Zombie Night

Two neighbouring families attempt to survive the first night of a zombie outbreak.

Feast director John Gulager helms Zombie Night (2013), one of the better SyFy/Asylum outings-an under-the-radar undead flick that, while flawed, still has a little bite. With a score by Alan Howarth (of Carpenter collaborator fame) and shambling Romero-style zombies, the film has enough going for it to warrant attention. Unfortunately, it's let down by a flat, made-for-TV aesthetic (despite its 1.78 : 1 aspect ratio) and a cacophony of unnecessary screaming that drags it into DTV territory. That said, the lighting, Damian Horan's cinematography, and use of practical locations lend it some much-needed atmosphere.

Leading the cast are '80s stars Anthony Michael Hall, Daryl Hannah, and Alan Ruck-each delivering grounded performances that rise above the material. The night-bound premise is intriguing, and Gulager's love for Romero's mythos shows. Zombies don't run-they creep. You don't turn from a bite; you turn from death. Classic rules. As a possible homage, this could have been marketed as Night of the Living Zombies, with moments lifted straight from Night of the Living Dead and a similarly clothed zombie and attack echoing Uncle Rege from the 1990 remake. It also borrows from Romero's Diary, Dawn and Day of the Dead.

There are some decent gore effects, especially for an Asylum production, with creepy undead, and moments of genuine tension-particularly in the greenhouse and cemetery-set finale. But a lack of visual polish and character reactions dull what could've been a tight, small-scale horror.

Overall, a missed opportunity, but still one of Gulager's more watchable post-Feast efforts. Strong leads and solid zombie work, but ultimately held back by its shrill tone and TV aesthetic.

Zombie Night (2013)

* (out of 4)

The Asylum are back and this time they're brought an Oscar-winner with them. The "story" is pretty simple as a zombie outbreak happens but the good news is that people just have to survive until the sun comes up. It turns out that these zombies are just out for one night so a group of people must try to survive not only the zombies but each other. ZOMBIE NIGHT certainly isn't NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD but I personally didn't expect it to be. You've gotta have rather low expectations when it comes to these films to appear on SyFy but there's certainly no excuse for a film to be this bad. There are all sorts of issues with this movie but the real criminal is the screenplay, which is just downright confusing and boring. The "plot" deals with about three different families who find themselves battling the zombies and then each other. I'm guessing this was originally meant to tell three separate stories and then bring them together (ala PULP FICTION) but it fails horribly. The entire film is just very sloppy in regards to the story and quite often you're sitting there dumbfounded trying to figure out what's going on and why so many humans are acting so stupid. Horror movies need characters to do dumb things but these here are just too dumb for their own good. The direction really doesn't add any excitement as the entire thing just has a rather slow feel to it. The shocking thing is that even the zombies are rather lame because they just don't have anything that sets them apart from the countless other films in the genre. The gore level is pretty high and there are a few nice death scenes, which at least keeps the entertainment going a little. Daryl Hannah and Anthony Michael Hall are the main stars here and it's nice seeing both of them even if their talents are wasted. Oscar-winner Shirley Jones (ELMER GANTRY) appears here briefly and even gets to spit out some blood. Rachel G. Fox rounds out the cast and is fun to watch. ZOMBIE NIGHT is about as bad as you can get but sadly it doesn't reach a "so bad it's good" level like many other films from The Asylum.

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. :)

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.

Zombie Night was always going to be one of those movies that people shouldn't expect that much from, but even when judging it for what it is you do want evidence of some sort of fun. You don't get that with Zombie Night, instead you get a complete failure on all levels with unintentional humour that gets more increasingly frustrating than anything else. The best thing about the movie is the make-up for the zombies, even when the least amateurish asset it still wasn't that good. With the rest of the production values you could tell that Zombie Night was made in a rush- especially in the editing- and with little signs of care or love. The dialogue is vomit-inducing in how inane it is, the timing is also sloppy and the line delivery flat. It does provide some unintentional humour to begin with but very quickly hearing so many what the...? gets frustrating, plus it does get needlessly convoluted at times. There is no real narrative to speak of, what there is shows lots of predictability, endless ridiculously dumb moments(the bunker and cemetery scenes for examples), no signs of life and the thrills, fun and horror elements are so empty and scrappily done with no signs of surprise that they feel non-existent. The less said about the dull and abrupt ending the better too. The characters are either irritating(Nana) or infuriatingly stupid(Karen), at no point do we root for them and their actions are so stupid beyond belief makes them even less likable. If there are any characters we do root for it is the zombies, unfortunately that is not saying much as they are under-utilised and personality-less. The actors don't or can't do anything with their characters or dialogue, very amateurish. It is ironic that the Oscar Winner Shirley Jones ties with Jennifer Taylor as the worst acting performance in the movie, and Anthony Michael Hall and Daryl Hannah are pretty much wasted. In conclusion, if you want any delights with Zombie Night you will be disappointed. It is not quite as bad as the abysmal Vampegeddon(doubt that many people have seen it and for good reason) but there is a big emphasis on the quite. 1/10 Bethany Cox