10/02/2012: Undead [2003]

Undead had been waiting in my watchlist for a couple months before I finally found a copy and got around to watching it. There was a lot of promise behind the movie, I must say however that it was nothing like I expected nor was this necessarily a bad thing. Undead if you know what it is, will satisfy those who are fans of its genre.


First off, the films advertising is vary misleading, from the poster to the plot synopsis it doesn't really give you a good sense of what your in for. The IMDB summary tells you it's a zombie apocalypse set in a small town Down-Under, but that's the movie in the most basic sense. The title, "Undead" backs this up as well as the posters. However the posters vary, the one, depicts a dusty, dirty world with a sole survivor geared  up with a gas mask and apparently three connected shotgun, whilst the other is a more comic book kinda art style still somewhat along those lines. The first poster is about as disillusioning as the plot summary but the biggest advertising media that gives you a false sense of this movie is the trailer.

I have mixed feelings about trailers, mostly the fact that half the time they splice together all main story points and every cool action sequence, sometimes even revealing the movies twist if you look hard enough. The trailer for Undead however does not ruin the movie at all. What it does is give you a false impression of what the movie is.

Yah he's got three shotguns, but it doesn't make up for the coveralls and hat.

So at this point I think I've made it clear that I watched this movie expecting something else entirely from what I got. That is not to say the movie is bad just it's advertising media is deceitful and if it's the trailer or the poster that brought you to this movie you might want to know it is not a dark gritty apocalyptic survival movie. This movie is an action comedy before the horror, a splatter comedy falling into the Ozplotation sub genre.

Anytime something is unexplainable just think: Aliens.

Undead is the debut movie of The Spierig Brothers, up and coming Australian directors and writers who later gave us the great movie Daybreakers. But Undead's budget doesn't come close to matching the one behind Daybreakers, and as such the brothers make strong use of practical special effects, cheesiness, and home PC post-production effects.

He shoots all the fishez!

When it comes to what the movies plot actually is, well take the zombies, throw in meteors, aliens, unexplainable weather and the usual group of survivors filling in the standard stereotypical roles and Undead is what you get. The movie uses over 600 L of fake blood, as it's main special effects base capturing the low-budget effects of the genre.

I think if you watch this movie knowing what it is, and wanting to watch it for those reasons you will really enjoying this movie that almost redeems the Australian horror industry. It's filled with cheesy lines and cheesy ideas but that is what it is all about.

Warning poster unrepresentative of the movie.

Link:
Undead IMDB