“those damned dead just won’t die”
I’m not sure if this has been reviewed in the previous podcasts but as I watched this fun little film last night, I’m going to share some general opinions and musings with my siblings at the Mail Order Zombie family. Being filmed on a $80,000 budget (not that we lose out on much) this zombie action comedy from New Zealand may be lacking in originality but director, writer, producer and editor Logan McMillan, working on what looks to be his first film, sure makes it a whole lot of fun by using friends for the cast and early mornings shoots for deserted streets. The plot, as taken from the good old IMDB is as follows:
“A highly contagious virus is spreading throughout the land. With one bite, it’s only hours before victims will turn into zombies and hunt for human flesh. Morgan, Ash, and Johnny might just be the only humans left, but they don’t seem to mind and find enjoyment lounging around in their underwear playing video games in vacant homes. When they stumble upon a hot girl who just may have a cure, the three decide it’s finally time to step up to the plate and save the world- and the girl. Now the only hope for survival lies in their hands.”
The three slackers, the slick ladies man Morgan (Morgan Williams), the nervous geek Ash (Ashleigh Southam) and the rock and roll wrestler Johnny (Robert Faith) are a likable bunch and far more realistic than the usual hard-arsed zombie protagonists. Look carefully and we probably know them already, either in our own friends or ourselves, and who else wouldn’t want to live like kings after surviving a zombie apocalypse? Sassy girl scientist Stef (Emily Paddon-Brown) does a good job in turning their world upside down (as if the outbreak didn’t already) and drags them into a desperate plot to find a blood sample and take it to a nearby island where some scientists claim to know a cure for the virus.
Location wise things are limited and the plot feels more akin to a short comic book than any sort of major feature film but from my point of view this only adds to the charm of the film. A few desolate streets and abandoned buildings do a great job and the open vistas of the New Zealand countryside never fail to look stunning. This is all shot during the day, well the early morning to be exact, and I always welcome zombie films set in daylight just to prove it can be as scary as dark. Try walking through an empty town early one morning and you’ll see.
Talking of scares the zombies, a mixture of slow and fast, do the required job. Make-up is on the light side partly due to the timeframe (six months after the initial outbreak) and the budget constraints but the zombies look weird enough and the occasional splash of gore can help to keep things feeling dangerous. There are a few road kills and melee attacks and the lack of guns (and lack of too many zombies) is briefly explained to be the result of a great downtown shoot-out as shown during a flashback sequence. In all honesty this really didn’t bother me and in all honestly I feel like a bigger budget may have actually done more harm than good. This film excels in its limited resources and really feels like a typical boy’s adventure as a result.
While Dead Snow suffered from an overuse of heavy metal music, Last of the Living’s rock soundtrack is the opposite, keeping within the fun theme of the movie and delivering a rather excellent title score to boot. Think Return of the Living Dead’s Partytime and you’ll get the general idea, just watch the trailer to hear it. All in all I really liked this film, yes it feels like a take on Shaun of the Dead and the budget was low but it was great fun. New Zealand film makers seem to have a knack for zombie flicks and I certainly hope Logan McMillan comes back to this genre with more experience under his belt in the future. I have to love that car too.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDswj4WlyGs
Radio Interview with Logan McMillan: http://plainsfm.org.nz/on-demand/logan-mcmillan-last-living/
