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DVD Reviews March, 2007.
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The Evil
(2005) DVD
So, three miners find a new cave. Later that day, all three recall the discovery, but cannot remember any details. Then they all get violently ill, and bite the nearest human. And then said human turns into a flesh-gobbling zombie within seconds. As you can imagine, the Z-plague spreads with remarkable speed and precision all over the city. That’s pretty much the entirety of the plot. And that part only took about four minutes. The rest of the film follows two bands of survivors – a teenage girl and her Shakira-haired neighbor, and a horny cab driver and his put-upon fare – as they narrowly dodge getting eaten by the ever-escalating hordes of the undead. Eventually they all get together, and with the help of a few stragglers, soldiers, and strays, they attempt to save the world, or at least Greece. The Evil is shot with a die-hard genre fan’s heart and the twitchy eye of a manic-depressive in a full-blown hyper-aware psychotic state. The camera never stops moving, and during more stressful moments, the screen suddenly splits into two, three, even five separate panels, each concentrating on a different aspect of the action. It’s dizzying stuff, obviously influenced by Evil Dead and Dead Alive, as well as comic books and video games, and it makes for very interactive viewing. The shocks are muffled somewhat by Noussias’s insistence on announcing a zombie attack by audio cues, but it’s still a wild, kinetic ride. The low budget is glaringly evident here, especially in crowd scenes, which are usually five or six guys packed into a single camera shot while soccer-fan noise blares away in the background, but the gore is abundant and very well done, and the acting is surprisingly restrained, given the loony-cartoony atmosphere. Make no mistake about it, this is a very shabby film, but poverty-row production values have become one the more endearing traits of home-grown zombie bashes, so it’s easy to overlook the Evil’s cheapness. Although it lacks the pathos and social statement inherent in most Romero-derived walking dead flicks, The Evil is a nasty treat on all other levels, from its feral, high-contact direction to its many gut-slurping murder set pieces. Further proof that zombie-fear knows no borders, this is a fine addition to the flesheater genre, and an fun introduction to Greek cinema. A masterpiece The Evil is not, but it is, undoubtedly, a messterpiece. -Sleazegrinder
As legend has it, director Gianni Mezzanote created Planetfall around his acquisition of 4 Russian army surplus camouflage jumpsuits. Said uniforms were rescued from a thrift store bin, and in a flash of ingenuity (or madness, the jury is still out), Mezzanote created this entire future-world and populated it with dimestore aliens, tough chick bounty hunters, and…four guys in Russian army surplus gear. And so, we have much wandering in the desert, Al Adamson style, and lots of gorgeously tacky blue-screen hijinks, with computer-generated spaceships and garishly colored planets zipping over the many characters’ heads as they prattle on about god knows what. There’s a surreal amount of artificiality in this film. Just about everything is fake, from the many blazing fires to the hilariously unconvincing car chases, which almost elevates Planetfall to pop art. Almost. The exploitation elements are thin on the vine, with only some(very) light fetish action and cartoony gunplay livening up the myriad talky scenes. Oh, and the welcome inclusion of z-movie legend Ted V Mikels, still wearing his horn necklace and trademark goatee, as some kind of furrowed-browed government official. It’s all shot on DV, of course, but it looks surprisingly crisp, with a pleasantly cheesy 5.1 surround soundtrack filled with bleating synth sounds. I think a bellyful of Nyquil would help, but undemanding trash film fans will find some laughs, intentional or not, in this ambitious little movie. Bonus Materials: The dvd is pretty packed, featuring, among other things, a lengthy making of doc, a documentary on some mill that the director had to shoot in order to secure locations for the film (sorta useless unless you like mills), a humorous piece about the director, and perhaps most importantly, a rollicking interview with Ted V Mikels. -Sleazegrinder
-Stu Gibson |
Cello (2005) DVD
Tartan’s DVD is widescreen and subtitled, and includes the original trailer
as well as a short behind-the-scenes featurette which includes glimpses of
several violent scenes that appear to have been trimmed or re-shot before
the final release.
- Stu Gibson For hundreds more reviews, check out our DVD reviews archives! |
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Originally shot in 2005, The Evil (To Kako) is the first zombie film to
emerge from 
I suppose there is an actual story buried in here
somewhere, but every attempt at explaining it just seems to muddy the waters
further. My sanest guess is that it’s about two female bounty hunters on a
dystopic planet somewhere in the distant future, both vying to find a crate
filled with military goo that may, or may not, save the world. Or make them
rich. Or something. But to be honest, I found very little need for a story
here, as the wobbly no-budget visuals provided cheapjack entertainment
enough. 
Legends they may have been and legends they’ll stay with
this recently unearthed collection, especially if you’ve only been on
passing acquaintance with their name through the faint whispers of praise in
old music mags, or the Cretin 66 song about his ladyfriend not
digging the Bad Brains. Definitely one for the hardcore of hardcore
fans it is nonetheless an entertaining snapshot, what with liberal amounts
of stage-diving that would shame the audience on those old Dead Kennedy’s
concert-clips. This, coupled with a highly amusing collection of tank-tops
and foppy new-wave haircuts piling around makes for a mildly diverting
viewing experience, even if their mix of overlong reggae and punk that
sounds like a Dead Boys tape secreted from Brian Jones bloated
anal passage doesn’t blow a fuse in your bile-ducts like they managed to do
to the ‘venerable’ old venue itself. 
An
occasionally engaging ghost story from South Korea, Cello looks
lovely and packs a handful of shocks into its framework but ultimately
lacks the fear firepower or directorial verve to stand out amidst the sea of
Asian horror titles clogging the DVD shelves. Hyeon-a Seong is a former
prodigy cellist turned music teacher who fears that the vengeful spirit of
an ex-classmate and fellow cello whiz has returned from the grave to harm
her family. First-time writer/director Woo-cheol Lee paints attractive
pictures with his camera, and some of his scare set pieces have a bite to
them, but his story is so convoluted and riddled with red herrings (the most
egregious of which is a creepy mute housekeeper who adds up to a whole lot
of nothing) that it mutes any sort of momentum created by the suspenseful
moments. Also, there’s a switcheroo ending that doesn’t ring true at all,
given everything we’ve learned prior to it; the machinery behind the twist
feels forced and awkward, and trips up what might’ve been a clever surprise.
The cast is game, especially Seong, whose mounting confusion and fear is
believable when the story is not, and Da-an Park as her former classmate,
who returns from the beyond as a particularly sinister/sexy ghostess in
black. But they’re both undermined by Lee’s confused scripting and
occasionally listless pace, which reduces Cello to an okay
time-waster rather than a memorable Asian scare session.
Completely ludicrous but
enjoyable mix of Exorcist horror and mystical booga-booga about an evil
400-year-old Indian medicine man who, for reasons known only to himself,
decides to become reborn through a tumor in the neck of Susan (
