Undead (2003) directed by Michael and Peter Spierig.
(MF Title: “Toss another shrimp on the zombie..”)
Starring Felicity Mason, Mungo McKay, Rob Jenkins, Lisa Cunningham and Dirk Hunter.
Zombie Film Rating:

Overview: Some days are worse than others. Rene has just been crowned Ms. “Catch of the Day” in the local beauty pageant, inherited her parents farm, been saddled with their debts and lost the farm to the bank. She’s decided to leave the sleepy town of Berkeley for the city and get a new start, sadly she waited one day too long to leave town.

On this day a meteor shower strikes Berkeley killing a number of the local residents and reanimating their corpses almost immediately. As these corpses roam the town, Rene seeks shelter at the farmhouse of local nutcase Marion, but before Rene can figure out whats taking place a few other survivors arrive, with a slew of zombies following right behind.

The end of the world has arrived, fortunately for Rene this is exactly what the local nutcase has been preparing for.

Summary: The movie opens with some quick introductions of the principle characters. First we have Rene, a newly crowned beauty queen, who is sitting in the bank finding out that she has lost her recently inherited farm due to late payments, next we’re introduced to the Whipples a family of charter pilots, and finally a new cop on her first day working with an abrasive partner.

We then take a moment for some quick flashes of quiet country life, fishing and cricket only slightly interupted by small meteorites slamming into and through random members of the local community. The dead bodies of these “victims” then rise, and attack the living.

We cut back to Rene who, after the loss of her farm, has decided to leave town for the big city, hitching a ride with a lecherous talent scout. On their way out of town they come across what appears to be a multi-vehicle accident on the road. The talent scout gets out to investigate and is eaten in fairly short order. Rene, showing some presence of mind, arms herself with “the club” and makes short work of one zombie, before a mysterious farmer arrives and guns down her now zombified talent scout.

The farmer departs without saying a word, and Rene flees into the forest following him. She arrives at a farmhouse and on entering meets meets Marion who is known around town for having claimed he was abducted by aliens a few months previously.

Before proper introductions take place Wayne Whipple and his pregnant girlfriend Sallyanne (the now dethroned former “Ms. Catch of the day”) arrive, followed moments later by two police offiers being chased by a stagger of zombies. What follows is a John Woo’esque sequence of zombie shooting and a retreat by the entire party to Marions bomb-shelter in the basement.

The groups short undead-free respite is interupted by Sallyanne going into labour, and this forces the party to leave the relative safety of the bunker, and make a rush for Marions truck, more Woo-esque gunplay ensues. The group eventually escapes the farmhouse in Marions van, but find their route out of town blocked by a massive metal wall that seems to have been errected around the entire town.

The senior police officer (Sergeant Harrison) decides to climb the mysterious wall, and just as he’s reaching the top an acid rain storm descends on the group. Harrison falls to his death, and his partner is sucked up into the sky by a bright light. The rest of the party retreats to the van and forms a quick plan. They will return to the town to gather some supplies, and then fly out in Wayne Whipples plane.

The stop in town culminates in another battle with the undead, followed by the arrival of several alien figures in cloaks. The aliens throw some liquid on Marion and he is sucked up into the sky by another bright light. The three remaining survivors flee to the airport where things become even more chaotic, and Rene and Sallyanne drive off as Wayne boards his plane to fly out of town.

Rene crashes the van in her haste to escape and meets with the Aliens discovering they are not evil, but are intent on containing and curing the population of Berkeley from the zombie virus that has infected it’s inhabitants. This quarantine however is broken by Wayne successfully escaping over the wall, and parachuting to safety near the military cordon thats sprung up on the far side.

As the aliens return the cured residents to the town and depart, Wayne stumbles into the local hospital, turns into a zombie and the infection once again begins it’s spread.

Quotes:

• “I’ll fuckin’ finish you off faster than a fuckin’ birthday cake at a fat chick’s fuckin’ party!”
  - Sergeant Harrison
• “Fine, Molly turned into a flying zombie, but more importantly what was that thing!”
  - Wayne Whipple

Critique: Considering this films fairly modest origins I was quite impressed with it. My only complaint is that the story feels a little too complicated, as if the Spierig brothers were attempting to cram every idea they’d had into one film.

Despite this the film entertains, and is certainly better than a great many zombie movies I’ve reviewed to date. I enjoyed the woo-esque moments, and while it may reduce the enjoyment level for some the accents didn’t phase me.

The Final Word: I’d definately recommend giving this one a viewing. It’s different, but that’s not a bad thing in this case.