Automaton Transfusion

So what is this one about?
Netflix tells us,

In director Steven C. Miller's indie scarefest about science gone awry, a U.S. Army experiment to turn corpses into a military fighting force unleashes bloody hell on a small Florida community. As the rampaging undead begin to terrorize the town, a trio of resourceful high schoolers takes it upon themselves to end the carnage once and for all. Garrett Jones, Juliet Reeves and Joel Hebner head the cast.

ok. fair enough.

And how much did I pay to watch?
Since I got this one on Netflix this month, it cos $1.54 also.

And what did I think?
Well, I'm gonna tell you...that movie poster is FULL. OF. LIES! One of the best zombie films in decades? No. Not at all. But, the zombie aspect was quite innovative as far as zombiefication goes.

I completely forget how I heard about this one...maybe something when I was in Toronto or something. But I added it to my netflix queue because I was unable to see it in the theatre when I initially saw that the film existed. However, maybe a year later, otherwise measured as about three weeks ago, I learned that someone I went to elementary, middle, and high school with was in the movie. (If you went to any of those things with me...ask me who it is) Turns out he is a model for a 'non-typical' modeling agency, called, and I'm not joking, UglyNY. hahaha. Anyway, I learned that he was in the movie so I decided it was about time to move the movie up the queue. Well, he is totally visible in at least 4 scenes...so I guess its pretty cool what happens to us once we leave school.

I have digressed. The movie really did seem like a student film. I think it was, so I guess that is what happened. For making this movie for $30k I was pretty impressed about its production values. One thing that was an interesting technique they used in order to make it seem like there were more extras (so, to mask a failing in their film) which made the camera jolt around. It made it seem like the camera was being held by someone who was running. As an audience member it was hard to quickly look at what was going on before the shot changed. I thought that was pretty cool.

The special effects were pretty good. The blood looked really good. The bites and other things (including a zombie grabbing a fetus out of a pregnant teenager and eating it) were a little student film-y. And for a zombie aficionado like myself, that was no good.

And man. The acting. wow. It was really bad. I mean, if the movie was a student film, then the actors were just student actors, but I mean, come on. I acted in highschool and I think there were people I knew who could have sold being-chased-by-zombies much better than these guys.

The plot was interesting enough. The zombies were, get this, a creation by the US government as a way to create a super soldier. I've never heard of something like this before, so it was interesting.

The end was bad, because instead of having the zombies eat the characters who were clearly trapped the film makers decided to go with a "to be continued"

If that isn't the biggest storytelling cop out, then I don't know what is.

So what is the rating? (out of 10)
OK. I feel a bit like an asshole because I am critiquing a movie made by some young filmmakers. I mean, I watch a lot of movies but I have no idea if I could ever make one. I'd like to...but if I could, that actually remains to be seen. But, what I do know is that bad acting makes any horror movie especially atrocious.

Then, as a zombie purist I know that it is mental to try and act like the government would willingly create a special, hard to kill, breed of Z. Shoot, zombie invasion is the biggest nightmare of the US government!! They would never create them.

I do have to give the filmmakers credit though, for being inventive.

Overall I would say this movie shouldn't break a 5. So, I will give it a 4 (I can't start being soft with my ratings...) with my apologies because I don't know that I could do any better. Well, I mean, I could make a more convincing story line.

(UNRELATED. World War Z is being made into a movie by Brad Pitt's production company.
AMAZING!!!!!)