Away from the killing field, the Spierigs' actors prove themselves to be the most zombie-like, devolving into a din of screechy bickering that'll leave you running for the exits.
Undead (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:73
Fresh:21
Rotten:52
Average Rating:4.3/10
Consensus: This low-budget homage to the zombie genre borrows heavily from superior predecessors and revels in a pile of its own campiness -- neither original nor watchable enough to entertain.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong violence and gore, and for language.
Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:Jul 1, 2005 Limited
Synopsis: Australian brothers Michael and Peter Spierig directed this entry in the flesh-eating zombie genre, a full-on gore and gag fest, outback style. The plot finds local beauty contest winner Rene... Australian brothers Michael and Peter Spierig directed this entry in the flesh-eating zombie genre, a full-on gore and gag fest, outback style. The plot finds local beauty contest winner Rene (Felicity Mason), about to head out of her isolated lakeside hometown to the big city when a meteor shower animates some corpses, with the usual grisly results. She and some other survivors hole up in an old farmhouse owned by the taciturn antihero, Marion (Mungo McKay), who likes performing slow motion back flips while blasting the heads of zombies with his endless supply of .45 automatics. When everyone tires of shouting at each other they try and escape the endless zombie onslaught in Marion's van, only to run into a giant, spike-covered wall blocking the road out of town. If that's not enough, there's the problem of acid rain (resulting in the need for the foxy Rene to remove her over garments) and random alien abductions of insects, livestock, and supporting actors. Shot on digital video with an array of surprisingly convincing (for its obvious low budget) special effects, the film plants its forked tongue firmly in cheek as it references other Aussie gross-out hits like Peter Jackson's BAD TASTE and DEAD ALIVE, as well as midnight favorites like NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. Highlights include a fight scene involving some undead fish, and a hair-raising twist ending. While it's more satiric and self-mocking than genuinely scary, there are still some major shocks and youngsters might blanche at the plethora of gore and severed body parts. [More]
Starring: Felicity Mason, Mungo McKay, Rob Jenkins, Lisa Cunningham
Starring: Felicity Mason, Mungo McKay, Rob Jenkins, Lisa Cunningham, Dirk Hunter, Emma Randall
Director: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Director: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Screenwriter: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Producer: Peter Spierig, Michael Spierig
Composer: Cliff Bradley
Studio: Lions Gate Films
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Reviews for Undead
The kind of movie that would be so bad it's good, except it's not bad enough to be good enough.
Undead is not as funny or clever, but its special effects are surprisingly professional, given how low the budget clearly was.
Despite its clever low-budget visual style and campy sensibility, Undead is just too derivative to go on as long as it does.
Blatantly designed to be an insta-cult classic from the word go, it commits the one cardinal, unpardonable sin of a genre film: being dull.
The plot keeps you guessing and is constantly throwing the characters off track; only the camp factor prohibits you from caring quite as much as you should.
What the movie lacks in clarity it makes up for in gallons of campy gore. Undead sure ain't art, but it sure is fun.
...so amateurish and unimaginative, the big mystery is why anybody bothered to put it in theaters. It's the first horror film that's shot like a sitcom.
Offers both a broadly funny Australian spin and a unique attempt to make sense out of the senseless conventions of zombie films
While the low-budget film serves up a remarkably cost-effective arsenal of wild visual effects, the over-the-top tone gets stale awfully quickly.
Though it sometimes veers toward the ludicrous, at least it's never uninteresting.
A cheerful Frankenstein's monster, cobbled together from bits of dozens of zombie gut-crunchers, plus aliens, acid rain and assorted X-Files weirdness.
Homage with good intentions, no matter how many zombie fish you throw in, does not a good movie make.
Gore hounds might dig the gross-out effects, but this monster mishmash is far from a graveyard smash.
This overlong zombie splatter movie is ultimately undone by bad acting, plot holes bigger than the perforations in the victims' torsos and an ending that raises more questions than it answers.
It's downright boring for an hour, then picks up, at least visually, when the zombified are hauled into space and hung there as if in a cosmic closet.
Latest News for Undead
October 06, 2005:
Summer Tomatometer Wrap-up #4: The Worst of the Summer
Over the past few days, we've tried to counter the common misconception that this summer's cinematic fare was bereft of quality. However, that doesn't mean the season was... More...
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