17th May, 2008 Login • Register
Search This Site
Undead (2005) DVD Review
Undead (2005) DVD Credits:
Undead (2005) Directed by:
Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Undead (2005) Written by:
Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Undead (2005) Cast:
Felicity Mason, Mungo McKay, Rob Jenkins, Lisa Cunningham, Dirk Hunter, Emma Randall, Steve Greig, Noel Sheridan, Gaynor Wensley, Eleanor Stillman
Undead (2005) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
1
Undead (2005) DVD Release Date:
1st January 2006
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD
Undead (2005) Synopsis:

Peaceful, rustic Berkeley is a charming fishing community where life is sweet and the people friendly. All that is about to change. After losing her childhood farm to the bank, local beauty Rene decides to leave town and head for the big city. Suddenly, an avalanche of meteorites races through the sky, bombarding the town and bringing an otherworldly infection. Departing is going to be much more difficult than she had planned. The living dead are awakened and Rene is now caught in a nightmare of zombies hungry for human flesh. She manages to find salvation in a small isolated farm house owned by the town loony, Marion. There she is met with four other desperate survivors. Together they battle their way through a plague of walking dead and discover that there is more transpiring than just an infection. Undead is a horror film in the vein of Night of the Living Dead and The Evil Dead and features an overflow of gore and visual effects to make any horror fan squirm with delight.

Undead (2005) DVD Review:

Zombie films have become so commonplace that it seems silly to expect anything remotely original anymore. The Spierig Brothers seemed to think that this was a problem, because with Undead they went out of there way to throw as many unexpected twists at the audience as possible. Despite the horrible acting, extreme gore, and silly twists, or perhaps because of these things, Undead is a wild and entertaining film. It just goes to show that not all films need to be great in order to be fun to watch.

Undead begins by introducing us to a small fishing town in Australia, which may as well be dead. Nothing exciting is happening and because of this it comes as a giant shock when a meteor shower rains down on many unsuspecting victims. The space rocks tear through flesh un-forgivingly, but surprisingly the victims don’t remain dead. The meteors somehow engage a zombie activity, which sends the town into a panic. Five survivors find themselves trapped in a farmhouse, but luckily they have an assortment of creative weapons to fend the zombies off.

What makes Undead interesting beyond the strange involvement of aliens in the plot, the extreme and comical gore, and the awful deadpan acting, is the direction the film goes in. Most all zombie films classify it as an outbreak of some sort, and yet they never look to find a cure. Instead we know that as soon as they turn it is time to put a bullet in their brain. Undead goes in many strange directions, but the most logical is the fact that a cure becomes part of the storyline.

Because of the fact that this film was made with a low budget, they seemed to take great care in documenting the process. The result is a great deal of special features for horror fanatic’s enjoyment. The most substantial of the features is The Making of Undead, a great featurette with tons of behind the scenes footage and interviews. The filmmakers talk about the trouble with the shoot including their lack of sleep and how at one point one of them was so sick that his mouth was bleeding.

There is a Q&A segment from the Supanova Convention in Australia. The footage and sound is quite rough, and was obviously just put together by a friend or family member, but the fact that it was recorded is still admirable. Along the same lines is The Toronto Film Festival Screening footage. It actually has a great deal more fun footage, including watching the fans make a mad rush for the theater.

There is also a bunch of footage showing the special effects for the film. There is an internet featurette on the zombies, the camera and make-up tests, and animatic to film comparison. One cool little feature is the construction of the homemade dolly. There are also deleted scenes, extended scenes, artwork, trailers, and a preview for the upcoming horror film Saw II.

Our Rating: Extras Rating: User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD

Undead (2005) DVD review written by: Ryan Izay

Content Management System provided by P J Thomson - Freelance Web Design - PHP/MySQL Development