Zombie Hunter the £2 (sort of) Blu Ray review

howdy folks


yes indeed, another film watched and yet again it's some cheap trash rather than any of the classic movies i have obtained but, look you see, have thus far failed to bear witness to.

the last week has been quite a prolific one in terms of further expansion of my Blu Ray collection. there is very much a new game in town in the form of Renew, a seller of all things optical discs at super low prices. not quite as low as Poundland, but the Blu Rays being either £2 each or 3 for £5 is not to be knocked in terms of value. of the titles i have picked up during the week - and this includes gems such as Hobo With A Shotgun and Seven Psychopaths - i was of a mind to watch Zombie Hunter.

i was particularly pleased to see this one available for sale as i had previous - as opposed to some point in the future - seen a trailer for it and saw that it looked quite smart. it's got that Danny Trejo in it, after all. sure, he might be in some crappy adverts now, but he was boss in things like Desperado, and from what i remember was a particularly unpleasant sort of character in Con Air. and i am sure he was smart in loads of other things what i saw, the name of which escaped me.

quick, spoiler free review? quite a decent film that owes more to Mad Max 2 (or Road Warrior if American) than it does to any other zombie related film, and really let down only by if not the low budget then the way in which the low budget was spent. no way does it deserve the low review it has off of imdb, although with the last bit in mind i can understand why.

you would be wise, then, to assume or if you like know that a fabulous, sensational *** POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING *** is in place for the whole rest of this post. whilst the film pretty much does exactly what it says on the box, and does what i mentioned above, i do know that there are those that don't want to hear any details off of a film before they see it. those people should probably avoid the internet all together, but no matter.

plot? some sort of smart, illegal and rather addictive drug lands on the streets of America, and presumably the world. the effect of this drug is to effectively turn users into a flesh eating zombie. after twelve months, then, America is pretty much an empty, desolate wasteland, mostly populated by zombies eating whatever they can find, along with a few regular human survivors. one of the latter is Hunter (Martin Copping), and we get introduced to him driving a car that is tres last of the V8 interceptors, hunting zombies.

a somewhat contrived set of circumstances leads to the Hunter meeting a group of survivors; a group ostensibly led by the Jesus (Danny Trejo). they have a plan which involves needing to get past both zombies and deranged, mutated survivors to reach an airbase and fly to an uninhabited island......

this was, as mentioned, really rather good. the plot - a small group of survivors trying to escape the wastelands and a marauding gang - is unashamedly ripped from Mad Max 2. it was a good story idea then, it is a good story idea now. the performances are solid, the script is good. the problem is that the (according to imdb) $1million budget was spent on 10 minutes of Danny Trejo and not the effects.

for the most part the special effects fall right into the world of "bad CGI", that regular complaint about modern films. this should be a festival of violence, instead it's a series of poorly executed effects on a computer. the blue, purple and pink hues used to show blood are quite smart, mind, and some of the kills are class. overall, though, doubling the budget would have made this film about ten times better.

any other failings? i am not sure this will be much of a failing for too many, but no nudies. the cover promises "hot chicks", which it does feature, but they are all two of them and they are (albeit scantily) dressed at all times. it's not the be all and end all of things, i suppose, but the unspoken promise of such films is normally that nudies will feature, and some rather gratuitous displays of flesh would probably distracted quite nicely from the shortcomings of the effects.

would i recommend or otherwise suggest that one watches or seeks out Zombie Hunter? yes. for the third or fourth time here in this post, it was a really decent homage or if you like rip off of the plot of Mad Max 2. that's a film i hold in high regard, and i have zero problem with anyone stealing the concept in order to turn out some decent entertainment. Doing exactly that, after all, did not harm Mad Max Fury Road.

i have done that thing again in which i have run out of things to say, but nonetheless insist on trying to find something to write in order to wrap the text around a picture so that it does not look, on the whole, wanky. a ha, i have not discussed the technical specifications of the Blu Ray disc. i will do exactly that now, then, as a means to finishing it all off.

whilst the quality of the video and sound are as superb as you'd expect off of a Blu Ray disc, the rest is all very much VHS standard. there's no animated menu, no trailers and no extras outside of "scene select". granted, you can change the sound from 5.1 surround to 2 channel stereo, but for the life of me i cannot think why, when watching a Blu Ray, one would want to do this.

so, there you go. as ever, hope this was of use to someone out there!!!!




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!