First of all I´d like to thank Alexander Gustafsson for sending me a screener of his film.
Two horror movie fans spend time together by discussing and watching movies, their girlfriends gets tired of them so they decide to go for a walk and do something fun. They visit a nearby church-yard, where a company has been dumping nuclear waste. The nuclear waste awakens the dead and they are hungry for human flesh. Retro is a adaptation of a comic book that Alexander have made previously and he has produced, written the script and directed the film. It´s badly shot and edited, we get a lot of terrible acting. The film is way to long even though it has a running time of 60 minutes, the pacing is slow and it seems to drag on forever. There are some really cheap and fake looking gore, the zombie make up consists of simple masks that you can buy in a novelty shop and I´m pretty sure that they even resort to using a 12 inch figure (Sideshow Collectibles) in some shots,
The makers of Retro are currently seeking a DVD distributor.
Rating: 0½ out of 7. Retro is a micro budget effort and it shows, it would have been better if they for instance had made a short film, in it´s current state Retro is to long and to boring and adding more and better gore would have been nice.
/JL
First of all I´d like to thank James Balsamo for sending me a screener of his film.
James Argento (James Balsamo) and Mike Fulci (Michael Shershenovich) are tired of art films taking away the credit that horror films deserve. So, they get a script from the devil to make the best horror film ever. The script has three stories in it. The first is about Nazis that awaken a mummy's curse. The second tale is about an alien that crashes a battle of the bands and then starts eating the contestants, and the last story is about a man who gets possessed to kill televangelists. Hack Job is written, edited and directed by James Balsamo. It´s made on practically no budget at all, the camera work and editing is bad and the acting is way over the top. Regarding the pacing, even it it´s just 95 minutes long it feel overlong and seems to drag on forever. Yes there is gore but the special fx are really bad most of the time, several times they cut away not because it´s too gross or so but because they probably couldn´t afford create the fx. There is nudity, but it´s mostly a ugly pair of pierced breasts.
This review is based on a DVD, it´s unrated.
Rating: 0 out of 7. Hack Job is dumb and dumber, it´s actually a contender in the contest of the most stupid film I´ve seen. It´s so bad it almost becomes funny but only almost...
/JL
As requested by Infernal Films I have included a swedish translation of the review.
First of all I´d like to thank Lars Rohnstock for making a screener available for me. In a research laboratory scientists are using brain waves to try to activate the recently deceased to return. They want to collect information about the dying process. One of the researchers injected a freshly deceased with a serum, a short time later there is a strange metamorphosis: He is now living dead. The undead kills two scientists, the three zombies then escape from the medical institute. Not far away, a group of young goth fans plans to celebrate in a cemetery. The group friends have no choice but to take up the fight against the zombies and their thirst for human flesh seems to be insatiable. Graveyard of the Living Dead is directed by Marc Rohnstock. The performances are perfectly fine for a small amateur production. The camera work and editing is pretty good. There is a strikingly large amount of gore, it really squirts all over the place as body parts are removed with an ax, some victims and zombies are gutted and there are countless headshots. The special fx are naturally not completely perfect, but that shouldn´t be surprising as this is a amateur film. The effects team has done a good job in any case. The zombie masks may be slightly different than in other films, in my opinion they are reminiscent of the old italian zombie films. As for the story, the film certainly does not win innovation award, but that was never the intention of the director, the aim is to entertain and he succeds in doing so. The story kept me entertained, particularly the beginning is very reminiscent of Re-animator.
This review is based on a screener sent to me, it´s uncut and has english subtitles.
Rating: 5½ out of 7. Graveyard of the Living Dead is a extremely fast and entertaining splatter-fest and I´m sure that splatter fans will enjoy it as there is a really large amount of blood and gore on display. I will definitely keep an eye on Marc Rohnstock
Swedish translation:
Först av allt skulle jag vilja tacka Lars Rohnstock för att gjort en screener tillgänglig för mig.
I en forskningslaboratorium använder forskare hjärnvågor för att försöka få den nyligen avlidne att återvända. De vill samla in information om den döendeprocessen. En av forskarna injicerar en nyligen avliden med ett serum, en kort tid senare inträffas en märklig metamorfos: Han är nu levande död. Den odöde dödar två forskare, de tre zombierna flyr sedan från det medicinska institutet. Inte långt därifrån planerar en grupp unga goth fans en fest på en kyrkogård. Gruppen har inget annat val än att ta upp kampen mot zombierna och deras törst efter människokött verkar vara omättlig. Graveyard of Living Dead är regisserad av Marc Rohnstock. Skådespeleriet är bra för en liten amatör produktion. Kameraarbete och redigering är ganska bra. Det finns en påfallande stor mängd gore, det verkligen sprutar överallt när kroppsdelar avlägsnas med en yxa, en del offer och zombies får inälvorna utslitna och det finns otaliga headshots. Special fx är naturligtvis inte helt perfekt, men det bör inte vara förvånande eftersom detta är en amatör film. Teamet har gjort ett bra jobb i alla fall. Zombie maskerna är något annorlunda än i andra filmer, enligt min uppfattning påminner de om de gamla italienska zombiefilmerna. När det gäller historien,så vinner vinner definitivt inte något pris för originalitet, men det var aldrig regissörens avsikt, syftet är att underhålla och det lyckas han med. Berättelsen var underhållande, inledningen påminner mycket om Re-Animator.
Denna recension bygger på en screener skickad till mig, den är oklippt och har engelska undertexter.
Betyg: 5½ av 7. Graveyard of Living Dead är en extremt snabb och underhållande splatter-fest och jag är säker på att splatter fans kommer att njuta av den eftersom det finns en riktigt stor mängd blod och gore på display. Jag kommer definitivt hålla ett öga på Marc Rohnstock.
/JL
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