Year released: 2003
THE CHARGE: Bringing Australians back from the dead. ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE, OI OI OI!
THE EVIDENCE: Meteorites carrying an alien virus smash into a Australian village, killing the townsfolk and then turning them into zombies who crave human flesh. (Has there ever been a zombie who didn’t?) A small group of survivors takes refuge in a bomb shelter but, realizing there are almost no supplies to sustain them, try to figure out how to get past the zombie hordes and get out of town. The task proves to be far more difficult than they expected, but it’s not because of the zombies...
Undead was directed by the Spierig brothers, who later worked on the well-received and much bigger budgeted vampire flick Daybreakers. Just as Daybreakers twisted the rules of vampire films, Undead subverts the common conventions of the zombie genre with a surprising turn into X-Files territory halfway through the film. As a result, Undead becomes the very definition of a love-it-or-hate-it movie. Either you appreciate the creativity that went into crafting the last half of the film, wondering what the Spierigs were smoking and where you can get some, or you hate it for ruining what started out as a perfectly good zombie flick. Personally, I loved it and I think Undead offers an original twist to a tired genre.
Like most horror flicks from Australia and New Zealand, Undead offers plenty of humor in between (and sometimes during) its gory spurts of violence. Most of it pokes fun of the stereotype of the rugged Australian, in the form of a survivalist who claims to have been abducted by aliens. Played with gleeful abandon by Mungo McKay, he’s the type who can literally be caught with his pants down and, just as literally, still manage to pull a gun out of his ass to save himself.
Seriously, you don't want to know where those guns have been.
Aside from McKay, the rest of the acting ranges from acceptable to abominable. Felicity Mason does a reasonable job in her lead role as a former beauty queen who frequently acts as the voice of reason in a gang full of misfit survivors. The rest of her crew, however, tends to ham it up way too much. There’s bad b-movie acting and then there’s bad bad b-movie acting, and we’re treated to way too much of the latter by the supporting cast.
The effects are what you’d expect from a zombie flick, with plenty of gunshots and severed limbs to go around, though they rely too heavily on poorly done CGI splatter. Note to all filmmakers: squibs and karo syrup aren’t that expensive.
Behold the consequences of eating vegemite.
Still, despite some subpar acting and effects, Undead is saved from bottom of the barrel b-movie status by the Spierigs’ creativity, offering a smart and often satirical script that confidently turns the zombie genre on its mutilated ear. In a time when every z-grade horror flick is being ineptly remade by Hollywood, Undead should be admired for offering an original spin on a worn out genre.
THE VERDICT: Undead is NOT GUILTY and makes good use of twisted Aussie humor to create a rollicking whip-smart comic adventure. Better actors would have turned it into a legitimate cult classic, but it's still worth checking out.
