I guess being an amateur, unpaid, armchair movie critic with at least something of an online following occasionally has its perks — from time to time, for instance, somebody (who I may or may not even “know” particularly well via, say, facebook or twitter) will unexpectedly send something interesting to my email inbox and I’ll discover an unexpected little gem that I otherwise would’ve known nothing about. That’s always nice.
On the flipside, however, once in awhile somebody will afford me the opportunity to watch, ahead of its release date (via means I shan’t discuss) something like the coming-straight-to-home-video-in-a-few-weeks, Italian-produced cheapie Zombie Massacre — which is also circulating under the obvious rip-off title Apocalypse Z in some territories where, apparently, the hope is that audiences are even more gullible than they are here in the US — and that’s just plain flat-out cruel.
Not that I hold sending this my way against my nameless “benefactor” in any way, shape, or form , mind you — the name of this blog is Trash Film Guru, after all, and if there’s one thing Zombie Massacre can lay more than fair claim to, it’s being trash — but I will say that this is one gift horse whose tooth-decayed, yellowing, halitosis-oozing mouth I’ve looked into and found to be a yawning, gaping, putrefying abyss.
But then, what do you expect? I’m told that most horses don’t floss regularly.
So here’s the deal — while I wasn’t exactly blown away by this summer’s mega-blockbuster zombie epic World War Z, whose coattails this flick is so obviously as desperately trying to latch onto (not that I particularly disliked it it either, mind you — it was just sort of there), it positively comes off as an undead Citizen Kane compared to this mess.
The writer/director team of Luca Boni and Marco Ristori has a lot to answer for here, from the deplorable choices made vis a vis their no-name (for good reason) cast to their insipid storyline revolving around a failed US government experiment to create a “super soldier” (not actually in the US, mind you, but in eastern Europe) that results in a zombie-plague outbreak that some privatized mercenary army is brought in to “put down” by means of nuking the area, which will then be sold to the public as a radiation leak at the local atomic power plant (or something) to the bargain-basement CGI on display (although, in fairness, some of the “real” makeup effects they employ aren’t too bad) to the general amateur-but-not-in-a-good-way tone to the entire proceedings, but let’s be honest — whenever Uwe Boll is close at hand, some of the blame’s going to end up, fairly or not, attaching itself to him, as well.
Yes, friends, the creative “mind” behind the likes of House Of The Dead and the BloodRayne “franchise” is on hand here, serving as producer and turning in a cameo as the least-believable president of the United States in cinematic history, and his unique brand of excruciatingly-uninteresting Z-grade moviemaking oozes from each and every slimy celluloid pore of Zombie Massacre, regardless of who really directed the thing. If it looks like a Uwe Boll film, plays like a Uwe Boll film, feels like a Uwe Boll film, and most importantly smells like a Uwe Boll film, then goddamnit, it is a Uwe Boll film, at least in my book. no matter what the credits say.
I honestly don’t know how Boll so consistently does it — by all rights I should love his films, since they’re crap, but they’re always such dull and pointless crap, you know? Needless to say, this is no exception.
But don’t take my word for it (or better yet, do) — if a thirtieth-rate production of Blackwater vs. zombies sounds good to you, rest assured that this flick — under one of its titles — will be available for your home viewing edification any day now. I’ve done my part by warning you, from here on out you’re on your own.
As the tagline on the poster so rightly says — “There Is No Hope.” Truer words were never spoken.
Trash Film Guru 
Sounds bad lol. Anything with Boll’s name I avoid. I don’t care if he wrote, directed, produced, acted or cleaned the floor. I avoid at all costs. He’s a horrible filmmaker and not in a good way. At least Ed Wood worked on super low budget films and at least his films were fun. A lot of people label Ed the worst. I disagree. While not good by any means he’s hardly the worst,
I would say Boll is worse than Ed. Boll has far bigger budgets with just as poor,production values and again at least the films of Ed Wood could be fun. So with Boll’s name attached its a skipper for me
I absolutely agree. Ed had an iconoclastic vision all his own that he struggled to get filmed against almost impossible odds. Boll has it much easier than Wood ever did and yet all he ever comes up with with is dull, plodding crap.
Ed Wood of course wasn’t a good filmmaker,,but he had imagination. Maybe that’s not such a good thing in his case, but Uwe Boll has zero.
I have 3 reviews for Ed Wood films no idea when I’ll post them, but I enjoyed his work, but with a far, far larger budget Boll made films just as shoddy. And a few years ago movies like Rampage seemed shock value for,the sake of it, I never saw it, House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark and BloodRayne 3 strikes you’re out!
Trust me, you haven’t missed much —
We get a shan’t and a vis a vis in the same review, niiiiiiiiiice!
I try!
Uwe Boll is no Bruno Mattei.
’nuff said!
Very well said indeed!