[SteveGon]

Dead and Breakfast - Lame horror comedy about a group of friends stranded in a small Texas town. Now if that weren't bad enough, there's an outbreak of zombies (sort of)! In the vein of Cabin Fever and just as bad, much of the humor is dumb and out of place. Decent gore and that's about it.

*1/2 out of ****

Goreometer rating: **1/2 out of ****


Tombs of the Blind Dead - Revisited this atmospheric undead opus about a band of evil zombie knights who roam the Italian countryside in search of blood.

*** out of ****

Goreometer rating: **1/2 out of ****

[Steve Phillips]

I saw NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 3D (2006) at the World 3-D Film Expo II recently. The cast and director were there. Luckily, it was presented in the tradional polarized, clear glasses format, unlike the general release version which will be shown in red/cyan anaglyph.

I was surprised that I liked it as much as I did. It wasn't a straight scene for scene remake this time, which I appreciated. Decent acting, good makeup, though I would have liked to have seen more gore. Blood did splatter off the screen a couple of times which was fun.

They put all the money they had on the screen; it looks pretty professional. I was expecting some John Russo type DTV junk.

The stereoscopic aspect was well handled. Excellent use of depth, especially in one nighttime scene with the zombies all on different levels and the house in the background. It isn't overly gimmicky like the 1980's 3-D films; though of course they do throw in a few such shots. Again, I saw the film in polarized format, so I don't know how well the red/blue anaglyph conversion will work. It's too bad they are going the anaglyph route for theatrical; I wish they'd just hold off the release and ride the digital 3D wave instead.

The DVD release will include an anaglyph 3-D version as well, at least that is the plan.

Not bad; far better than most of the DTV zombie stuff that hit video store shelves weekly it seems.

[SteveGon]

Return of the Evil Dead - Second installment in the Blind Dead series is on par with the first and gorier to boot. Another group of evil knights returns from the dead and raids a village, slaughtering everyone in sight. Survivors hole up in a church and get picked off. News at eleven.

*** out of ****

Goreometer rating: *** out of ****

[SteveGon]

Nightmare City - Zombies Italiano from director Umberto Lenzi. Irradiated ghouls spill out of an unmarked cargo plane that makes an unexpected landing at an airport. After wiping out the welcome wagon, the zombies invade a nearby city! As if that weren't bad enough, these zombies are fast AND use weapons! Fairly entertaining as far as Italian living dead movies go, with hit and miss makeup and f/x. Weird ending.

*** out of ****

Goreometer rating: *** out of ****


Edit: thought I'd recommend this

Perfect reading for a cold winter's night - just grab a cup of hot chocolate, kick back in a comfy armchair and enjoy hundreds of pages of zombie adventures!

[SteveGon]

Revenge of the Living Dead Girls - More weird Euro horror. Three women are felled by toxic waste-laced milk and return as zombies, killing anyone who gets in their way. A bit nastier than the usual fare, but also rather spotty.

**1/2 out of ****

Goreometer rating: ***1/2 out of ****


Battlefield Baseball - Bizarre Japanese ode to the game of baseball plays like a cross between The Bad News Bears and Battle Royale and throws in mallet-wielding mothers, musical numbers, undead opponents and a surprise narrator - and that's just the half of it! Too crazyquilt to be totally successful, but fun in a demented way.

**1/2 out of ****

Goreometer rating: **1/2 out of ****

[SteveGon]

The Crazies - George Romero's low budget horror thriller about a small town infected with a military-created virus that either kills you or drives you mad. A handful of survivors make a run for it but must evade capture by the military. But are they themselves infected? Not technically a zombie movie, but for all intents and purposes it is - let's call it a quasi-zombie flick.

*** out of ****

Goreometer rating: **1/2 out of ****


Slither - Gooey throwback to the monster movies of yore has alien slugs trying to take over the world via human hosts who turn into zombie-like ghouls. Funny and gleefully gory.

*** out of ****

Goreometer rating: *** out of ****


Hide and Creep - Innocuous title aside, this is actually an entertaining little low budget zombie flick. Plot-wise there's nothing new: a motley group of people try to get out of town after an uprising of zombies, but there's plenty of humor with much of it aimed at film buffs. I'm not sure if the zombie makeup was intentionally bad and that subplot about alien abductions could have been dispensed with, but despite these bumps it's a fun ride.

"Daddy! I've been fighting zombies all day!"

"Yeah, they're stinky aren't they?"

"Yeah."

**1/2 out of ****

Goreometer rating: **1/2 out of ****

[SteveGon]

Dead Men Walking - A convict infected with a biotoxin causes an outbreak of flesh-eating zombies in a maximum security prison. Stylistically a rip-off of 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead '04, but it's still one of the better zombie flicks you've never heard of. Grim and gory.

*** out of ****

Goreometer rating: ***1/2 out of ****

[SteveGon]

Cemetery Man - Or Dellamorte Dellamore if you want to sound cool. Michele Soavi's philosophical zombie flick about a cemetery caretaker whose quest for love is constantly interrupted by those who won't stay dead. A tad long, but that bizarre ending is some sort of classic.

*** out of ****

Goreometer rating: *** out of ****

[SteveGon]

Defenceless - Strange Aussie blend of the revenge and zombie genres finds a woman coming back from the dead to get revenge on the despicable real estate developers who murdered her and her family (not to mention her lesbian lover!). Interesting at times, but also draggy and filmed for some reason with no dialogue. If you wanna see a guy get forcefed his own penis, this is the film for you!

**1/2 out of ****

Goreometer rating: *** out of ****

[SteveGon]

Haeckel's Tale - John McNaughton's entry in the Masters of Horror series about a young medical student who wants to follow in Dr. Frankenstein's footsteps. Eventually this leads to zombie sex. One of the better entries.

*** out of ****

Goreometer rating: *** out of ****


Tokyo Zombie - Fun Japanese Shaun of the Dead (with a dash of Land of the Dead). A toxic trash dump spawns a horde of flesh-eating zombies, putting to the test a pair of jujitsu-loving best friends. Takes a neat left turn halfway through.

*** out of ****

Goreometer rating: **1/2 out of ****

[SteveGon]

More low budget zombie mayhem and the debut of my new Splatometer!


Deadlands: The Rising - A terrorist attack using biological weapons results in the world being overrun by the living dead (fast variety). Five people in Baltimore must then fight their way home. That's about it. The cool sequence with the zombies attacking motorists trapped in a traffic jam aside, this is typical indie undead fare, but with an especially abbreviated running time (72 minutes) that really doesn't allow the film to breathe.

** out of ****

Splatometer rating: **1/2 out of ****


Shatter Dead - Weird zombie flick akin to They Came Back (but with a much lower budget). The dead have ceased being dead and roam the world trying to get the living to join them. No flesh-eating here, just lots of angst and bizarre goings-on as the tough heroine tries to get home to her boyfriend. Some interesting questions are raised, but nothing that hasn't been debated before in vampire movies. Worth a look, but beware that pistol sex and undead abortions abound!

**1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: *** out of ****