20140221: Horror Review--Zombie Night

Zombie Night

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, TV14, 88 minutes, horror, zombies.
2. IMDB: 3.4/10.0 from 351 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 1 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No scores yet,' and 8% liked it from 441 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.9/5.0 from 30,269 audience ratings.
5. Saw this on SyFy originally, and thought it set a low water mark for zombie films.
6. Directed by: John Gulager.
7. Starring: Anthony Michael Hall as Patrick, Darryl Hannah as Birdy, Alan Ruck as Joseph, Shirley Jones as Nana, Jennifer Taylor as Karin, Rachel G. Fox as Tracie Jackson.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The zombie apocalypse erupts in Pasadena, CA.  At least that is where this was filmed.  Supposedly it erupts everywhere else as well.


2. With a certain amount of courage, and ten times as much cowardice, some non-zombies try to survive the night.  One of the conceits of the film is that the zombies will go inactive come sunrise.


3. The humans proceed with variable success, but mostly failure, to live until sun up.  One wonders what will happen the next night.


4. How many will survive?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Gore aplenty, and five actors trapped in a terrible script.
2. One star of five.  One black hole for screenplay.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Reasonable for a night picture.


2. Sound: 5/10 OK for the most part, but the anti-relevant sound track did not help.


3. Acting: 3/10 Shirley Jones was OK as an infirm old woman whose wailing caused another death, but her role was short.  Anthony Michael Hall, Darryl Hanna, Alan Ruck, and Jennifer Taylor were reasonable; given the script, that is.  With a decent script and an experienced director, any of these actors can give a nice performance.  In contrast, the other people who were filmed were not recognizable as actors.


4. Screenplay: 0/10 Wall to wall nonsense, and one of the worst zombie films I've ever seen.