Undead

Plot synopsis:
After losing her family farm to the bank, local beauty pageant winner Rene (Felicity Mason), decides to leave the small town of Berkeley. A number of strange meteorites are seen falling nearby, turning the local inhabitants into zombies. Rene and other survivors hide in the home of gun nut and alien abductee Marion (Mungo McKay). Marion has a large cache of guns and a basement fallout shelter, but he never had a chance to stock it with food or water.
The group ventures outside to scavenge, but encounter the zombies. Marion shoots one in the head and discovers that such is the way to keep the creatures down. They abandon the house, going to the garage to get Marion's van. They try to flee, only to find a huge barrier surrounding the entire town, which Marion blames on the aliens that had taken him. There is also a slightly acidic rain that falls at very regular intervals and the group is careful not to get wet.
Later, they are confronted by glowing, hooded figures. One by one, the group is either killed or pulled up into the clouds until only Rene is left. The aliens stop her and she is sprayed with the rain-like chemical, which turns out to be a cure for the infection. The Aliens are actually there to keep the zombie infection from spreading. The "abducted" are floating in suspended animation above the clouds to keep them safe. Their job done, the aliens leave, unaware that Wayne (Rob Jenkins), presumed dead, managed to escape by plane and will spread the infection after they left.
The townspeople are rushed to the hospital to treat the injured. Unfortunately, Wayne transforms into a zombie, first infecting Marion and then spreading the plague once again.
The film ends at Rene's farm where the survivors are staying. The final shot is of the farm with a fenced-in area nearby, containing the zombified residents of Berkeley. Rene stands guard with a four barreled shotgun and a gas mask, waiting for the return of the aliens.

Tags: comedy, murder, bleak, cult, violence, flashback

Review:
Surprisingly, the plot is quite strong, too, with a ripper of an ending that left me deeply impressed.It isn't without its flaws - a few gags fall flat, the dialogue can be a bit hard to hear at times, the pacing is a tad shaky, and the final reel or two could do with a little bit of fat trimmed, plus the hero of the piece is just a bit annoying, with a whole lot of dialogue that is meant to be cheesy, but gets a bit TOO cheesy more than once - but for a first film made on a shoestring, it is just incredible.
It is so rare these days to set eyes upon a film that is not subjected to the boring, rehashed, commercially-hungry, modern American sub-genre of horror movies such as Cabin Fever and a host of recent slasher movies that try, beyond hope, to scare or shock the viewer by throwing as much blood and fast camera movement ("Boo, are you scared?") at the screen, with little to no success.
It pays hommage to a number of cult classics out there such as Romero's Trilogy of the Dead (the isolated farmhouse from NotLD, "Let's shop!" from Dawn and the police powerplay from Day), Raimi's Evil Dead ("Join us!"), Jackson's Braindead (the shovel in the bank manager's head) and Bad Taste (the alien contingent and appearance).Do not expect great acting (though I am sure these actors are more than capable of doing so) or a totally original script (though the ending was actually quite unusual and surprised me), for this is not what this film is about.
But then local weirdo farmer Marion (in an obvious Clint Eastwood spoof) pulls out a three shotgun, er, shotgun and blows the zombie body apart in hilariously gory detail, leaving an even funnier sequence- a walking spine, resembling that of a tall headless chicken.They are forced to hide out in his heavily protected farmhouse as well as others (including a foul mouthed cop) who seems to swear unnecessarily, but has some brilliant lines: "I'll f*ckin finish you off faster than a f*ckin birthday cake at a fat chicks f*ckin party!" or "in our day, we respected our parents: we didn't f*ckin eat em!" In short, Undead is an enjoyable horror comedy with occasional flashes of sly genius to keep everyone happy.*** out of **** (3 out of 4).
This is a funny and creative gore flick along the lines of early Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi: 'Bad Taste' comes to mind.I can't say this is a great film- but it does show great promise for the writer/directors.
"Undead" is most definitely such a film.Like Sam Raimi, the writer/producer/director of the "Evil Dead"-trilogy, the Spierig-brothers dares, yes DARES, to make over-the-top-fun of the genre - it's intentional - and that's why it works.
The Spierig Brothers' (Peter and Michael) "Undead" would seem even more like a cheap '50s drive-in "B"-movie if the film just billed itself as a cheap '50s drive-in "B"-movie outright instead of masquerading as a zombie-splatter flick spoof.
In "Undead," we get zombies, aliens (aliens?), laughs and gory head shots that are delivered to us in such a fashion, the film plays out like a head-on collision between each genre.I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
I've seen enough over the last two years to realize that alongside comics and video games, zombie movies represent one of the remaining avenues left for truly innovative (if not completely original) film-making.
The film takes place on the continent's fishing mecca Berkeley and as it opens, ominous meteorites have been raining down on the countryside, shooting through unsuspecting townspeople (leaving holes in them so big you can New Zealand), and turning them into flesh-hungry zombies.Meanwhile, poor Rene (the strangely attractive, doe-eyed Felicity Mason), a recent "Catch of the Day" beauty queen, is on her way out of Berkeley when the occurrences begin.
It's in "bad taste" the way the early zombie flicks of Peter Jackson were, or the "Evil Dead" films of Sam Raimi.
There are some pretty good visual-effects zombie-kills, including a scene where young Rene takes a stick, attaches a saw blade to it, and swings away at approaching undead.
Or does he?Undead is your typical small budget, gore infested zombie flick, with a one difference: it has actually pretty neat special effects and some of the photography is pretty good looking.But, then it comes to the plot: some jokes work, some don't.
Ever the post-80s horror boom cultural vultures, Spierigs plunder shamelessly from the expected sources - the grey apocalypticism of George A Romero's Dead trilogy, the outrageous gore setpieces of Peter Jackson's blood-soaked Bad Taste and Braindead, the camera histronics of early Sam Raimi and Coen Brothers efforts - while breathing new life into the long-exhausted zombie cycle and making a film that is entirely their own.
As expected there's buckets of gallows humour, but the film never trades cheap laughs for its primary purpose: delivering good old-fashioned blood-curdling shocks.If Aussie horror is a dead duck, Undead blows it out of the water..
It's soon up to her, the guy, a husband, his pregnant wife, and two cops to survive long enough to figure what the hell is going on.This Aussie film, while hopelessly derivative and ripping-off a great many great genre movies, is still a lot of fun.
UNDEAD (2005) 0 * Arguably one of the worst films I've ever seen  nonsensical hodgepodge about a meteorite shower causing an Australian fishing village to become zombies with it's so-sure-of-itself-smugness incorporating (ok --- Stealing!
The visuals were average, the plot was "loose" at best, and the characters were just plain lame and uninteresting.It truly was a pain to finish this film and I can tolerate a lot of crap in movies.
The story begins like George Romero's classic "The Night of the Living Dead", is a splatter movie, like Peter Jackson's "Brainded" or "Bad Taste", or Philip Brophy's "Body Melt" and mixes horror with sci-fi in a very funny way.
This movie was made by some Austrailian outfit,which is neither here nor there , but just in case you are tempted to see a zombie film made by some Austrailian group you'll know to avoid it.I mean how many Austrailian outfits could be out there making zombie pics?.Anyway some small town is over run by zombies with the predictable ensuing gore and corny tag lines.I never could figure out the plot--it was a mix of zombies,aliens,some kind of sickness and even a touch of religion,I think.There are a couple of cool gore scenes ,in one of which a zombie gets his face scooped out with a shovel but believe me they aren't cool enough to sit through this stinker to see.I'm pretty stingy and I usually watch anything I rent but I couldn't make it through this bomb.I skipped the last 10 minutes or so.I didn't care if the zombies or humans won or how the film brought all those convoluted plot parts together and I still don't.Avoid this movie like the big steaming pile of dog crap that it is..
Stealing liberally from some of the greatest zombie and splatter pics of the last couple of decades, they have crafted a crazy, gory, FX filled debut that delivers ample bloodletting, but ultimately fails to reach the levels of success achieved by the films that they so obviously tried to emulate.The Spierig Brothers are obviously big fans of the horror genre and I admire the fact that they have created such a technically impressive film without major studio backing (FX, both gore and digital, are impressive given the budget) but, hampered by lousy characterisation and a muddled script, Undead winds up being a second-rate BrainDead/Evil Dead wannabe.Rather than being innovators, they are content to take the elements of the films they love (the gore, the outlandish plot, the absurd characters), without taking the time to construct a worthy script around them.
The writing/directing team of brothers Peter and Michael Spierig are pretty obviously aiming for an absurd slapstick horror film in the vein of Peter Jackson's far superior "Dead Alive," but come up short in every regard; after a fairly decent first hour, the plot meanders and drags to the point where you'll be hard-pressed to care about the uninspired conclusion.
Having watched many a movie down through the years, genre notwithstanding, I began to feel that yes, certain portions of the movie started to resemble something I had seen before.An Avalanche of gore in the first fifteen minutes certainly catches your attention, but as we all know, gore should never be a substitute for telling a good story.Meteorites land on earth taking out innocent civilians going about their everyday lives, however not justified in just making these people deceased, as soon as they have died, they rise again, with a taste for human flesh.
The basic must, introducing your major stock of main characters proceeds, till eventually however not completely seek refuge in a out of the way farmhouse.As i said before, great visuals, done surprisingly on the brothers computer, but their lack of ear for good dialogue, and rehashing scenes from other movies kinda left me feeling cold and confused, all the while looking at my watch waiting for the end to please hurry up De-Javu will descend whilst watching this movie, as to how it ends, if you don't already know, brace yourself for an ending perhaps re-imagined after watching many undead movies made by the king of undead movies himself George A Romero, add a dash of Rolf De Heer's "Encounters At Ravensgate" "The Arrival" and you'll come to realise that you've had a close encounter of the same old thing and wondering just what was it all about?.
As long as the film involves bloody massacres and morbid black humor, it's a very entertaining cheapie that reminds you of B-movie triumphs like "The Evil Dead", "Basket Case" or  even better  the earliest Peter Jackson flick "Bad Taste".
Severely lacking in creativity, the film resorts to showcasing the superficial aspects of the zombie horror genre (blood, violence, gore, etc) without thinking any further.
However, some parts of the film, such as the part where the character of Rene slices her way through multiple zombies don't work well; so it's hit and miss with regards to comedy.Despite it's failed attempt to be original with it's twist half way through, Undead is still a decent zombie movie, and is still therefore recommended to fans of the genre..
Watching a second time will help sort out the plot points if you missed them the first time around.There are lots of references to previous zombie films for the aficionados of the genre.
The special effects are pretty good, and better than many movies with much bigger budgets.Its a horror movie with sci-fi overtones first and a comedy second.
It begins like a old great family movie,OK, suddenly it turns in to a splatter, still OK, we meet our characters, damn bad, and after that we are taking the long road down.
Just to see how bad a movie could be I stayed watching...The effects are like in the 90's not to mention the stupid zombies when they drop their in-parts and getting their spine cut off.
I really don't know why do i torture myself with stupid movies like this.Well its not stupid, its way beyond stupid.I am truly sorry i wasted 2 hours of my life on this, i could have better used my time, like banging my head into a wall.But if anyone is into undead zombies mixed with aliens and bad acting, even worse directing, feel free to watch.I don't know how did they expect to earn money on this, probably due to the popularity of movies like "Dawn Of The Dead' and "28 Days Later".When will they learn that the key to success is not how many mutilated bodies will appear or how many hands and heads will be torn out, it is the story that should attract and scare people.
Zombie-cum-alien infestation horror doesn't take itself seriously, to its credit, but loses its way badly.It's certainly a good start where originality is concerned that for the first 10 minutes of this I was puzzled as whether I was watching the film I thought I was.
I was then reminded of the Night of the Living Dead homages in presence here, which assured me this was the right film.The story in Undead is an expansion of the meteorite side-story of NOTLD, whereby an alien invasion involving rocks, fish, rain and a mysterious pendant (Don't ask) are responsible for turning the locals into mindless zombies.You can already tell there's a distinct aspect of comedy here, and for the most part when it is trying to be funny, Undead genuinely succeeds in proving a laugh or 2.
The characters are all fairly stereotypical and overblown, but this is intentional.However, the movie falls down when it goes from zombie comedy splatter flick to pseudo-sci-fi thriller.It basically loses its way and doesn't really end, it just kind of fizzles out into nothingness.There's little more I can add; decent for a while but then loses it.Ah well..
Meteors fall from the sky on a small town and turn people into zombies.A horror/gore/comedy that seems like George Romero meets Peter Jackson in his gore days.
As an Australian fan of the horror movie genre, I was definitely looking foward to seeing this one.David Stratton, a well-respected movie reviewer within Australia said the "Undead is worthy of cult status." I don't really agree with him on this one.'Undead' has some wonderfully stereotypical characters (the police officer, especially), the storyline has potential and the acting could have been much worse.
The major problem with 'Undead' is it fails to keep the audience's attention through the whole movie.I was expecting much better, instead I got an average horror film that could have been so much better.
I think there are contenders for the 'worlds worst director' title - move over Ed Wood!Two Australian brothers (Peter & Michael Spierig) writers and directors of this utterly awful movie, 'Undead', 2003 (Australia).I have a fairly high tolerance level and it takes a really AWFUL film to make me either walk out or WANT to walk out.I viewed the above monstrosity' last night at the Australian National University Film Group screening.
I'll start off with what I found good about the movie: the gore, the make-up, the digital effects, the locations and the all-around production value of the film.
The bad: HORRIBLE story/plot (ridiculous reactions by the characters such as running into the woods instead of jumping into your running car when being chased by ONE- slow-moving zombie), UNORIGINAL ( I can't stress that enough), REPETITIVE (I can't stress THAT enough), so-so to CRAPPY acting, the most ANNOYING, OBNOXIOUS "actor" I've ever had the displeasure of seeing (The male cop), and the thing that ruins the movie the most- the WORST musical score I've ever heard.
Which is pretty crappy when you're supposed to be feeling some sort of suspense when you're watching a zombie/horror/sci-fi movie.
The characters run into the woods from there running cars when attacked by zombies.They stop and stare as the zombies slowly romero style stager towards them.the actually consider leaving a safe underground bunker when one of them is having contractions yelling "we have to get to a hospital"despite the fact the house is crawling with zombies.i could go on and on.the acting was ok, the script is to blame,endless scene chewing dialoge.The plot was so convoluted i really didnt care it was never resolved by the end of the movie i was just grateful it was over.
Being an Aussie, and a genre fan, was expecting abit more, with all the hype...OK the good:the film was technically well made, and since the budget was low this ia an achievement, no doubt.the special effects were good.the bad:The characters were so annoying and, whiney and clichéd.not to give away, but talk about a muddled ending of all muddled endings...
Granted, it is not as good as other zombie/comedy films such as 'Dead Alive' or the all time great 'Shaun of the Dead', but it is a lot better than most of the tripe put out the last four or five years since 'The Walking Dead' has become all the rage.
Absolutely not as there are so many plot holes and inconsistencies it is insane, but at the same time, I do not think a film that has a guy completely naked at one point and pulling guns out of nowhere the next is a film that one should take too seriously either.The story has a relatively small town being bombarded with meteors that quickly transform most of the population into bloodthirsty zombies.
As they try to escape they soon come across a huge wall encompassing the entire town and it quickly becomes apparent that there is more going on than a simple zombie outbreak.I thought the film did do a good job for the most part as it flowed pretty quickly.
The movie is witty, entertaining, and eerie with a seemingly original twist.Direction is superb, sound and effects are great, a great Australian cast- the acting is not Guy Pearce or Mel Gibson but good enough, surpassing most mainstream modest budgeted horror flicks.See it any way you can.
And it finally got my interest and I really started enjoying the movie at that point.For those of you that like something a little bit different with your zombies, I would check it out.
This film reminds me a lot of "Evil Aliens" so if you haven't seen it and have enjoyed "Undead" be sure to watch it as well.9/10.
This Antipodean masterpiece has breathed fresh life into a genre that was beginning to look corpse-like itself.The story is excellent and manages to come up with something fresh and new, the characters are 3 dimensional individuals that you care about and the special effects are exactly what you want from a good horror film - bloody!
But this defies almost all of the classical zombie acts.Like Shaun, this movie is supposed to be a comedy.