Customer Reviews

Die Zombiejager/Murder Island

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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This movie was originally shot in Swedish, and is brought to us with an English re-dub, not subtitles. Unfortunately, irrespective of however outstanding this movie may be, the English dubbing is so horribly done that it is unwatchable. This is not a matter of preference for high vs low budget or any other highly subjective, qualitative factor, but a simple observation that any reasonable English speaker will likely share. The experience would have been infinitely better had they presented in its native format with subtitles. Too bad.

[note: one of these days I'll get round to watching and reviewing Murder Island. Really. Honest.]

Die Zombiejäger (Jonas Wolcher, 2005)

Incomprehensible, but relatively entertaining, basement-budget zombie flick from, of all places, Sweden (it seems like every country is weighing in with a zombie film these days; witness Greece's To Kako, also from 2005). Probably not of interest to anyone but the zombie completist, but hardcore fans of the risen dead will find a decent amount to enjoy here.

The plot (as far as I can make out): Heinrich (Martin Brisshäll), Dieter (Nick Holmquist), and Ivo (Christian van Caine) are three German mercenaries who specialize in zombie extermination. When a zombie epidemic breaks out in Gothenburg and another zombie exterminator, Dragonetti (Aldo Cunei), goes missing, the three are called in to quell the problem. Unfortunately for them, the guy who's been creating the zombies (Dogville's Erich Silva, the only cast member with any experience at all here) has gotten his hands on Dragonetti, for whom he's got plans that are, shall we say, not so nice...

The best thing about this flick by far is its soundtrack, which is in many ways worth the cost of admission alone; it swerves from death metal to industrial dance to smarmy incidental stuff with no apologies whatsoever. It's a lot of fun, probably the best soundtrack I've heard in a movie in the past month or so. As for the script, well, it's not quite up to that standard. In fact, I'm not sure it involved any sort of standard at all. It's got a few amusing lines here and there, and it does start gaining coherence about halfway through, but it could have used another rewrite or two. The special effects are surprisingly decent for this budget level, but they do tend to be inconsistent, so don't expect the world.

All in all, it's not terrible, but anything less than a casual fan of zombie flicks is probably not going to find anything to like here (as evidenced by the film's exceptionally low IMDB rating). Still, give it a chance; it's kind of fun. **