New Review: Dead Season

As any semi-regular reader knows, I’m a sucker for zombie movies.  Whether it’s the quick-moving cannibals of Zach Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake or the shambling ghouls of Papa Bear’s …of the Dead series, there’s something about reanimated corpses with the single-minded purpose of feeding that gets me right in the reptile brain.  I only state that as preamble to explain why I was watching the film Dead Season in the first place.  By all accounts, this should be little more than a Romero-inspired trek through the zompocalypse with a plucky band of heroes fighting with one another while fending of the hordes of the undead.  Fortunately, Dead Season has a bit more up its sleeve than that.  Unfortunately, it’s not wholly successful in the execution.

Elvis (Scott Peat) is a survivor with a plan.  Having contacted Tweeter (Marissa Merrill) by radio, the two meet up with a young boy in tow, travelling to a boat dock where they are outfitted with a boat and given a map to a presumably living dead-free island.  Upon arrival, they are found by a militaristic group and taken to the leader, Kurt Conrad (James C. Burns) and assessed for their talents.  The island has a pretty strict rule, you see, regarding the mouths it feeds.  If you can’t contribute… well, that unpleasantness can be discussed later.  Fortunately for the pair, Elvis was an EMT in his former life and Tweeter proves to be as handy with a weapon as the zombie-killin’ men on the island.  Which, it turns out, is another quickly debunked myth of the island.  Zombies wash up occasionally and must be dealt with tout suite. 

Tweeter is given another task – help Conrad’s daughter, Rachel (Corsica Wilson), find a little sunshine in Armageddon after being cooped up in the same room for the better part of a year.  Eventually, Rachel reveals a greater plan – to escape the island by way of the Conrad family boat.  Elvis, too, has some issues to sort through when Conrad the Elder comes knocking following the latest water-borne arrivals.  It seems that the new folk don’t have as much to offer as do Tweeter and Elvis, so they are quarantined and kept isolated.  Conrad leads Elvis to their makeshift prison where he learns the dark secret of Conrad’s survival.  Those who are not of use to the group get gutted, fileted and jerky-ed, and it’s time for Elvis to pony up and kick in.

Dead Season credits three writers - director Adam Deyoe, Joshua Klausner and Loren Semmens – but only Deyoe has previous production credits.  That speaks volumes, as the big issue with Dead Season isn’t its premise, which is an interesting expansion of the ‘escape to an island’ trope used in much zombie fiction, but rather the often ham-fisted way in which the ideas are executed.  Obviously low-budget, the film fails to feel grandly apocalyptic, relying instead on emotional beats that come off only about half the time.  The make-up is so-so, the editing somewhat jarring, the performances average or worse, with the exception of nice moments found by Peat.

So, what is it about the movie that’s worth a look?  Not much, if you’re not a zombie nut to begin with.  If you enjoy those daydreams of the world turned mad and the dead walking, and spend far too much time playing out the survival scenarios, this may be worth a look.  The notion of what people will do to survive, and the toll on their humanity as these decisions weigh upon them, is fine, but the film’s ambition exceeded its grasp more often than not.  It’s head and rotting shoulders better than most of the cookie-cutter zombie fare out there, but it fails to stand on its own as a solid horror film.

Viscera Lands a Shudder-Inducing Shutterbug!

HORROR PHOTOGRAPHER JOINS FORCES WITH VISCERA

Joshua Hoffine lends ghastly image to festival

LOS ANGELES, CA, October 10, 2012 – Childhood nightmares. Skinned corpses. Lovecraft. Jack the Ripper. All of these topics are fodder for Joshua Hoffine’s gruesome yet beautifully lit horror photography. So why have Hoffine and Viscera joined forces?

Viscera’s Founder and Chief Officer of Operations, Shannon Lark, explains: “We went with Hoffine's work to represent the Viscera Film Festival this year because his photography captures an eerie beauty, conjuring a nostalgic feeling of horror that hits the human psyche with memories of childhood fears and reminds us of how deeply moving and vital the genre is for humans to express and share.

The Viscera Organization's festivals exploit the terrifying, the thrilling, and the fantastic with a vivid landscape of genre films by women. Hoffine's depiction of the body, the soul, and the monstrosity of the imagination completely resonates with the mind blowing work by female filmmakers who participate in the Viscera Film Festival.”

And what about that ghoulish woman lying among roses? “Persephone was a nature goddess who became Queen of the Underworld after being abducted by Hades. The myth of her abduction represents her role as the personification of vegetation – which shoots forth in spring and withdraws into the earth in autumn.  When she is in the Underworld we experience winter.  And when she visits the world she brings with her spring, flowers, and the resurrection of life. As both a Goddess of Spring, and the Queen of the Underworld – she exemplifies the tension between life and death,” Hoffine states. “As for Viscera, I proudly support emerging women filmmakers in the horror genre.”


About the Viscera Film Festival and Viscera Organization:

The Viscera Film Festival was created in 2007 by Shannon Lark to encourage and promote the work of women horror filmmakers. The fest has grown each year, morphing into a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with an ever-expanding, dynamic staff of men and women who eat, sleep, and breathe genre cinema. Beginning as a touring festival, Viscera has become a highly anticipated genre event in Los Angeles, complete with red carpet (what we affectionately refer to as the “Bloody Carpet”), celebrity guests, and a raucous after-party. 2012 marked the third annual Bloody Carpet event in Los Angeles at the Egyptian Theatre. Viscera’s tentacles have encircled the globe and films programmed at the festival have screened all over the world. 

The call for submissions for Viscera’s 2013 festival is open through February 28, 2013 (culminating in Women in Horror Month), accepting digital submissions only. Unlike most festivals, Viscera does not charge submission fees. Filmmakers interested in submitting should head to the Submissions tab of the main website, www.viscerafilmfestival.com.

New WWE-Backed Film The Day Gets Its Box Art

 

Details on the DVD and Blu-ray release of The Day are now emerging.  Check out the synopsis below:

A group of five survivors, armed with shotguns, axes and machetes, wander the back roads of a ravaged landscape looking for refuge in The Day, a terrifying look into a post-apocalyptic future. As war ravages humanity, destroying civilization and most of life on earth, the survivors realize they must do whatever it takes to stay alive. Lost, starving, and exhausted, they seek shelter in a seemingly safe abandoned farmhouse. However, while searching for food and resources, they unwittingly set off a trap signaling to their ruthless predators lying in wait to begin their deadly attack. With food and ammunition dwindling, the group must make a desperate final stand—over a 24 hour period—battling for their ultimate survival. 

THE DAY – On Blu-ray™/DVD Combo and DVD 11/27!

THE DAY on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/the.day.the.movie

Bonus features on The Day Blu-ray™/DVD Combo and DVD include audio commentary with executive producer/director Doug Aarniokoski, producer Guy A. Danella and writer Luke Passmore.