Hey folks, Harry here.... From the 50th Sydney International Film Festival came this wonderful double feature. The only problem I see with it, is that the programmers showed the films in the wrong order. IF anyone out there reading this is thinking of putting these two films on in the same night... You must start with CABIN FEVER then show UNDEAD... To do it the other way around is a complete clusterfuck of energy that just doesn't play as well as they both deserve. WHY? Well, CABIN FEVER starts with some humor, but grows more and more serious as the film goes on... UNDEAD is just fucking hilarious throughout, without ever truly being DRAMATIC... One, UNDEAD will feel funnier after CABIN FEVER. Two, you never put on DAWN OF THE DEAD after DEAD ALIVE. That's just wrong. Anyways, here ya go...
Hi Harry,
Just wanted to send in 2 quick reviews of some interesting movies I saw at the 50th Sydney International Film Festival.
Undead:
A sold out screening, with the Spierig brothers, some key cast members in attendance.
Wow ! What an amazing film.
Set in a small rural australian town of Berkeley, strange meteors crash into the ground and people. Any one that comes into contact with these meteors seems to become "undead".
That's a very rough overview of the plot, of course more could be said but it would spoil what is an extremely enjoyable zombie film, and yet even more, with an excellent, original sci-fi twist to the story.
With some obvious nods to famous directors from the horror genre such as Romero, Raimi and Jackson - Undead is an amazing accomplishment by the twin brother directors. With plenty of blood, guts & action for any horror fan to squirm with pleasure, its quite obvious the Spierig brothers are fans of the horror genre, particularly zombie films, mentioning at a Q+A after the movie that they felt the need to make an Australian zombie film because only one other film of that nature exists.
The sold out audience for this screening enjoyed the film immensely, judging by the collective roars of laughter during humorous moments and cheers from the audience as the Zombies were dispatched in ever increasingly creative ways.
This film is a must-see for any fan of horror, or even just fans of Zombie films. The characters are extremely funny and entertaining, as is most of the film. I know I'll be checking this film out again in theatres when it gets a domestic ( Australian ) release in August.
Cabin Fever:
I went into this film without any prior knowledge other than the less than impressive trailer available for download from the Apple website.
Much to my pleasant surprise, particularly since this screened after Undead, the film was highly entertaining. The audience were totally charged, losing it with the humour and suprisingly gory progression.
A previous reviewer on this site "My friends and I all left this film mildly nauseous, the film is just that bloody, but through every moment you are saying "no, NO, Aww gawd No…"(pretty much audibly from every audience member at my screening), you will just be loving it" - SNAP !
Thanks,
Alex.
Here's a rather lengthy look at UNDEAD - which has spoilers - WHICH I PROMISE... YOU WANT TO AVOID - It Is An Absolute Rave!
Hey Harry,
I was fortunate enough last night to attend a screening of the Spierig Brother's feature debut, "Undead" followed by a Q&A with Cast and Crew, at the 50th Sydney Film Festival. It was playing alongside "Cabin Fever", however, I'm only writing regarding "Undead" as there seem to be plenty of "Cabin Fever" reviews going around!
On to the review..
For their debut feature, the Spierig Brothers have chosen familiar territory to tread on, in a wholly original manner. "Undead" promises, from trailers and write-up's to be a standard mix of zombies, horror and comedy, however from about 15 minutes into the film, it became apparent to me just how different and infact special this film is in comparison to your standard horror flick.
We open on a small rural fictitious Queensland town, Berkeley. Kids play cricket and two local fishermen bicker. Moments later, meteors start to fall from the sky, they hit an elderly woman, she is knocked to the ground, a smoldering hole through her chest, the bickering fishermen too busy to notice. Behind them, the elderly woman begins to groan, she pushes herself up, her lifeless undead limbs dangle, a gaping crater in her chest, she lurches forward to enact her deaths purpose, brainnnns, brainnnnnns. Thus begins, UNDEAD.
Renee (Felicity Mason) is the newly crowned Berkeley Fish Queen, the beauty queen of a one horse town. Her childhood farm is in the process of being repossessed by the bank, whilst the rest of the town is being possessed by an infection. She decides to split, leave town for the city and start fresh, but straight from the time she meets her ride, a sleazy talent agent looking to take advantage of a small town girl, her path is fraught with obstacles. While traveling towards the city Renee and her new "agent" run into a car accident, "This wouldn't happen if people stayed two car lengths ahead! I'll take care of this." Renee's agent states with a sleazeridden smirk on his face. Inside the car wreckage lies a small girl, her body limp and her face blocked from view. We cut back to the car, Renee's agent comes back with an air confidence to state that everything is okay, there's a girl in the car, but that's about all. Suddenly a claw swipes from under the car and gashes his leg, he screams, not the knight in shining armour he has set himself up as. He bends down to take a look. Whomp! He is pulled under the car, Renee screams. She jumps out of the car, in a panic. From the wreckage in front of them, the small girl staggers forward, her face covered in hair, her head slouched down. In a shot that is a great nod to George A. Romero's original "Night of the Living Dead", the girl tilts her head up, her undead eyes clouded over with her only intent, the flesh of the living. Another woman who has happened upon the pile up approaches from her car, the small girl inches forward, she looks up, her fist propelled forward with the might of ten men. The small girl's hand rips through the woman's skull and breaks through the back of her head, something rests in her grip. The girl thrusts her hand back towards herself, the woman's brain is in the small girls hands, being devoured savagely like a starving beast. Suddenly from the trees comes a figure of a strong man, his face blocked by the rim of his drovers hat, he wields a weapon more useful than Ash's chainsaw arm, a weapon strangely similar to Moe Syzslak's four shot guns strung together, a triple attack shot gun. Our figure darts in, takes care of the situation and makes his get away. Renees follows, only to find him hold up in a run down shack, his name Marion (Mungo McKay) a veteran of a previous zombie onslaught, the quickest draw in Berkeley, the most prepared man this side of Robert Neville.
From here we get to know a jittery selfish pilot Wayne (Rob Jenkins) and his pregnant ex-beauty queen wife, Sallyanne (Lisa Cunningham) a foulmouthed redneck cop, Harrison (Dirk Hunter) and his newly appointed constable, Molly (Emma Randall), the majority of whom serve as side characters, and some of whom (Wayne) I don't feel we get to see enough of.
In the immortal words of The Misfits:
Brains for dinner
Brains for lunch
Brains for breakfast
Brains for brunch
Brains at every single meal
Brains are all we ever get
In this rotten fuckin' place
Brains are all we ever get
Why can't we have a change of pace
And a change of pace is exactly what the Spierig Brothers have offered up here. Sure we have great one liners, such as Wayne's command on getting moving out of the town, "We're gonna disappear quicker than cake a fat chick's birthday!". And there are some truly stellar make up effects, coupled with mind bending CG effects. But what we are treated to here, is much more than a zombie film, it's much more than a horror film, hell its even much more than your regular independent film as a whole.
The Brothers have turned in a piece which is reflective of the post-Matrix time period we live in. Where we are treated to some visual candy with our shots. Clever, inventive moving camera shots. Shots like a pull back from Marion's house, to see an onslaught of zombies, only to keep pulling back and work our way through the massive head wound of one such zombie. Nice time changes within shots, as Marion throws his pistols up in the air, to grab a shot gun, take care of a few zombies at a further range, and do it all within time to catch his pistols before they hit the ground.
As well as inventive moving camera shots, Michael and Peter have also come up with some great original ways of having zombie's meet their demise. Hog tied zombies fed through aircraft propellers, zombies having their faces 'shoveled' off, and some of the most dangerous use of a household broom I've ever seen.
The cinematography is much more stylised than many other horror films. There is some great work done here by Director of Photography, Andrew Strahorn who has already won the Gold prize at the 2002 ACS Awards. The film, shot Super 16, and blown up to 35mm for theatrical release is indicative of this process with its increased grainallity, but the cinematography is carried out so crisply that it looks far better than many 35mm blow up prints.
The real treat for me within this film was the fact that wasn't close at all to what I expected, but I wasn't disappointed, I was thrilled! Instead of producing a picture that goes through the time tested motions of the horror comedy genre as seen in films like the Evil Dead, the Spierig Brothers have ventured into new territory. This film is less Brain Dead and more The Thing, it is less Wild Zero and more Invasion of the Body Snatchers. While it is solidly a genre piece, it is equal parts Science Fiction as it is Horror. Michael and Peter haven't used the aliens and meteors merely as a means to an end, we aren't just told meteors, and thats all she wrote. We are given explanations. We are given alien characters. We are given something so much more richly textured and complex in plot and storyline than I would have ever expected. The scenes involving aliens and abduction are as equally clever and promising as the bloodthirsty zombie fare.
The Q&A with the Cast and Crew detailed a few interesting facts.
Michael and Peter talked about the Directing process when working with dual Directors. Peter is more of a camera director, even operating the majority of the film himself, whilst Michael is more responsible for directing actors and performance.
They detailed the editing and effects process, of working on three computers at home, and being at their mercy and tendency for crashing.
The Brothers also discussed that they spent $300 on a domain name (UndeadMovie.Com), to host a trailer which then generated 100,000 downloads and unlimited interested in the picture. Michael and Peter also talked about selling the film to 21 different countries so far, and the response by each, the English got it 100% without any problem, the Japanese didn't understand all the humour and slang but lapped up the fact it was a solid genre picture, and so far all the American distributers have done the same, expect for one who wanted to dub the film into "English".
This is most definitely an important picture within the horror genre, and not one to be missed. It is also extremely important as Australian film goes, as we have never succeeded this throughly in producing genre films.
Undead is a truly refreshing change for Australian film, that smacks of originality. Zombie fish, nudist aliens, and undead cities in the sky, this film has it all.
Anthony.
And here's the last of the three reports... ENJOY...
Harry,
How are you doing? I've read your site for years but never contributed. Thanks for all the hard work!
Last night I saw what was billed as the 'world premiere' of Undead followed
by Cabin Fever at the 50th Sydney Film Festival at the Dendy Cinema on
Sydney's Circular Quay (just near the Sydney Opera House - surely one of the
best locations for a cinema in the world?).
Undead
A sleepy remote Australian town is hit by a meteor storm and is subsequently plagued by the walking dead. A small band of survivors (the town beauty queen, the pregnant ex-beauty queen and her clueless boyfriend, a couple of members of the inept local law enforcement and, soon to be immortalised as a geek-hero, a hillbilly with the coolest triple-barrelled weapon - actually three attached shotguns, as seen on the one-sheet) struggle to survive and understand what happened and why.
What can I say? This is awesome. Fun and fast, twins Peter and Michael Spierig have delivered a very Australian film that comes across as a hybrid of From Dusk 'Til Dawn (the second half) and Peter Jackson's Bad Taste. For less than a million Australian dollars (self-financed) the brothers have delivered the goods, a film with better set pieces than 99% of recent horror or action films with better special effects than Resident Evil, The Mummy/Mummy Returns and a dozen other films with CG effects with budgets starting at 40 or 50 times the size of Undead's. Even more impressive? The brothers did all the CG effects on 3 PCs at home. In the cast and crew Q&A after the film, they told stories of their PCs taking half-a-day to render a single frame with the computer often crashing part way through! Over 9 months of work was involved in generating the effects - all done by the brothers themselves. And the CG is not used sparingly, it's used in creating a couple of the most awesome scenes I've witnessed. Feel free to be sceptical, but reserve your judgement until you see the aeroplane scene in the last act of the movie.
This film never loses is identity as a very Australian film. Anyone who understands the Aussie humour and way of life will love some of the cast interaction. As a Brit, I had no problem understanding the dialogue or the humour (Australian soap operas are staple viewing for many Brits), although the brothers did tell the story of a US distributor that had expressed interest in dubbing the film "in English"! I would expect some of the dialogue and humour would escape mainstream US audiences, but I'm confident that the genre fans interested in Undead will have few problems (especially fans of Peter Jackson's early New Zealand films). Although a part zombie, part alien film that makes some tongue-in-cheek references to the genre classis, the directors have wisely avoided rehashing old concepts. Zombie/alien films are not renowned for their subtlety, Undead included, but the gentle twist in the story isn't clearly signposted. Instead the audience is allowed to realise what has happened mid-way through the final act.
The cast and crew are not well known names (even, as far as I can tell, in Australia - although I apologise if I'm mistaken) but do a good job of portraying everyday people in ridiculous circumstances (with the exception of the hillbilly who may be the Australian redneck version of Desperado's mariachi - you'll know what I mean when you see some of the set pieces). The hapless male police officer provides some great comic relief, although his whining does grate a little after a while. Everyone looks like they're having fun and all enter in to the spirit of the film. Check out of the acid rain scene that causes the survivors to strip off and their surprise when the previously naked hillbilly whips out a couple of guns to ward off incoming zombies.
All in all, I can't recommend this film enough. If you like any of the Evil
Dead films, Bad Taste or Braindead (Dead Alive in the US) you are going to
have the time of your life. The audience spontaneously applauded a number of
times during the film and the collective gasps, sighs and shrieks made this
the most entertaining screening I've ever been to. Check it out and have
fun. Let's make these guys some money so we can see what they've got for us
next!
Cabin Fever
This was shown after Undead which I think was a seriously bad move. Cabin Fever, while in no way a serious movie, just couldn't deliver the same amount of thrills and spills as Undead and suffered as a result. I don't want to detract from the momentum that Cabin Fever's gaining, especially as I believed I suffered from a complete lack of objectivity after going wild for Undead.
My thoughts? It's pretty good. Some good writing, some cool direction. But, for me, nothing particularly stood out as new or exciting and I never really identified with the cast. Don't get me wrong, I had a good time watching this. However before arriving at the Dendy, I absolutely believed that Cabin Fever was going to be the evening's highlight and that Undead would be a nice warm-up film. Was I wrong!
Garth from Dark Horizons was at the Cabin Fever screening and he seemed to enjoy it more than I did. I've got a suspicion that his review may be more objective than mine.
Make no mistake, Cabin Fever is a good genre film and much better than most of the mass-produced stuff that gets churned out. It just didn't seem to be the instant classic I was expecting!
If it's not taken, call me 'Epicentre'.
