Retro Horror DVD Review – Undead (2003)

Feb 5, 2012
Hari Navarro

Undead – Dirs. Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig - © Lions Gate Films

Directors Michael & Peter Spierig do everything but donate their own internal organs to this entertaining exercise in independent zombie movie-making.

It might seem that fledgling filmmakers, they whom decide to churn out yet another installment of zombie themed comedy, have a relatively easy job ahead of them. How hard can it really be to slap on a bit of gooey latex and douse your set in barrel after barrel of fake blood and entrails? But it is a hard cocktail to perfect, and with notoriously diligent fans of the genre ready to maul all pretenders to the iconic, these are films that must have their tone set just right.

What appears as terrible acting to most is oftentimes renamed as deliberate genre-specific performance art. What seems like shaky amateurish cinematography and camera work is merely the director's attempt to harness the gritty cheap suit of the grind-house exploitation classics of late last century. Even the soundtrack can obtain a get out of jail free card, if it also masquerades as homage. It seems that no matter how unimaginative and just plain nasty the production, there will always be a niche contingent of fans who are willing to defend the faulty movie to the very end. But, as Roger Ebert alluded to in his critique of the film, in a cinematic world in which the product can be so bad that it is deemed good, how do we then discern what is just in fact the purely awful?

Australian Flavored Zombie Comedy

2005’s Undead is no exception, it is a conundrum riddled with faults. But, almost immediately, it shies away from having that feel of a project that frustrating squanders its time, money and creative effort. It proves here that its countless excruciatingly long production days, endured with true passion and short fiscal supply, did succeed in producing a movie of quite some merit. Its premise was far passed far-fetched, but it at least attempted to give a new spin on what is a seriously dog-eared storyboard.

Strange virus-infested balls of fire hurtle toward a small town in Australia. Upon impact they transform the population from stereotypical Aussie country-folk, into an undead army of brain hungry ghouls. Okay, so far this is by the book zombie join-the-dots territory. But then the killing begins and it is done so with such aplomb that the film immediately begins to wrap itself in a self-preserving cocoon of insightful, over merely functionary, film-making.

It is an obvious understatement to say that gore of this type is an acquired taste. But Undead's brand of splatter is played exclusively for laughs; it is not grueling, at least not in the fashion of some of horror's more recent torture-porn offerings. It is an entirely different sensation to bear witness to a recently decapitated zombie, one that is spouting blood like a punctured fire hose, than it is to register the pure nauseating shock of, say, Monica Bellucci’s underpass scene in Irreversible. The creators of Undead know their audience, and strapped here to a not-so-obvious second-hand shoestring budget, they play to them accordingly.

The brand of humor that here infuses the script will perhaps appeal more to Australians, and New Zealanders, those who will undoubtedly know people who actually talk and communicate like those of Undead’s manic and infected cast. The film oozes antipodean mannerisms and iconic imagery and it is this that greatly helps to distinguish Undead from its many competitors. It’s a different vibe, a devil may care attitude to life that perfectly suits here as a team of normal people find themselves in a situation that is anything but.

Makeshift Special Effects and Makeup

Creature effects and makeup are again imaginative and well-crafted in predominately ‘old school’ hand-molded fashion. That said the actual design of the films signature zombies offer nothing to the evolution of the iconic movie creep. But considering the massive restraints placed by financial concerns the end results were excellent value for no money. CGI and green-screen, or in this instance a garden tarpaulin that was painted green, also manage to work themselves into the film's truly ambitious workload. One particular computer generated scene, involving a recently stunted spinal column, deserves special mention as a fantastically over the top hybrid of CG and live action.

It's sad but Undead stumbles, falling at the last, tangled in the most convoluted of endings; one which should actually been its crowning glory. The twist is lost and the credits roll with more than the usual gut feeling of anti-climax. But all in all and at its end this really was a cool little genre find, one that ultimately dragged the Spierig brothers from editing movies on their own laptops to helming the likes of big budget Ethan Hawke vampire feature, Daybreakers (2009).

A film that itself disappointed, more so considering the sparks of potential that director brothers' showed here in creating so much, with so little at hand. Only time will tell how their next outing, a possible sequel to perennial favorite The Dark Crystal (The Power of the Dark Crystal) – now locked in glacial development hell – will prove these talented Australians truly worthy of the big screen.