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"