Dead Eyes Open, 2006

  A group of friends celebrate their graduation by ditching their cell phones, laptops and tech, and going on a wilderness getaway. Destination: Empty Gas Tank. Soon, they find themselves by a remote forest near a river for some camping and fishing.

While stepping off to pee, one of the group, Christin, meets a woman carrying a shovel looking for her husband to bring him home. A little later, she returns to the group with a story of being bitten by that man.

The following day, the young group enjoy their surroundings: fishing, swimming, cards by the fire, et cetera. Then, just as a small stack of leaflets gets hooked on the line, (with warning of attacks from the deceased, BTW,) Christin screams from her sleep. And boy! Is she is looking rough! They decide to cut the vaca short, find the house Christin spoke of, and hopefully, get some help! 

As the small group changes, little by little, from vacationers to banquet items, they realize they chose a bad time for a road trip.

Shot in Ultra-Low quality, 8mm film, with graininess and splices, and occasional color changes, Dead Eyes Open seems like a a lost, unrestored, movie from the early '70s, despite the cellphones, styles, et cetera. This ragged film quality actually adds to the atmosphere, (as well as makes special effects and make-up seem more convincing!

Also, the movie is in German, with subtitles. This may actually help to hide any acting shortcomings from the living cast, (not that I noticed any). But the story is straightforward enough - what dialog there is isn’t overly intrinsic to the movie.

Despite the dated effects, or more likely, due to them, Dead Eyes Open has a great, creepy feel to it. Some decent suspense and scares, and enough blood and gore to scratch any Z-fans itch.

I think a lot of decisions in making this were quite clever. There is an overall feel of a vintage horror movie here, and the inclusion of the TV Scientist, played by George A. Romero, himself, is inspired!

    But how does this subtitled, Super-8 sleeper stack up against The Zombie Movie Rubric? Well, buoyed by the cast of characters and the ‘straight-up Romeros’ zombies, but dragged back down by special effects and film quality, (be it accidental or calculated,) the ZMR gave Dead Eyes Open a rating of 2.3 out of 4 points! Which is above average and worthy of a recommendation!

R.I.P. Studios Trailer on ze "DuRohr" here: DEAD EYES OPEN

P.S. - R.I.P.  Productions seem to have a few more 'Old School" zombie films! Here is there website:  rip-independent.de

Zombies, (AKA Wicked Little Things,) 2006

  Opening scene exposition: a small mining town saw a tragedy in 1913 that led to a whole bunch of child-labor mine workers getting killed in a collapse. Fortunately, they’re still around! 

A hundred or so years later, a widowed mother of two young girls moves into the family home left to them by the deceased father/husband.

Of course the house is a dilapidated, rat-strewn wreck of a house, but Mom wants to fix it up, clean it up, sell it fast, and move on.

Meanwhile, older daughter, Sarah, meets up with some peers and is told about the ‘Zombie Miner Children’ legend of the surrounding forest, and younger daughter, Emma, has a new ‘imaginary friend,’ Mary, who just happens to 'live' in the woods.

Well, the whole thing plays out just like a decent ghost story should - the deceased rising at night to wreak revenge on the descendants of those that cost them their lives. Yeah, that old chestnut. However, that is both the good and the bad of it: it is more ghost story than zombie flick.

I mean, the minor-miners ARE dead, and apparently eat the flesh of their victims, but they only come out at night, they kill with pickaxes and shovels, they work together as a team, no transmission of Zombism, or any other of the ‘Rules of Romero apply, (aside from the eating of the flesh.)

In fact, these little blighters are more like ‘Nazi Zombies’ than any other Z-Type. Except, of course, that A) they’re just kids, and B) they died 20 or so years before the Nazis came into being.

As a zombie movie it is different, as a ghost story, not so much. Entertaining, though. The cast does fairly well, and the misty, woodsy, setting is creepy and atmospheric. The Killer Kids, though? Not really scary-looking. Dirty outfits and a little ‘Alice Cooper’ make-up is all. Sorry, ragamuffins.

Graded with the Zombie Movie Rubric for a little objectivity and Zombies, (or Wicked Little Things,) scored a 2.0 out a possible 4.0, which puts it smack-dab in the middle of the pack. An enjoyable little film worthy of a recommendation, but NOT to a zombie movie purist!

YouTube has both the trailer, here: WICKED LITTLE THINGS

Or, the whole film (with commercials,) under the name ZOMBIES

Also, as of this wring, it is included with Amazon Prime.