Undead
Written and directed by the Spierig Brothers, this 2003 Australian import begins when former beauty queen, Rene (Felicity Mason), returns to her hometown of Berkeley, Australia just when a meteorite shower begins turning her former neighbors into the flesh-eating undead. Fortunately, Rene finds shelter with gun shop owner Marion (Mungo McKay), a husband (Rob Jenkins) and his pregnant wife (Lisa Cunningham), and two police officers (Emma Randall, Steve Grieg) in Marion's isolated farm house. By now you're thinking, "I've seen this before." But wait . . . there are also aliens! But what do they have to do with the zombie infestation? Are the aliens using the zombies to invade Earth, as Marion believes? You'll have to watch to find out. This is one of those films I rented on DVD for a day when I was too lazy to do anything but watch TV but there was nothing on TV worth watching. But as the promo line said: "Fans will squirm with delight," and that I did. There's plenty of dismembered zombies still managing to walk, along with your usual quota of exploding heads. And, of course, I had to watch until the end before learning exactly what the aliens had to do with it all. Look for this on a rental shelf, but don't expect more than one copy. And don't forget, even Peter Jackson had to start with 1992's Braindead (aka Dead Alive) before he made Lord of the Rings.
Underworld
It appears a centuries-old war has been raging between vampires and werewolves as we join Vampire Selene (Kate Beckinsale), a werewolf hunter-killer, on her latest wolf hunt. But something is different. The werewolves are stalking the human, Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman), and it ain't for food. Selene wants to know why, and her questions lead to conflicts with the Vampire leader Kraven (Shane Brolly), ancient secrets kept by her sire, Viktor (Bill Nighy), and a special plan by the werewolf leader, Lucian (Michael Sheen), to bring an end to the war. This was fun pure and simple with great Eastern-European sets, some nice cinematography, an intriguing plot, and action, action, action. Sure, I saw things that reminded me of Blade, The Matrix, The Crow, and even Le Femme Nikita, but so what; it was done well and I came away feeling totally satisfied. But be warned. If you're a werewolf, you might be offended by their portrayal as uncouth, uncultured beasts . . . for most of the film. Kudos to first time director, Len Wiseman.
Underworld: Evolution
Writer Danny McBride and Director Len Wiseman team up once more to bring us part 2 of 2003's Underworld (a film I enjoyed—see above.) The opening hook worked as they take us back to a village in the 1200s recently sacked by an army of werewolves lead by William (Brian Steele)—the original werewolf. The army of vampires, lead by Viktor (Bill Nighy) and William's vampire brother, Marcus (Tony Currain)—the original vampire—are hot on the werewolves' tails when the dead villagers change to wolves and a great battle, on horseback, ensues and ends with William's capture and imprisonment for eternity. Jump to the future and Selene (Kate Beckinsale). It turns out that Selene's family made William's coffin and, as the last surviving member (see the original Underworld for how and why), she's the only one who knows where the coffin is. Now Marcus wants to release his brother so "together they can rule the galaxy." Yes, sorry, but this time out, the film probably could have used some tongue-in-cheek, anything to make it rise to at least the level of the previous film. Sure, the action is there but it's just more of the same. Simply put, anything that made the first one original is gone now. The half-breed, Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman) is back for no reason other than to save the day at the last possible moment and to get a sex scene with Selene. Please, don't tell me there might be pups in their future. If you must see this, wait for a rental.
Unrest
One of eight films in the "Eight Films to Die For Horrorfest," Unrest revolves around four medical students (TV's Corri English as Alison, Scot Davis as Brian, Joshua Alba as Carlos, and Jay Jablonski as Rick) studying dissections and autopsies, but Alison has a bad feeling about the corpse they are assigned to work on. Soon enough, members of the medical school's staff are murdered by an unseen force, which also begins going after the four med students. Alison soon discovers that the corpse was a former archeologist from Brazil now possessed by the pissed-off souls of people sacrificed by the Aztecs. While this film is strong on atmosphere, direction and camera work (especially the use of the long vacant corridors in the medical school—director Jason Todd Ipson is a former med student), it falls short on delivering a payoff mostly because the unseen force remains "unseen," making me feel very unsatisfied. Especially irking was the idea that the Aztecs were in Brazil, since anyone who studied history knows they weren't. Little details like that piss me off! Don't filmmakers do research anymore?
Urban Legend: The Final Cut
I bet ten dollars that this film was pitched as a slasher film about film students, but was reworked and forced to include the "Urban Legend" tagline. I can only hope this really was the final cut. It sucked!
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