Review Detail
8.0 17 10
(Updated: September 25, 2012)
Enjoyment
6.0
January 18, 2009
It took a long time until all the shorts were finished and I could not wait for the DVD finally showing up.
DVD presentation: great menus with audio. Really a nice watch. The “play all” button unfortunately did not work so well, but that is probably my fault, because I used the next button to skip once, which must have unmarked the playlist and led to repeating movies and jumping back. Using the next button though always brought me to the next one. The order of the movies is quite well chosen for a huge variety and indeed there are a lot of very different short movies on this DVD, different atmosphere, very different plot. The DVD presentation is an awesome job, throwgncpr.
What I particularly like about it is the intro menu, because it already shows the trashy element and that can never be ignored, when watching zombie movies. They are not to be taken too seriously. Charlie Brooker (creator of Dead Set) stated in an interview that they never wanted to put too much focus on the zombies, but more on scares and action, so the audience would not start thinking about sense and logic.
Since this is about so many short movies, I am going to comment on each of them. Sorry if some of my comments are not so nice, I am just naming them as I see them. Overall the DVD was actually a disappointment for me. The collection was quality-wise not as good as Batman Consecution and a lot of the shorts simply lacked entertainment IMO or a story that makes sense. There were a few exceptions and some nice average short movies that did entertain me.
starting with:
Diary of a dying man by 3Raz0r: I liked it. It was not so much about the gore or shocking images, but it told a nice story of a survivor. The guy is not too sympathetic, but quite entertaining and I think it was a good idea to include the news reports and the movie footage, because otherwise it would have been dragging. Editing was nicely done, plot worked. (4 stars)
Horrorgrind – The Virus: Complete trash to me (not the editing work of horrorgrind, but the source movie). I can only assume that this kind of movie is supposed to be funny, because it is so bad, but I am the wrong audience for that. We have a ridiculous outbreak at a facility and then we jump to a couple and the girl wants a light from a guy on a bench, who is a zombie and attacks her, other zombies appear, they rip her apart, her boyfriend is just watching and surprised by zombies attacking him from the back (well, actually one of the zombies is attacking the zombie that attacked the boyfriend – doesn’t look like he was supposed to though). Sorry, but that felt like a waste of time for me and the girlfiriend/boyfriend part seemed to just make it longer but did not have too much of a connection. (1 star)
Mollo – Das Zombie: I could not make heads or tails from that one. And as that I was not entertained, but bored and confused. This is a trial for a mesh-up but I don’t think the sources mix well, leaving me with all question marks all the time about what was happening and why. (1 star)
CBB – Vodoo Island: I can’t really rate my own participation, but I think it tells an ok story from Fulci’s “Island Of The Living Dead”.
Blueyoda – Dead Awake: Now that is a cool mesh-up. Mixing Aliens with zombie movies was a great idea and works surprisingly well most of the time. Not all scenes are perfect, some are not fitting too well or not perfectly executed, but overall: awesome work. (4 stars)
Aztek463 – School’s in Session: A part from Resident Evil 2. I liked it. Editing was well done. (4 stars)
ThrowgnCpr – Dawn of the Millennium: An interesting combination of zombie footage and Millennium. I was mildly entertained, but the zombie footage actually confused me and I am not sure it really added to the atmostphere. Very good editing. (3 stars)
Tranzor – In 20 Seconds: A lot to read, but short and entertaining. Interesting editing with the transition effects and overlays and filters used. (3 stars)
Stomachworm – 2 Against the World: The only one I did not finish. Volume in the beginning is too low and it has hard cuts all the time. The missing reel thing took me finally totally out of it, so I quit. (1 star)
Uncanny Antman – Surviving an Undead Uprising: Great great work, Uncanny. All kudos to you. This was innovative, perfect editing and very entertaining. Exactly what I needed to be pleased in the end. (5 stars)
ghostcut’s feature did not make much sense to me…
the marvel zombie trailer was cool
and the bonus feature was nice. Thanks for that, Mollo.
Overall I can not rate the Zombie Consecution DVD higher than 3 stars. Too many bad shorts on it that make it a one-time only experience for me.
It took a long time until all the shorts were finished and I could not wait for the DVD finally showing up.
DVD presentation: great menus with audio. Really a nice watch. The “play all” button unfortunately did not work so well, but that is probably my fault, because I used the next button to skip once, which must have unmarked the playlist and led to repeating movies and jumping back. Using the next button though always brought me to the next one. The order of the movies is quite well chosen for a huge variety and indeed there are a lot of very different short movies on this DVD, different atmosphere, very different plot. The DVD presentation is an awesome job, throwgncpr.
What I particularly like about it is the intro menu, because it already shows the trashy element and that can never be ignored, when watching zombie movies. They are not to be taken too seriously. Charlie Brooker (creator of Dead Set) stated in an interview that they never wanted to put too much focus on the zombies, but more on scares and action, so the audience would not start thinking about sense and logic.
Since this is about so many short movies, I am going to comment on each of them. Sorry if some of my comments are not so nice, I am just naming them as I see them. Overall the DVD was actually a disappointment for me. The collection was quality-wise not as good as Batman Consecution and a lot of the shorts simply lacked entertainment IMO or a story that makes sense. There were a few exceptions and some nice average short movies that did entertain me.
starting with:
Diary of a dying man by 3Raz0r: I liked it. It was not so much about the gore or shocking images, but it told a nice story of a survivor. The guy is not too sympathetic, but quite entertaining and I think it was a good idea to include the news reports and the movie footage, because otherwise it would have been dragging. Editing was nicely done, plot worked. (4 stars)
Horrorgrind – The Virus: Complete trash to me (not the editing work of horrorgrind, but the source movie). I can only assume that this kind of movie is supposed to be funny, because it is so bad, but I am the wrong audience for that. We have a ridiculous outbreak at a facility and then we jump to a couple and the girl wants a light from a guy on a bench, who is a zombie and attacks her, other zombies appear, they rip her apart, her boyfriend is just watching and surprised by zombies attacking him from the back (well, actually one of the zombies is attacking the zombie that attacked the boyfriend – doesn’t look like he was supposed to though). Sorry, but that felt like a waste of time for me and the girlfiriend/boyfriend part seemed to just make it longer but did not have too much of a connection. (1 star)
Mollo – Das Zombie: I could not make heads or tails from that one. And as that I was not entertained, but bored and confused. This is a trial for a mesh-up but I don’t think the sources mix well, leaving me with all question marks all the time about what was happening and why. (1 star)
CBB – Vodoo Island: I can’t really rate my own participation, but I think it tells an ok story from Fulci’s “Island Of The Living Dead”.
Blueyoda – Dead Awake: Now that is a cool mesh-up. Mixing Aliens with zombie movies was a great idea and works surprisingly well most of the time. Not all scenes are perfect, some are not fitting too well or not perfectly executed, but overall: awesome work. (4 stars)
Aztek463 – School’s in Session: A part from Resident Evil 2. I liked it. Editing was well done. (4 stars)
ThrowgnCpr – Dawn of the Millennium: An interesting combination of zombie footage and Millennium. I was mildly entertained, but the zombie footage actually confused me and I am not sure it really added to the atmostphere. Very good editing. (3 stars)
Tranzor – In 20 Seconds: A lot to read, but short and entertaining. Interesting editing with the transition effects and overlays and filters used. (3 stars)
Stomachworm – 2 Against the World: The only one I did not finish. Volume in the beginning is too low and it has hard cuts all the time. The missing reel thing took me finally totally out of it, so I quit. (1 star)
Uncanny Antman – Surviving an Undead Uprising: Great great work, Uncanny. All kudos to you. This was innovative, perfect editing and very entertaining. Exactly what I needed to be pleased in the end. (5 stars)
ghostcut’s feature did not make much sense to me…
the marvel zombie trailer was cool
and the bonus feature was nice. Thanks for that, Mollo.
Overall I can not rate the Zombie Consecution DVD higher than 3 stars. Too many bad shorts on it that make it a one-time only experience for me.
B