Load of rubbish!!

Am I Missing Something?

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Some hippies camping in the woods get covered in poisoned LSD (don't ask) and turn into zombies (again, don't ask). Yup, it's another world beater. Much like the similar "Video Nasty", Don't Go In The Woods, Forest of Fear has a "wilderness" with more people in it than trees, features almost as many moments of inspired stupidity, and contains choice lines of dialogue such as, "There's been some killing", "Even if he's retarded, he's got to learn to get along in this world", and "I've lived in these woods all my life and I've never seen a cannibal".As you would expect, the "acting" is equally brilliant. While a woman is clawing frantically at a man for help, screaming and trying to get away from a badly made-up zombie, the man simply stands there like a tree and recites his lines like he's memorising a grocery list. There's also the total lack of reaction from a man who finds a severed leg in the woods, the worst attempt at acting like a Downs Syndrome sufferer ever, plus there's some sledgehammer-subtle exposition, and even a smattering of casual racism. George A Romero faithful, John Amplas (Martin, Knightriders, Day of the Dead), turns up in it for a bit of spare cash and somehow manages to act worse than almost everybody else. And that's no easy task. Unlike DGITW, Forest of Fear does actually feature a music score. Just one that sounds like a bad high school music project which steals liberally from Halloween and Jaws, while using sound effects so shrill and annoying that they could only have been created by the worst type of sadist.Nudity Watch: A girl gets her boobs out in the first two minutes, but after that there's nothing rude at all. In fact, like so many other video nasties, you're left wondering why it was even banned in the first place. Even for the '80s, it's tame stuff.

All hail You Tube for hosting the full version of this film, one which was banned by the BBFC and one of the few that has never been re-released. So how does this so-called Video Nasty pan out? Well, for one, I can't see why they banned it all. It's no gorier than The Crazies and even less gory than Zombie Holocaust, so it's a bit of a head scratcher as to why it was taken off the shelves. On the other hand, I did find it to be a fairly enjoyable, and daft, low budget horror film.After killing two feds who stumbled upon their ganja plantation, some hippies decide to cut their costs, harvest as much grass as possible, and run off. Unluckly for them a G-man gives the go ahead to spray their crop with an experimental herbicide just as they're harvesting, covering five of them in poisonous dust (and the pilot gets covered in it too, for his troubles). Now this dust immediately makes them spew blood and become sick, which leads them to crave blood and go off on a killing spree, starting with two unaffected hippies.Meanwhile, a forestry commission guy is on a fishing trip with his wife and his annoying brother (who does racist jokes), who then bump into two kids who's parents have been killed by the mutated hippies. From then on it's a chase through the woods while the G-man and John Amplas of Martin fame try and cover up the mess they've made.While insanely cheap and in places badly acted and edited, and also although it takes a while to build up some steam, Toxic Zombies is good for a laugh once it gets going. It's not overly gory but people do get stabbed in the eye, have their hands chopped off as the hippies battle the norms. The hippies are easily put down and don't transmit their disease but they're also quite crafty and relentless, using weapons and fire to get to their prey.If you're on the mooch for a cheap horror film then this one will do the trick. I love it when low budget filmmakers manage to pull a decent film out the bag.

This film came to semi prominence in early 80's Britain when it was labelled a video nasty under the evocative sounding title Forest of Fear. The moniker I saw it under was 'Toxic Zombies' which really doesn't make an awful lot of sense. But no matter because it doesn't really make a difference what title this movie has, it's not going to improve it any. Its story is about a group of marijuana farmers who are sprayed with a toxic chemical by renegade federal agents. They turn into homicidal maniacs and terrorise various people in a forest.Sadly, despite being an honest enough effort, this is a pretty boring movie. It's amateurish in every conceivable way. Its video nasty credentials are somewhat questionable too. It's one of many films from the notorious list that have no right being in any grouping of films that were considered a threat to society. The very idea of someone sitting through this and then being either traumatised or inspired to commit acts of violence is patently an insane one. The only thing anyone is in danger of is in falling asleep to be perfectly honest. Acting is universally amateur despite the presence of John Amplas who was so impressive in George Romero's excellent film Martin. While the music is a very poor man's Halloween score. The only thing truly of note has nothing to do with the actual film and that is the fact that the director Charles McCrann was one of the poor unfortunates who perished in the World Trade Center attacks back in 2001.

Bloodeaters, aka, Toxic Zombies and Forest of Fear, is one of a handful of films with the dubious honor of being on the Video Nasty list. Now, I'm a huge fan of the Nasties and whenever one becomes available on DVD or online, I watch it. Some are a little more deserving of their reputation than others.This film is not deserving of being in the same notorious company as films like Absurd, Anthropophagus, or Flesh for Frankenstein. Toxic Zombies(the title I watched) is more like Don't Go in the Woods....Alone!, but maybe even a little less bloody. A lot of what you see is the after-effects of a zombie hippie attack, such as some strewn about flesh or internal organs. You don't see much in the way of on screen carnage as it happens. Although, you will see a hand chopped off, but that ain't much.The basic story of this film, and yes, it's pretty basic, is that the evil government decides to ruin a fun time for some hippies by spraying their hidden pot crop with an experimental crop poison. Yes, this idea has been done before and better. Anyway, some of the hippies get the dust on them and turn into zombies. To their credit, they take a cue from Burial Ground--Nights of Terror and utilize weapons and even torches! That's pretty much the plot, with some dummies running around trying to avoid being killed and partially eaten. The acting is non-existent, but I was somehow able to get over that. I was disappointed by the level of gore(aren't I always?). The musical score was, by and large, totally inappropriate for the action, although occasionally it was creepy. Often times, it sounded like a comedy score.Also, the director was killed in the 9/11 attacks, if you didn't know. That might actually give the movie more fame than being on the Nasties list. This film is not nasty, it's silly. But, that doesn't mean you won't be entertained.