I apologize for the late hour of this post, but I've always said it's best to watch horror either in mid afternoon, or late at night. It really helps the mind focus on the movie, without distractions. My mind, at least.
MOVIE: Exit Humanity
PLOT: A ex-civil war soldier has to kill his wife because she's become a zombie. And then sets out to find his only son, who is missing.
GOOD POINTS: Makeup is minimal, but it works for the movie. There's no prosthetics, very little blood, honestly, it was all about the acting. They could have skipped the makeup entirely and I don't think it would have made a bit of difference to the film. The zombies plainly acted like zombies, and the living acted like the living. It was very easy to tell them apart. I think makeup was only used since it was expected that the zombies would look like zombies. All the budget on this film was spent on acting and plot, and it shows. You'd think at first glance that zombies during the civil war is just a lame attempt to make a zombie film unique, but you'd be wrong on both counts. One, I have seen another zombie movie set during the civil war, so this movie is not unique. Two, it's not a lame attempt. Also, the scenery is gorgeous. I think it was shot entirely on location in the backwoods of the south. one of the characters mentions Tennessee, so I'm guessing that's where it was, but I have no idea. All the trees seem to be turning yellow, so every backdrop is autumn in the woodlands.
BAD POINTS: I can't say the movie had a big budget. The only actor I recognized was the voice of the one narrating the story, and I don't think he was ever actually shown. The rest appeared to be newer actors, basically nobodies, but they did an excellent job. There's no gouts of blood, this is not a gorefest, and the real monsters appear to be just the humans. Oh, I did neglect to mention Dee Wallace is in this. She played her part so well I almost forgot she was famous. lol No nudity. Also, as I mentioned, this is not the only zombie civil war movie I have seen, so not unique, either, and as i recollect, the other one was much bloodier and warlike. Not too much action in this one, but not lacking in the action department, either. Also, the title of the movie is... odd. The main actor screams a lot. Bit emo for my taste. The chapters can be a bit disconcerting, it's basically the retelling of a journal, which is a format i have never liked before, but seemed to work for this movie. There's a few scenes drawn out in cartoony format, but the main character seems to be drawing out the zombies for purposes of his journal, so i guess that makes a bit of sense, at least.
IMPRESSIONS: A finely done Zombie film. I think if Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell had had a better script to work with, this is what would have resulted instead of Evil Dead 2 (which is still one of my favorite movies). This is almost zombie theater. It's also much more about humans than it is zombies. The zombie outbreak is eventually explained as well as a history of zombie... ness...? Uh, yea. Anyway, all the zombification going on is a backdrop to one man's search for meaning after he has to shoot his own wife in the head because she tried to bite him. Everything that happens after is just part of his journey. So, more a thinking man's zombie film. I don't recommend eating popcorn while watching it. Maybe drinking a beer, or having a fine glass of wine.
SPOILERS: None. Too good a movie. I can't really find anything to bitch about, why some characters did one thing and not another, nobody in this movie appeared overly stupid, and both sides seemed to think what they were doing was right, and for obvious reasons, you know which side is right. There's no confusion, the plot was mostly wrapped up, except for one little thing, and that is... If that happened during the civil war, then where the hell did all the zombies go? How did we survive into modern times? lol But that's neither here nor there, and doesn't really need to be explained for the movie to work.
OTHER NEWS: Nothing, really. Trying vainly to get over the bubonic plague, or whatever. it's probably just a cold. There's some sort of outbreak going around, at least, i keep hearing it on the news my mom watches now and then, but I am pretty sure i don't have that. lol Missed Hawaii 5-0 tonight and honestly, I don't really feel bad about it.
My mom just offhandedly remarked tonight that she was wondering why i couldn't be more bendy in the whole situation with my (ex-) brother. Since it was my brother's decision to disown me for not disowning my sister (because they had an argument some 14 years previous that i wasn't even involved in), I was a bit confused as to why me being bendy would help the situation. So, after a fairly extended argument about why she thought I could have done anything differently, I realized my brother is just a better liar than I will ever be. He can easily get people to believe his fiction, whereas I, armed only with the truth, have apparently brought a knife to a gunfight. If my brother were to ever go to prison for killing a thousand people, with ample evidence, she would be the one to stand by his side and say he was framed. I now understand why serial killers are described as charismatic, but I don't think that is exactly the correct term. It's like they cast a spell of deceit over those who don't question what they are being told, and the spell lingers even after the light of day shines on it. I think it's a question of logic. The logic circuits seemed to be shorted out by these types of skilled liars. The minute you aren't making them think about it, the spell seems to reassert itself somehow. It's an amazing thing to watch. I must have told my mother I did NOT, in fact, tell my brother to "get the fuck out" of our house (the last time he was around) about a dozen times tonight, and yet, after half an hour talking to him on the phone (also amazingly, she went and told him exactly what i'd said to her about it), the first thing she said to me was that "well, he was obviously upset after you told him to get the fuck out of our house." And I was like :-o Now, me, someone could tell my own mother that I sired Hitler and trained him how to make the gas ovens for the jews during world war 2, and she would probably ask me where exactly I was between the years 1940 and 1945. lol I guess we all have our metaphorical crosses to bear... :-/ I'm sure the situation will work itself out for the best somehow. I am ever the optimist! :-D
See everyone tomorrow night for #9!
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