What a waste of my time!!!
It is a performances centric movie
A Masterpiece!
If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
View MoreFor those who watch this for a zombie flick, this will be a disappointment. That is not what this film is about.This is a movie of subtext. It is a statement on multi-culturalism and the demand to conform to social norms. The Zombies can represent any modern stereotype - from homosexuals to immigrants, or people with HIV or disabilities.It is a statement about society's respect for the individual. We want to think of ourselves as socially permissive; accepting of differences; PC.But the more people just want to be left alone, the more our fear-driven prejudices emerge. The climax of the movie is a wake-up call to audience of just how much we, through the course of the movie, have judged the characters, based solely on stereotypes.This isn't a Zombie flick; it is a human flick, with zombies.
View MoreAn often entertaining movie with plot holes, contradictions, continuity errors and characters doing things from out of the blue. Various elements are also left unexplained. Watch ZA: Zombies Anonymous instead. It has a similar sense of dark humor and depicts the zombies in similar way (with intelligence and the ability to function in society. while being a much better put together film.While this movie is entertaining and it's mockumentry style intriguing, it is very sloppy, especially towards the end. Only watch if you can ignore major flaws.
View MoreThis is not a conventional zombie movie, this takes the stance that zombies are not necessarily brain munching mindless creatures, but some of them, while still being dead still retain most cognitive function. A group sets out to make a documentary on zombies, specifically centred on ZAG the Zombie Activist Group and how they are fitting into modern American Society. It should also be pointed out that this cast and crew were generally quite inexperienced when they made this but it's not obvious for the most part.***SPOILERS*** Some of it is quite black humoured which is good, there are few Zombie movies that have any humour at all and the whole documentary feel to it is reasonably well done, particularly when the crew argue amongst themselves about what to do. However it is a little too long and the ending stinks of a hasty re- write
View More"American Zombie" is probably the biggest pleasant surprise I encountered in quite a few years and I urge every fan of cinema whether horror or films in general to check it out as soon as the opportunity occurs. The film is an odd and unconventional mixture between a zombie film (duh!) and the so-called "mockumentary" (people with hand-held cameras registering the unusual situation they find themselves stuck in). Just because of this label, I approached "American Zombie" with extreme caution and low anticipations. Let's be honest, the market for zombie movies already suffers from over-saturation since many years and the Mockumentary forms a suddenly unstoppable trend ("Cloverfield", "rec", ) that yet has to prove its stability. George A. Romero also joined in on the combination of zombies and shaky cameras with his latest effort "Diary of the Dead". Now, he's an acclaimed director and even the founding father of zombie cinema, but what to expect from a bunch of inexperienced documentary makers? Well, I love being proved wrong when it comes to innovating and new film projects! "American Zombie" is refreshing, original, intelligent, well structured and far more stylish than it has any right to be. The subject matter may sound ridicule, but writer/director Grace Lee presents everything in a convincing style and even the cast members, who have the difficult task of depicting plausible corpses, play their roles with a constant straight face. The script uniquely introduces resurrection from the dead as some sort of congenital defect, caused by a substance in the brain that is activated in case of a violent death. There are several categories of "Revenants", varying from the absolute braindead to the living dead with most of their vital brain capacities still intact. Throughout a period of several days, a Los Angeles film crew follows four of these "intelligent" zombies and illustrates how they live their everyday afterlife, deal with all sorts of discrimination and desperately attempt to oppress their physical decomposing. Just like normal people, these revenants have different personalities, hopes, desires, sentiments and goals to achieve. Meanwhile the film also centers on the arguments between the filmmakers mutually, as Grace wants to maintain an objective viewpoint whereas John continuously confronts the revenants with provocative questions. The revenants' stories and the crew's constant quarrels are already fascinating to behold, but the script is uplifted to an even higher level of quality through interviews with other groups. There are scientists listing the characteristics and history of the Living Dead, Zombie-haters (displaying various ways to destroy a dead brain) and Zombie-chasers (similar to people who write love letters to convicts on death row). Seemingly without much effort, "American Zombie" succeeds in bringing a biting satire that subtly mocks modern social issues and media sensationalism, but simultaneously doesn't lose track of story depth and character drawings. There are multiple powerful scenes in the film and you honestly come to care for the revenants even though the maggots occasionally fall out of their bodies. "American Zombie" is also a rather atypical "Mocumentary" (since there are still professionals in charge of photography, sound and editing) so the amount of shaky camera movements and extreme close-ups are thankfully kept to a minimum. Highly recommended to open-minded cinema lovers.
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