First thank Nick Calder for providing me with a screener.
When South Korea is ravaged by a massive demon epidemic that nearly wipes out its entire population, four foreigners are forced to stick together to survive the fallout. After they encounter a Korean survivor who informs them that a nuclear purge of the country is imminent, they realize that escape is the only option. But nothing comes free, and to make it out alive they must overcome their differences and work together to confront not only the flesh-hungry demons waiting for them around every corner, but also the personal demons hiding within themselves. Fear Eats the Seoul is written and directed by Nick Calder. The acting is pretty good. Handheld camerawork which looks good but there is a lot of shaky cam and rapid editing during the action-sequences which does create a good atmosphere but is kinda frustrating, this is of course a matter of taste, but it makes it hard to seee/focus on what´s happening on screen. I love the soundtrack and the sound design. The pacing is slow, the focus is on the characters not on the action. The film is divided into four sections, with title cards, and there are several flashbacks to earlier times, before the disaster. The story is a bit difficult to follow and there are some plot holes but I won´t go into details. There is carnage and violence but there ain´t much gore, we don´t get to see much partly due to the shaky cam during scenes with humans vs flesh-hungry demons. This is, I think, an intentional move by the filmmakers. Possibly to reach a bigger market by avoiding to graphic violence or simply because the budget didn´t allow I like the make-up fx design for the demons, we never get a really clear look of them which probably works in theirs favor, they are pretty creepy and feels much more like a threat than compared to zombies. There is no T & A in this.
This review is based upon a online screener provided by Nick Calder.
Rating: 4½ out of 7. I enjoyed this, Fear Eats the Seoul is a bleak, slow moving flick with emphasis on characters instead of action. I would not recommend this for gorehounds but it´s definitely worth checking out.
/JL
The year is 2015. The last known oil fields have been lost to global war. Overpopulation and famine have plunged our planet into chaos. But deep in the wilderness, one desperate survivor now finds himself hunted by corporate kill squads, sought by the Resistance, and pursued by hordes of rage-crazed zombies. In a world ruled by murder, madness and cannibalistic carnage, will humanity’s last hope be measured in bloodshed? The Vanguard is written and directed Matthew Hope. The acting is decent for the most part but Ray Bullock Jr is very good as Max Carter who speaks to his dead father in voice-over narration. The movie is nicely shot and edited, the scenes in the forest looks great. There are some good action scenes, nicely shot and staged. The soundtrack is quite effective. The pacing is perhaps a bit slow in some parts, the flick actually bordering to becoming boring. I like that the main character Max sports a pair hatchets and a homemade javelin instead of the ever present firearms, it´s always much cooler when they have to get close up and dirty in my opinion. The plot is decent even if a bit pretentious. It´s also confusing and just plain incoherent in some parts. There are a couple of gory scenes, it´s a mix of practical make-up and some bad computer rendered fx. I didn´t find the "zombies" aka Biosyns especially scary or menacing, the design has it flaws as they mostly look like they have contact-lenses and some bodypaint. No T & A in this.
This review is based on the swedish region 2 DVD release from Cinematic Vision.
Rating: 1½ out of 7. It´s watchable, I`ve seen worse, seen better.
/JL
A group of teens head to a haunted hay rack ride only to encounter car trouble along the way. Stranded in the countryside they are stalked and slashed one-by-one until all 7 are down. 7 Down is written by Morgan Schmid, Shadlee Schmid and Tyler Schmid and directed by Shadlee Schmid and Tyler Schmid. The acting is bad, some of the cast seem to try to compensate for their lack in acting skills by yelling and shouting at each other which is just annoying. The camerawork and editing is amateurish. On a positive note, the instrumental soundtrack is good. The pacing is bad, it takes 36 long minutes before things get going and keep in mind that 7 Down originally had a running time of 47 minutes. There are a few badly staged kills but there aren´t no gore, either it is too dark to see what happening or it happens off screen. Now I don´t mind if a flick is a slow burner, takes its time to get going but then there must be some kind of pay off and we don´t get any in 7 Down as there no nudity and no gore. As mentioned this movie was originally 47 minutes but since RHR Home Video picked it up for distribution they added approx 15 minutes of padding out footage that makes no sense. There is no gore in this, some fake looking make-up fx in some aftermath shots, there is no T & A in this.
This movie can be bought from the RHR Home Video Website here .
This review is based upon the region all (Region 0) DVD release from RHR Home Video.
Rating: 0 out of 7. OMG, did I really pay with my hard earned money for this crap?? :/ Overlong, a trip through boredom. I actually started thinking of skipping a chapter or two as nothing happened for 36 minutes, nothing, but it´s a very bare bones DVD (actually it´s a DVD-R) and there are no chapters. 7 Down is about as enjoyable as piercing your eyes with needles. Can´t recommend this to anyone, not even to my worst enemy cause it would be to cruel and unfair to do so.
/JL
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