The Stiff: Chapter 3: Page 88
So what zombie movies have I been watching lately that are actually *good*? Here’s two random selections…
I’d have to say that MUTANT (1983), while not exactly a good movie, was better than I expected. After watching all those lame Netflix zombie movies, just seeing a movie with basic filmmaking competence was a nice surprise. The film has a lot of buildup time, but it’s handled well, leading up to the appearance of the monster(s) in the final 30 minutes. There’s a few good lines of dialogue as well. Perhaps I’m just being nostalgic because I remember seeing “Mutant” in the video store when I was a kid (with that deceptive “space aliens” artwork on the cover, since there aren’t any space aliens in the movie, or indeed any monsters that look like that), and perhaps it’s easier to make a good-looking cheap movie on ’80s VHS than 2000s HD digital video, but it managed to keep my attention throughout the entire run of the film. And now I know about the existence of this dude named Wings Hauser.
RAMMBOCK: BERLIN UNDEAD (in which the creatures aren’t really ‘undead’, but anyway), as I’ve mentioned earlier on this blog, is one of the best of the recent rage-zombie movies. It can hardly be called a movie since it’s only about 60 minutes long, but it’s just long enough and it has a lot of interesting twists and genuinely well-portrayed emotional moments. And the action scenes are solid.
NEXT UPDATE: Friday!
You should check out the film Pontypool.
Saw it, liked it!! Thanks for reminding me, I want to read the book now…
I believe my brother saw “Mutant” when it came out in the theaters. Is that the one where the creature looks like a baseball bat with teeth on the business end?
No, “Mutant” is actually more like a zombie movie, with a lot of barely made-up extras in blue face paint with slime coming off of ’em. It’s actually not very good at all, but it’s still much more enjoyable than the current streaming zombie movies on Netflix.
Sorry, I went to youtube and found out that the film I was remembering (second-hand) is actually called “Parasite”. I hadn’t actually seen the film until now. In one shot the creature does indeed look like a baseball bat with teeth.