Directed
by Andy Phelps and Jake Hawkins, Starring: Eric Colvin, Jim Sweeney, Danny
Brown, Horror, UK, 2011, 83mins, Cert 18.George
A. Romero has a lot to answer for. Actually that’s unfair. The current source
of this never-ending infestation of zombie films should really be attributed back
to AMC’s The WALKING DEAD. Case in point: ZOMBIE RESURRECTION. Although
principal photography was completed back in 2011, I’m guessing this low-budget
British entry into the gut-munching glut is only now seeing the light of day
thanks to the success of that TV show. And whilst it teases to promise an
original idea on the overly-familiar sub-genre tropes of zombification, it
fails to capitalise on this concept leaving behind a fairly uninspiring trail
of half-digested offal in its wake.
A
vaccine against biological warfare incubates into a pathogen which brings about
the zombie apocalypse. On infection day 458, a mixed-bag of eight survivors are
being led across the ‘badlands’ (leafy British woodland), seeking refuge in the
nearest uninfected hub. One of the group, ‘Sykes’, is a prisoner being escorted
to his execution for being on the team responsible for unwittingly creating the
plague. His military escorts are Major ‘Gibson’ (completely out of his depth
and a complete arsehole to boot) and ‘Mac’, a gritty hardened combat veteran.
The rest of the party are made up of broadly drawn soap opera-type caricatures
such as Jade Colucci’s gobby Chav ‘Harden’ (channelling EASTENDERS Jessie
Wallace); a golf-obsessed father and his innocent sixteen year-old daughter
(played by an actress of 23); an idealistic university graduate named ‘Ghadhi’
(honestly); and a heavily pregnant, heavily religious mum-to-be.
After
several half-hearted skirmishes with the rotting and severely malnourished dead
(during which ‘Major Gibson’ still manages to end up losing half a leg due to
‘Mac’s’ emergency machete amputation), the group escape to the seeming safety
of an apparently abandoned school. It isn’t on either count.
The
major selling point of ZOMBIE RESURRECTION is the idea there’s some kind of
Messiah figure bringing the living dead back to living life by his touch, or as
‘Ghandhi’ puts it: “Jesus! Back from the back from the dead!” Erm, quite.
Slight snag though (and no giggling at the back) as soon as a zombie is
resurrected back to life they’re instantly seen as dinner for the remaining
hordes and are promptly devoured before being resurrected again in a seemingly
endless and downright disheartening cycle of death; rebirth; devoured death;
rebirth...ad nauseam, ad nausea. (Is he the Messiah – or is he just a very
naughty boy?)
Having
waited till the final third of this otherwise largely pedestrian affair to
introduce their ‘resurrection’ theme, first-time co-directors/writers Phelps
and Hawkins do little with it before crow baring in a seemingly hurried conclusion
which literally nails it’s metaphor to the wall in a botched attempt to inject
a dose of gravitas into the otherwise supposedly blackly comic proceedings.
The
initial decaying zombie prosthetics are nicely done before the generic ‘ripes’
(the fresher 28 DAYS LATER-type running gut-munchers) take over with their
minimal make-ups and contacts.
It’s
not every day a pregnant women is punched in the face and called a c#nt – but
it’s fairly indicative of the script the cast are given to chew on.
Tough-guy
soldier ‘Mac’ hauls on his shoulders a massive rotting blanket of animal pelts
which he affectionately calls ‘Bessie’. The makers of ZOMBIE RESURRECTION on
the other hand carry on their shoulders the combined weight of countless rotten
zombie films which have come before them - and this in the end leaves them with
an insurmountable burden to breathe new life into an exhausted sub-genre
long-since past resurrection.
**(out of 5)
Paul
Worts
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