What can I say about "Uberzombiefrau"? Not a whole lot, actually because:
A. The audio and attempts at German accents made it nearly impossible to understand about 30% of the dialogue, so I had trouble keeping up with the story. I may have enjoyed the movie more if I had turned on the captions.
B. I fell asleep at one point, but because of point A didn't bother to rewind and rewatch what I had slept through.
"Uberzombiefrau" is a very ambitious indie movie in the very specific subgenre of "Nazi Zombies". It has one or two interesting twists and an looks like overall it was trying to be a bit reminiscent of the "Ilsa" movies of the 70s, but with nearly none of the sexual overtones of those movies. Bella Demente plays General Markus, and while statuesque, she isn't presented nearly as gigantic as the cover art used on Amazon Prime Video suggests.
The movie has a very impressive IMDB rating of 7.3! Not bad for something with an estimated budget of $10,000. The castle location is cinematic and well used, there are tons of extras for a smaller movie, and stock footage is MOSTLY used to good effect. (A Black and White clip snuck in there. Normally I wouldn't care, but it was a completely unnecessary shot and could have been left out. I was wondering if it was used on purpose as an in joke for fans of such films, but then I would think a bit more out of place footage should have been used to help the joke stand out.)
The "problems" with the movie are evident in the opening scene, so once you watch that, if you stick around, at least you know what you're in for as the film progresses. Much like the six minute opener of "Jack vs Lanterns" or the Refrigerator Scene in "Crystal Skulls". In "Uberzombiefrau" we have a bit of an action sequence with an experiment on the dead going wrong. The zombie costume is mostly impressive, but for some reason a close up of the zombie's un-decayed feet hitting the floor is used and we're also treated to a shot of the back of his head, which reveals the slit on the back of the rubber Halloween mask being used. It's a high quality mask, but the slit sort of gives it away. (You'll notice the Lantern King in "Jack vs Lanterns" USUALLY wears a hood). So, if you're prepared to accept small flubs like those, and realize that you probably hadn't understood anything that was said up to this point (seriously, turn on those closed captions if plot is important) then by all means, keep watching. There will be some shaky keying F/X and explosions with nearly no sound, but towards the end of the movie there is a lot of zombie action.
It doesn't say so in the trivia, but I suspect what we see is some reenactors as zombies shambling around the live F/X they would use during an outing. The use of "smoke" cannons is great, but far too quiet to sell as grenades exploding. Several actors mime firing their weapons, but with little sound F/X and no muzzle flashes. The zombies are made up to varying degrees too, with hands largely ignored (I'm guilty of this from time to time too.) One really annoyed me though. Since the zombies have controllers in their skulls, we're told by an Ally forces Scientist that shooting them in the head is the effective way to stop them. Then we watch as one zombie, wearing a mask with the top of his head blown off, chases characters around in several scenes.
Oh, and watch for the orange tips on the hero's guns. Seriously, some electrical tape or a sharpie could have fixed that.
I would suggest skipping to the end. The chaos of the final assault on the Zombie Headquarters was worth the price of admission (that being included with Prime in this case).
If you're a zombie fan, Nazi monster fan, retro horror fan or fan of cheesy movies, then this one might be worth a watch. Let's face it, if you're reading my blog, you likely fall into one of those categories...or you're related to me.
A. The audio and attempts at German accents made it nearly impossible to understand about 30% of the dialogue, so I had trouble keeping up with the story. I may have enjoyed the movie more if I had turned on the captions.
B. I fell asleep at one point, but because of point A didn't bother to rewind and rewatch what I had slept through.
"Uberzombiefrau" is a very ambitious indie movie in the very specific subgenre of "Nazi Zombies". It has one or two interesting twists and an looks like overall it was trying to be a bit reminiscent of the "Ilsa" movies of the 70s, but with nearly none of the sexual overtones of those movies. Bella Demente plays General Markus, and while statuesque, she isn't presented nearly as gigantic as the cover art used on Amazon Prime Video suggests.
The movie has a very impressive IMDB rating of 7.3! Not bad for something with an estimated budget of $10,000. The castle location is cinematic and well used, there are tons of extras for a smaller movie, and stock footage is MOSTLY used to good effect. (A Black and White clip snuck in there. Normally I wouldn't care, but it was a completely unnecessary shot and could have been left out. I was wondering if it was used on purpose as an in joke for fans of such films, but then I would think a bit more out of place footage should have been used to help the joke stand out.)
The "problems" with the movie are evident in the opening scene, so once you watch that, if you stick around, at least you know what you're in for as the film progresses. Much like the six minute opener of "Jack vs Lanterns" or the Refrigerator Scene in "Crystal Skulls". In "Uberzombiefrau" we have a bit of an action sequence with an experiment on the dead going wrong. The zombie costume is mostly impressive, but for some reason a close up of the zombie's un-decayed feet hitting the floor is used and we're also treated to a shot of the back of his head, which reveals the slit on the back of the rubber Halloween mask being used. It's a high quality mask, but the slit sort of gives it away. (You'll notice the Lantern King in "Jack vs Lanterns" USUALLY wears a hood). So, if you're prepared to accept small flubs like those, and realize that you probably hadn't understood anything that was said up to this point (seriously, turn on those closed captions if plot is important) then by all means, keep watching. There will be some shaky keying F/X and explosions with nearly no sound, but towards the end of the movie there is a lot of zombie action.
It doesn't say so in the trivia, but I suspect what we see is some reenactors as zombies shambling around the live F/X they would use during an outing. The use of "smoke" cannons is great, but far too quiet to sell as grenades exploding. Several actors mime firing their weapons, but with little sound F/X and no muzzle flashes. The zombies are made up to varying degrees too, with hands largely ignored (I'm guilty of this from time to time too.) One really annoyed me though. Since the zombies have controllers in their skulls, we're told by an Ally forces Scientist that shooting them in the head is the effective way to stop them. Then we watch as one zombie, wearing a mask with the top of his head blown off, chases characters around in several scenes.
Oh, and watch for the orange tips on the hero's guns. Seriously, some electrical tape or a sharpie could have fixed that.
I would suggest skipping to the end. The chaos of the final assault on the Zombie Headquarters was worth the price of admission (that being included with Prime in this case).
If you're a zombie fan, Nazi monster fan, retro horror fan or fan of cheesy movies, then this one might be worth a watch. Let's face it, if you're reading my blog, you likely fall into one of those categories...or you're related to me.
Many thanks for the review. Constructive criticism which reiterated what we already knew about the faults we had. This being my first feature I’m still proud of our accomplishments a learning experience for all concerned.
ReplyDeleteAlways be proud of making it through the process. For a first feature this was HUGELY ambitious. After my first feature I stepped back and made three shorts. Each with a slightly larger cast and more locations than the last.
DeleteHave you followed this up yet?
We'd be glad to review another one.