Clever and Quirky
Main Cast: Mungo McKay, Felicity Mason, Rob Jenkins, Lisa Cunningham
Director: Michael and Peter Spierig
Plot Summary: A small Australian town is showered by strange meteorites that turn the citizens into zombie horrors. A small group of living must fight to survive!
As someone who enjoys horror movies I just had to see something with the name Undead. That it is a small, indie-type film is a given, keeping with the genre. That it is thoughtful and compelling is rare.
Undead begins with Rene (Mason), a lovely young woman down on her luck. Debts from her family have taken away her farm and a loan request is turned down. The only thing to do is go to the “big city” and, hopefully, make some money. She bums a ride with a flashy agent, but during their exit a rain of rocks fall from the sky. These rocks carry some type of plague that turns people into ravenous zombies.
The zombies take out the agent and Rene runs to a farmhouse, owned by Marion (McKay), a laconic young man who seems to know a lot about what’s going on. He and Rene are the level heads among the group of people who end up at the farm, including a young man named Wayne (Jenkins) and a woman named Sallyanne (Cunningham). A bossy deputy and his partner join the group. The zombies are relentless, however, and chase them.
First down to a bomb shelter in the basement, then out of the farm and onto the road out of town. That’s when they find the wall…
I don’t want to give all the secrets away. Suffice it to say that zombies, aliens, and plagues are mixed up in a surprisingly amusing, quirky tale of horror and… comedy. Yes, humor is used quite cleverly, mostly in the deaths of the zombies, who do double-takes and act in a more intelligent manner than your usual floor-shuffler. Undead is definitely clever, taking worn clichés and adding a nice shade of new paint.
As 28 Days Later was serious, Undead comedic, both are clever, with strong performances and hefty plots. I can definitely recommend this one.
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