Customer Reviews

Hide And Creep

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Well, I'm a born and bred Vermonter and I loved, loved, loved this movie. So, no, it is not just a "Southern thing". It's a horror thing, a zombie thing, a good movie thing.
The people who made this movie had almost nothing to work with, but totally spun gold from straw. It's funny, clever, well-paced, well-shot, good effects, and most of the acting while not 100% polished was 110% sincere and engaging.
I've watched hundreds upon hundreds of horror movies and found Hide and Creep a welcome relief from all the bad CG, apathetic writing, stilted dialogue, and hackneyed trash out there made by greedy clods just trying to make a buck. Hide and Creep has humor, horror, and heart. See? I liked it so much I felt alliteration was called for.

Hide And Creep is another addition to the ever-growing popular treat known as the zombie comedy. Following on the successful heels of Shaun Of The Dead, it is but another entry into the new zomcom world. Several other such films have been released with varying degrees of success and many more are poised for release in the future. Unfortunately, the problem with movies venturing into this genre is that they walk a fine line between being completely idiotic messes and actually being able to balance the zombie-horror element with comedy. Luckily, Hide and Creep succeeds in its attempt.

Hide And Creep strongly follows the Shaun format, whereas everything involving the zombies is serious and only living people are used for humor. This keeps the menace of the zombies intact and allows the everyday humdrum of life to be examined and poked fun at. Another similarity to Shaun is how the characters seemingly try to continue their mundane existences even in the midst of a zombie outbreak. It is this device, like Shaun, that generates the most humorous moments.

Differing from the single straightforward story of Shaun however, Hide And Creep, to its credit, involves the interweaving of four separate stories. None of the characters are strong enough to pull off an entire movie alone, but the ensemble cast crossing each other's paths and dealing with the colorful supporting cast worked excellently. Nice performances are turned in by all as well, and what could have been stereotypical redneck depictions has enough simple charm to make the custodian of all-things-redneck, Jeff Foxworthy, burst with pride.

The first story involves Michael (played by Michael Shelton) whom we are first introduced to with a surprising affront of male nudity. A declaration of sorts, letting you know right off that everything you are about to watch is going to be tasteless and crude, yet breezy and comfortable. We quickly learn that Michael is an alien abduction victim (the very same aliens blamed for the rise of the undead) and that he has been dropped off in the woods without his clothes, his girlfriend, and most importantly to him, his car.

Our second story involves Chuck (played by Chuck Hartsell), a video store owner and horror movie aficionado who is more interested in drinking beer and watching the Alabama football game than he is in battling zombies. He is the first person to encounter the zombies and after dispatching one in his store he drops the body off at the local sheriff's office and sets off for breakfast. To his chagrin he is further involved by the sheriff's office secretary, her ex-boyfriend, and an ambiguous government agent.

The third plot involves the local reverend (played by Barry Austin) who has his hands full with absentee parishioners, deadbeats borrowing things from the church, and worst of all his transformation into a zombie after being bitten. His portrayal is sympathetic and ironic as apparently he is the only good Christian in town.

The last and probably most humorous story involves four members of a local gun club caught in the tumultuous uprising of zombies. The leader, Keith (played by Kyle Holman) is perfect as the gun-crazy yet humble family man. Keith and his cronies are attacked in the woods but make a daring escape. They then make their way into town to warn the good people of Thorsby, Alabama of the threat but find that no one really seems to care all that much.

These four stories cross paths several times and really give the sense of scale that was needed. There are no large crowd scenes, military operations, or massive onslaughts of zombies, but having a small cast make their way around to several locations overcomes this low-budget barrier.

Hide And Creep does have its shortcomings. The zombie makeup was simply that, just a little makeup. Gore is pretty much non-existent, except for copious amounts of blood. These are minor grievances and are forgivable given the small amount of money the film was made for. The foremost strength of the film lies in the writing. There are more innovative scenes, southern colloquialisms, and redneck pop culture references than you can shake a stick at.

The DVD widescreen transfer is nice albeit slightly soft, as Hide And Creep was actually shot on 16MM film, a rarity these days with low budget filmmaking. The mix is in 5.1 surround and really sounds clear and sharp. The understated soundtrack doesn't hurt either.

OK. I personally know several of the principles in this film, so I'm predjudiced. But I'm a pretty fair judge of cinema, and I can write a review with correct spelling and without vulgar sexual references. So ... onward ...

I'm not a zombie-movie fan, but you don't have to be to enjoy the zany, self-deprecating humor of this film. If you're a Southerner, you'll recognize your neighbors, your friends and perhaps even yourself in the instantly appealing gallery of characters. That is what makes this movie work -- it never takes itself too seriously and asks the audience to do the same. Approach it as "high horror" and you'll be disappointed. Approach it as high parody and you'll have a great time.

The dialogue and visual imagery can be a bit rough at times, sometimes unnecessarily so, but otherwise this is a very respectable debut film that will have you snorting.

This really is a great, funny movie. Unfortunately, if you're not from Alabama (or at least the South) you won't get half the jokes they make. You might not even realize they're making a joke. Little things like raising the price of milk and bread because of zombie attack, stopping to eat at Firehouse BBQ while running from zombies, telling the news anchor to shut up and put the Alabama-Auburn game back on and several other small things are hilarious if you've lived here.

The movie was filmed in and around Montevallo, AL and shown at the Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham. The music in Hide and Creep is superb and was done by Eric McGinty. Eric may just be the hardest working musician in Alabama. He also plays Ned, the first poor member of the Thorsby Gun Club to meet an untimely demise.

This movie was released by Asylum and compared to other Asylum titles the acting, direction, effects and cinematography are incredible. Compared to most of the other straight-to-video horror movies I've watched all of these are still very good.

We are clearly in a renaissance period when it comes to zombie comedies. Most people know about "Shaun of the Dead," and there is my personal favorite, "Dead and Breakfast," as well as "Bubba Ho-Tep." Here we have another effort in a similar vein, "Hide & Creep," that comes to us from writer Chance Shirley and his co-director Chuck Hartsell. They take a short called "Birthday Call" (included on the DVD) and expand it by actually getting to see the zombies, tossing in a flying saucer and a government agent from Homeland Security, and adding insult to injury by having the crisis pre-empt the big SEC football game on the television.

Thorsby is a small Southern town, home of the 1A State Powerlifting Champions in 2001 and 2002. Over at Chuck's Super Video Store, Chuck (Chuck Hartsell) is surprised to notice that he is suddenly all out of zombie movies. So when he ends up killing somebody who appears to be a zombie, he starts putting things together, using his encyclopedic knowledge of cinematic zombies (for example, he knows that "Evil Dead 2" was not about zombies but Candarian demons that possessed the living). Meanwhile, Michael (Michael Shelton) wake up in a tree in the middle of the forest missing his clothes, his girlfriend, and, most importantly, his '64½ Mustang. The only obvious explanation would be that he was abducted by aliens, and given what else is happening in the movie, that seems reasonable enough of an explanation.

Then there are Keith (Kyle Holman) and Lee (also played by Shleton), members of the Thorsby Gun Club, who head off to find out why satellite reception of the big football game has gone out and run into the walking undead, while over at the church Reverend Smith (Barry Austin) is fighting off a zombie attack. Everybody ends up fighting the zombies, but only a few get to be at local bar for the zombie lesbians scene (or would it be lesbian zombies scene?). So, that pretty much sums up everything you need to know about this movie to make your decision on whether or not to check it out. Something like that just has to be a deal maker or deal breaker, because there just cannot be any fence sitting when it comes to zombie lesbians/lesbian zombies.

I have seen enough zombie comedies to know that they are an acquired taste. After all, you really have to be familiar with the likes of George A. Romero's zombie movies and able to stomach that sort of human carnage to be able to laugh at films such as "Hide & Creep." My particular wave length is aligned perfectly with "Dead and Breakfast," so I was not completely attuned to "Hide & Creep." But there was enough laughs to say that you are looking for another zombie comedy, this one is worth checking out. Still, I freely admit that in the end I rounded up on this one because of the zombie lesbians. True, this movie does not have as many zombie lesbian scenes as most people would like to see (there is just the one), but that is true of any movie you can name from "Citizen Kane" to almost every version of "Pride & Prejudice" that you can name.

This is a great little Zombie flick. Despite its obvsiouly extremely low budget and poor make up, the movie remains fresh and entertaining due to the dialouge and amusing situations the characters become involved in. It's not scary, but its funny as hell, and I was very pleased with it. The low budget equilvent to Shaun of the Dead. Quite inspiring actually, this little flick is 100 times better than that PG-13 horror schlock Hollywood is shoving down our throats right now.

I got a chance to see this film premiere at the Sidewalk Film Festival last year and I've eagerly awaited its release. A zombie attack occurs in a small Alabama town, pitting the townsfolk against the hordes of the undead. As the body count rises, desperate decisions must be made; flee to safety or watch college football? The zombies follow the universe of Romero's laws, i.e. slow moving and implacable. If you can imagine Big Fish and Shaun of the Dead having a love child that was raised by the Army of Darkness, you'd have a pretty good idea of what you're getting into with this flick. Highly recommended for any horror/comedy fan.

Imagine "Shawn of the Dead" set in Alabama and filmed on a budget of $9,000 or so and you have Hide and Creep. Zombies invade a small southern town and have the misfortune to cross paths with a sardonic and bored video store owner, a jilted lover, and a wisecracking police dispatcher (well played by Birmingham thespian Meilssa Bush). Expect plenty of southern fried deadpan, and mediocre acting but delivered with the type of direction that can only come from a fan. It doesn't have the flash or the effects of Resident Evil, or even 28 Days Later, but the producers and directors of "Hide and Creep" did a laudible job of realizing what they could pull off given the limitations they had. If you're looking for zombie movie fun, go no further.

And the director's name is Kyle -- how cool is that?

This was the first film that I had seen at Birmingham's Side Walk Film Festival aka Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival off site. All of the venues that I have been to have been located within a few blocks of one another, so that you can walk from one theater to the next. However, when I attended in 2004 they showed this at a place called Sloss Furnace at night. This is a place that makes metallic objects and also has various events through the year such as concerts and a haunted house thing around Halloween. Not only this but many people believe that the place is haunted including Kathryn Tucker Wyndham who is known by many for her ghost stories and the ghost named Jeffrey.

So, you are sitting in metal folding chairs at night in this supposedly haunted place, which you are reminded of with five minutes of the documentary about Kathryn Tucker Wyndham concerning Sloss Furnace, so the mood was set.

Then the movie comes on. I thought that it was very fresh. There's not a whole lot of new things that you can do with zombies, but this one felt original. It was obvious that it was low budget, but that helped with the almost camp feeling that you got from it every now and then. There were some really funny moments in the film that I still remember a year later, but I will let you discover them for yourselves.

Rarely would I suggest that someone buy a movie without seeing it first and this is no exception. However, if you have an hour and a half to kill and want something cheesy and fun pick it up. I think that the reviewer Nick was correct when mentioning Army of Darkness, this film is not as good as that one, but it has the same kind of feel to it.

I think that it would play just as well on DVD as it did on the rigged up screen I saw it on, so give it a try if it is available near you, it'll be good for at least a few laughs

This is a low budget "B" film and you have to watch it as such. For a B movie, it's great. It is well done and very funny. Grab a beer and some popcorn, sit back and enjoy.