limited budget went into them. If the writers would have tried to make this a humorous affair, the appalling acting, script writing and storyline might just have worked. In fact, it could have been good if the film didn't try to take itself seriously. The film almost titters on the brink of humour before you realise it's a very serious affair failing badly.

Even Zombie fans should be upset with the film. We all know Zombies don't care, they just amble directly at their target. No moving obstacles out of the way or bypassing defenses or defending themselves from attack. All of which the Zombies do in this film... ruins the 'Mindless Zombie Killer' effect we all know and love.

In the end we are left with a film that has you thinking "that would have been funny if...." and "some of the effects are not too bad" and... "Wow ! I could drop a piece of paper in a cage full of Monkeys and find a better script written on it ten minutes later. Then hire the Monkeys to act it out".

I wasn't going to write a review but I just wanted to comment on what one reviewer said.

He said he only watched the first 15 minutes of movie then went on to mention about the car blowing up near the start, well that car was around 65 minutes into the movie no where near the start and obviously he watched more than the first 15 minutes if he saw that lol.

He also mentioned about he couldn't sit through 2 hours of the movies, well... he is right no-one could quite simply because the movie was only 85 minutes long lol.

Oh well, I have to say that Asylum do seem to make decent zombie movies probably because the other movies in this genre are usually very low budget and Asylums 1 million budget is one of the bigger ones compared to other Zombie movies so they tend to look quite good in comparison.

Anyway I do agree with one comment the reviewer made and that was Shirley Jones playing Nana was very annoying. Overall there was plenty going on in the movie, the Zombies were quite good even though the acting and story was little cheesy I was entertained.

That's another Zombie/Infected movie seen and added to my ever growing list. :)

I must screw my courage to the sticking place on this one. Being a fan of everything else he's done, I was expecting quite a bit more for my money from John Gulager. (I paid for the TV I saw it on, the electricity it took to get through it, and the outrageous monthly satellite bill that brought it to me, so, yeah, I paid- out the f---ing a--...) I was expecting something along the lines of Dan O'Bannon's THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD: Gulager has in past instances shown that he's more than capable of rising to the Low Budget occasion (with everything else he's done)- but, this time around, for whatever reason(s), he simply didn't deliver. At the very least, I was expecting a cameo by his father (and it would've been extra cool if said cameo had been tied into his role in THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD). Again, no such luck. I'm far from consigning Gulager to the list of Has Been Directors: he has more talent in his little toe (left foot) than most directors (p)lying their trade these days. Maybe next time he'll come through for us.