The Night Eats The World, 2018

Sam stops by his ex-friend’s to collect his ‘tapes,’ only to find a raging party happening. He has a few drinks and eventually passes out in a locked room. When he wakes up the following morning, the world is quiet and everyone is dead… Or undead.

    Sam begins the task of cleaning up and clearing out the Paris apartment building, and fortifying it for a long haul. He must forage the former residents pantries, and meticulously budgeting his finds, all while desperately trying to stave off boredom and paranoia.

After what seems like months, Sam meets Sarah. But Sarah has a different philosophy and tries to convince Sam into finding a way out, instead of just staying put.

The whole movie plays on that ‘desperation and loneliness,’ theme, but still works in quite a few good zombie scares.

And those zombies were great! Squarely Romeros, but not TOO slow! And they were completely and totally silent. No growling, no gasping, nothing. Now you might not think this is huge, but, I’ll tell you, there is a massive creepiness factor to that, and really makes being moving around risky in a dead quiet world.

Aside from that, it is a standard ‘guy wakes up and everyone else is dead’ movie, (file along with ‘#Alive’ or ‘Rammbock,)’ but still done really well, and served with a deep look into the psychological trauma of enforced isolation.

But let’s see how it holds up to the completely objective, and totally non-biased grading tool - The ZMR! 

Well, the movie’s slow pace and the overall lack of originality may have dragged it down a bit, but those  awesome undead, big budget production quality, and cool special effects earned The Night Eats The World a 2.66 out of a possible 4.0. This puts it as an above average entry in the Zombie Apocalypse film world!

But overall, it is just a fun, scary, creepy, zombie movie!

Oh yeah, there is also pretty cool YouTube trailer here:

 THE NIGHT EATS THE WORLD

 

Rabid, 1977

 

A motorcycle accident outside of a remote plastic surgery center prompts an emergency experimental procedure on an otherwise terminal victim.

Some side effects ensue.

Written and directed by David Cronenberg, (The Fly, Shivers, Naked Lunch, Scanners, Videodrome, et cetera,) so a viewer should go into this knowing not to expect the expected.

So, bike wreck/medical guinea pig, Rose, (played quite capably by former adult film star, Marylin Chambers, BTW,) comes around after a month or so, with a whole new medical issue...

    And need.

In short, Rose craves human blood. Her new, (and experimental,) skin grafts have developed an unusual, um ‘appendage?’ that emergences from a new, well, ‘orifice,’ I guess you’d call it, through which she feeds on her victims.

"Armpit stinger!"

And, her attack is contagious. Those upon whom she has fed become all angry and bite-y, foaming at the mouth and irrational. Very shortly, the whole hospital is full-on bedlam.

So, Rose, packs up and blows the scene, hitting the road, all hitch-hike-y and sampling some of the highway denizens. These human ‘meals-on-wheels,’ once infected with Rose’s armpit venom, become, (wait for it…) RABID! Yeah. She’s making zombies and doesn’t even know it.

Not long after, epic status is reached and the streets of Quebec are under martial law.

This was a tough one, I won’t lie. The premise was just plain weird, but the setting, soundtrack, atmosphere, even the acting! was all pretty decent. It being an older film, (1977) it was obviously influenced by Romero’s work, most noticeably ‘The Crazies.’ (Not bad for source material!)

    Held up the a more objective grading measure, the Zombie Movie Rubric, and Rabid earned  itself 2.22 out of 4 points.  Which is fairly respectable given its bizarre starting point.

Not sure if it earns a ‘hearty’ recommendation, but I’ve seen a lot worse. (Heck! I’ve seen a lot worse this week alone!) 

    And it was good to see Marilyn Chambers with her clothes on.

Still interested? Well, here is the YouTube trailer: RABID, 1977   

And, if you have a little more time on your hands, here is the full-length death, also available on YouTube. RABID, 1977 

Zombie Brigade, 1986

         A rural Australian Outback town has plans to develop a Japanese-funded ‘Robot Man' theme park. Only problem - It’s on a Vietnam War Memorial Cemetery. No biggie! Just get rid of the whole thing before the investors can see it!

I mean, what could POSSIBLY go wrong!?!

So, after a very awkward ‘meet & greet’ with the locals and the backers, a small gathering is planned to commemorate the deal. As the back-country, outback planning committee of ‘Lizard Valley’ and the slick, urbane, Japanese investor celebrate and scheme to impress/take advantage of each other, dead, or rather ‘undead’ soldiers are emerging from the new destroyed war monument seeking revenge… And human flesh!

After a long night, (actually VERY brief, cinematically speaking!) of the undead ravaging, chasing, and biting townsfolk to death, some survivors gather together to figure out what is happening, (and provide the audience with some exposition!!!)

Apparently, during the war, the Vietnamese soldiers, out-gunned, out-teched, and out-financed by the Yanks, turned towards their own form of ‘chemical warfare,’  a sort of ‘living dead’ serum, that turned soldiers into, well, the living dead. The soldiers were sealed up in the cemetery and there is some mention of ‘inert gas’ and more, but it is so fleeting that any sense really depends on the viewers inference.

As the ‘day after’ progresses, the townsfolk all assume the undead will return at nightfall. (I call them 'undead' and not zombies, because their status as such remains unclear. They have fangs and fear daylight, and have been killed by wooden stakes through the heart, but are not intelligent or verbal, and move as lumbering ghouls.

(There is, however, a great scene where a priest attempts to repel said ghouls with a crucifix… That did NOT go how he thought it’d go, I dare say!!!)

Furthermore, it is learned that the government has mined all of the exits out of town in an effort of containment. 

    Also, Jimmy and Yoshi begin the absolutely worst romantic flirting ever.

(Well, they WERE warned!)

Eventually, a terrible plan is arrived at - to resurrect OTHER dead soldiers to combat the first group using Jimmy’s Aboriginal Uncle Charlie’s “Black Fella” magic.

And then, THEN, things get weird.

So, now you've got the undead soldiers raised by the destruction of the monument, and the undead “White Fellas” raised by the Uncle Charlie’s Dreamtime Magic, (Now That sound’s like a great Prog/Psych band name right???) Well, all of these recently resurrected undead soldiers, they uh, well, they team up! Yup. Shake hands and welcome each other, and INSTEAD of doing battle, they decide to burn and raze the town. They then use carts and metal detectors to to plot a way out of the town and through its government-installed land mines to remove the coffins of the dead. Somehow, not too surprisingly, the remaining living survivors are kind’ve okay with it.    Hey, who I am I to judge, right?

    Okay, let’s tally this turkey up! 

    Nothing all too original, here, with its weird and inconsistent zomb…, uh, I mean, ‘undead,’ and absolutely terrible special effects, (let’s just call them ‘effects,' m’kay?) 

    And the few and far between action shot being filmed at night made nothing easy to watch, especially with this ‘pocket-change’ budget.

On the plus side, some of the characters were entertaining, and the Australian Outback made for a great setting. Fun accents, and quirky, small-town humor keeps this from being a total pooch.

But when held up against the Zombie Movie Rubric, Zombie Brigade earned itself nothing more than a 0.88 out of a possible 4.0. Sadly, this does NOT earn a recommendation!

I also found this rather enthusiastic write-up!

    Finally, Here is a YouTube Trailer for the film. See for yourself: ZOMBIE BRIGADE 

And what would a Zombie Movie be without a musical interlude - Here's The Sons of Gums (?) with Yoshi for an impromptu jam sesh! "An Offer I Can't Refuse"