Zombie Chronicles
Reviewed By : Sinn

Release Year : 2001

Directed By : Brad Sykes

Written By : Garrett Clancy

Starring : Garrett Clancy, Janet Tracy Keijser, Joe Haggerty

Related Links : IMDB

 

Somewhat unjustly maligned by many reviewers, this really is exactly what anyone with 1/2 a brain ought to expect when going into it - a low budget zombie movie. You know you're not going to get earth shattering storyline, top notch special effects, or brilliantly high production values. If you want those then fuck off and choose yourself a different movie, else read on.

What we have here is a series of interwined zombie stories, linked by a narrator in the form of a drunken old geezer with a secret, all filmed on an ultra low budget and making no effort to look like anything else. The stories themselves aren't really going to set the world alight, they're really little more than an excuse to get people into the zombies clutches, but at least they lend it a little character of its own, and in places do a few interesting things. That chick may look hot, but let me tell you that her daddy is one ugly bast!

Action and effects wise, the low budget shows through clearly, but the cast and crew have made a good enough job with what they have that it works. The gore scenes deliver in that cheap, not quite real looking way, but if you're gonna sit back and pick fault with them on that front then maybe the low budget zombie arena isn't for you, bugger off and watch Saw or I Am Legend instead. Every zombie fan is familiar with effects like it, and you'll either love em for their brave attempt to pull it off, or despise em for not quite making it.

Zombies look good enough, dry and withered bastards that they are, though don't expect hordes of them, there are only a handful, probably all friends of the director who got told they were going to play dead for the day. There's enough of them to go around at least, you only need a couple of the undead for this kind of narrative linking small tales to work.

You probably already know from the opening paragraph naming it a "low budget zombie" if you want to watch it, don't let me try and swing you either way. It does exactly what it says on the box so to speak, delivers a low budget zombie which doesn't really distinguish itself in any direction, but which makes a nice watch for those of us who like that kind of thing. Oh, and the DVD artwork is sweet, I like it a lot.