Undead Apocalypse

Director - The Brothers Nunez (Nemesis)
Starring - Christopher Diaz (Rock of Ages), Joe Coffey (Cam-Girl), and Sophia Koshmer (Facade)
Release Date - 2012
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "The end is nigh"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Tuesday, November 10th my life changed.  Bethesda released Fallout 4 for all major consoles so I had to rush out at midnight and grab my Xbox One copy.  Since then I have been infused with my Xbox One controller refusing to put it down for daily tasks.  I had to force myself to stop playing to go to the bathroom so I didn't piss my pants.  I say this because I want to stress how lucky the brothers Nunez are that I was able to get the review up for their 2012 zombie film Undead Apocalypse.  Several weeks back I was browsing Facebook for indie horror films when I came across the Facebook page for the film.  I was interested in the film after I discovered that Joe Coffey was in it.  I reached out to them and they were kind enough to send a review copy my way.  Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to check this one out!

     The film follows a group of college students, a former soldier, and a professor that learn that an extreme Islamic group has successfully bombed the U.S. with a chemical that turns everyone into flesh hungry fiends.  The group argues about what they need to do to survive and eventually split when into two fractions.  One group decides to stay in the building and barricade themselves in while the other, consisting of the professor and former soldier, agree to go to the professors lab where he may have a cure.  They then fight their way through the leagues of the undead while suffering casualties.  They are able to reach the lab where the professor is able to cure those that have been infected.
     Most of you are thinking it and I will just go ahead and say it.  Yes, the horror genre is saturated with zombie films and we have the success of The Walking Dead to thank for that.  Now, people bitch and moan when they hear about a new zombie flick but before TWD's air date in 2010 the zombie sub-genre was relatively dead (pun intended).  Personally, I love the sub-genre and love when I come across a new film but recent years has saw the release of some really shitty films not wanting to entertain.  Their only existence is to cash in on TWD hype.  My first impression of Undead Apocalypse was that it was a horror comedy.  I got that impression from the poster (above).  However, the film is not and is a serious horror flick in the same lines as TWD but don't count this film out because of that.  The film was actually pretty solid all the way around.  The acting in this one is pretty good.  Folks may remember Joe from my reviews on Cam-Girl and Sanctuary.  He is a skilled actor who should appear in more films.  The film's lead, Christopher Diaz, is a solid actor as well and does a great job as the film's tough guy.  Out of the characters in the film, his is the only one the viewer wants to survive the night.  The remainder of the cast does a decent job but they are very expendable and expected to die.  The story for this one is more of what is already offered up before in regards to zombies and the apocalypse.  The film follows a group that was hit by a zombie epidemic while at college and are forced to fight for their lives.  This is the same story line as Dorm of the Dead which was released in 2006 and Humans vs. Zombies which was released in 2011.  The story is not that original but it does deliver up several entertaining scenes that redeems itself for the lack of originality.  My only complaint with the story was how many characters the film follows.  There was too many characters to follow.  The character list needed trimmed down a bit.  Finally, the film offers up several on screen kills but they are nothing that gory and graphic that we expect to see from a zombie flick.  The kills we get are pretty tame and nothing that bloody.  The practical effects are very minimal which may explain why the kills we do get are not that gruesome.  Overall, Undead Apocalypse is pretty fun zombie flick.  It does not reinvent the wheel but does offer up a fun ride.  Check it out.