Director: Uwe Boll
Year: 2003
Country: Germany/Canada/United States
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Zombie
Plot:
Going to a small island for a party, a group of revelers finds the entire area overrun by vicious flesh-eating zombies raised from the dead by a deadly chemical spill to placate an ancient curse and must find a way of stopping the creatures and getting off the island alive.
Review:
This is an unfairly maligned zombie effort that has a lot going for it. One of the better features here is the rather impressive suspense built up here, whether done through the jungle location where it's all set up in the traditional gloomy, oppressive jungle shrubs that really give off a great vibe or the opening scenes of the chaos-riddled party that doesn't strike as being odd and off-the-wall enough to really warrant that kind of attention which pays off in a rather tense beginning. Compounding it all as well is the film's singular best quality in its relentless action that pretty much runs throughout the film as a whole, initially serving as the perfect payoff for the suspense-filled opening while offering up plenty of exciting moments.
There's plenty of action here that starts off with the attacks in the forest filled with oncoming swarms of zombies that are appearing behind trees and underwater, all along a rather fun and exciting series of chases and encounters. The main part of the excitement here is the centerpiece assault on the group as they race into the shack which is readily filled with tons of blasting gunshots, zombies heads blasts apart, limbs hacked off and martial arts moves all being utilized against the zombies in a delirious ten-minute plus sequence that also manages to feature tons of stunt-work and gory action to make for a spectacular highlight. Other big action scenes include the final battle in the house where the reanimated bodies all start coming back to life in the lab, while the battle in the tunnel features some creepy zombie make-up and leads into the thrilling sword fight at the finale.
Along with that fantastic zombie make-up and fun gore, these are enough to build this up against the few flaws here, which include the continuous video-game sequences in the middle of a random scene, which is quite aggravating for the number of times it's done, and the selection of scenes it showcases. They're distracting, don't fit the tone of what's happening, and seem to be done merely to placate fans of the game. The only other flaw here is the decision to utilize the running zombie tactics, which is just completely unrelated to anything in the film that we're given as to the source of their resurrection. These are the film's only real flaws that hold it down.
Overview: ****/5
Far better than its reputation deserves, this one has a lot more to like about it that isn't expected which makes this one far more fun for those that appreciate this style more than anything else. Those who are not turned off by the flaws here or are curious about it will want to give it a shot while most others out there turned off by these factors should heed outright caution.
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