User Reviews

Very obvious and overall worthless little flick that tries to equate the plight of the undead with social issues like AIDS racism and homosexuality, which ultimately leads to a downright confusing message. The problem is certain metaphors get lost in translation. At one point we're supposed to be horribly disgusted when the villainess causes a commotion upon being served food by a zombie. Now I understand it's supposed to be symbolic of intolerance towards different groups of people, but if your waiter was a walking decaying husk, you'd lose your appetite too. The movie completely loses it's focus towards the end when cults and militias start popping up and going to battle(which means a half dozen people with fake knives and plastic guns have an after effects shootout and toss blood bags at one another.) Cap it off with a really unsatisfying conclusion and you'll know why this thing should be skipped.

Last Rites of the Dead is set in a world where the dead don't stay dead, any freshly deceased person returns to life as a zombie. Office worker Angela (Gina Ramsden) is shot dead by her abusive boyfriend Josh (Joshua Nelson) but she doesn't stay dead for long, Angela quickly learns that being a zombie is difficult. Your skin rots, you have no legal rights & you are treated as dirt by the living. As the debate rages over what should be done about the living dead a section of society who are against zombies having equal rights set up their own terrorist organisations who persecute the zombie population as they try to get on with their lives (death's?) in normal society. Josh is one such extremist & joins one such organisation & uses his knowledge of Angela to help further his cause...

Edited, written, co-produced & directed by Matt Fratto who also co-composed the music score & also known under the title Zombies Anonymous I have to say I thought this was crap despite all the glowing reviews from people who seem to have seen it at some obscure film festival & somehow that makes it great. Unfortunately I had to endure the full almost two hour cut of this crap rather than the shorter US DVD version which apparently makes no sense but would have thankfully lasted for twenty odd minutes less, I just have no luck at all. Last Rites of the Living Dead is an all too obvious take on the issue of mass immigration & racist attitudes. I guess the filmmakers were trying to go down the George A. Romero route by mixing zombies & (rubbish unconvincing) gore with a little bit of social commentary & satire but fail miserably, I will give Last Rites of the Dead some credit as the initial ten or fifteen minutes are quite good as the script focuses on the plight of a zombie in the real world, the fact they wouldn't be entitled to any money or have any rights, adverts on telly for make-up to hide rotting skin, the issue of termination centres & the basic core of the film the racist attitudes of the living. But once all the clever little allegories & references are out of the way including a support group for zombies in which they call themselves the 'mortally challenged' the film focuses on the battle between some left wing Nazi style terrorist group who attack & kill zombies & Angela & her struggles to survive in the world as one of the living dead. The plot is poor, there's some crap about a zombie cult which in a way exonerates the racists & what they are doing, the character's are poor, the dialogue is rubbish with every other word being a profanity because that's as imaginative as the writers can be & the film never elaborates or builds on it's central premise & the issues & ideas it first brings up. I also thought the film was incredibly boring with poor narrative & a very bitty plot that falls apart at the end& becomes a mess.

Don't let anyone con you into thinking this is gory, sure there's a bit of blood but it's very poorly realised with very watery blood & poor make-up effects created by the interestingly named 'Demonic Pumpkins' whoever they are. There's some decapitations, some severed heads placed on stakes, there's a few exploding heads, a few bites, a bit of flesh eating, some blood splatter & a really poor scene in which Angela cuts Josh's testicles off & he just literally stands there & lats her do it. I'm not being funny but if I was stabbed in the groin I would at least take a few steps back to try & get away from my attacker, wouldn't you? Or would you just stand there & let them continue to mutilate you? The zombies in this aren't a bad lot really, they still have their human personalities & even though some like to eat human flesh most don't. Bless 'em. Shot almost entirely during the day in the cast & crews homes there's nothing scary here, there's no tension or atmosphere & the action & set-pieces are poorly handled throughout.

Shot in New York this has all the production value & polish of one of my holiday videos, it looks awful with a really digital video camcorder look to it that I despise so much. I really wish filmmakers would go back to using grainy 35mmm film. Sigh. The acting by no-one I have ever heard of is up to the standard of the rest of the production, basically it's crap.

Last Rites of the Living Dead had a few promising Romero style touches & ideas at the start but it all goes downhill very quickly & I thought it was pretty crap all round. It tries to clever & say something about immigration & racism in particular but it forgets all about the entertainment value in the process.

I saw this at the nyc horror film fest a few years back when it was released as Last Rights of the Dead, and loved it. One of the best indie low budget horror movies i've ever seen. Then I rented it as Zombies Anonymous, when it was released on DVD. Its still good, but not the same movie. A lot of crucial scenes were cut out of the last half of the movie, that tied the plot together.

Some of it is kind of confusing now. They cut out a crucial bunch of scenes when the Comandant chops off her hair, dyes it and shoots herself in the head, so she'll be mistaken as a zombie, and gain access to the cult. Now she just turns up dead, with blond short hair. They also cut out a lot of the gore and the beheadings. and the scenes when the cult attempts to brainwash the main zombie girl Verene't there either. now, it's kind of confusing why she has to fight the cult at the end.

either version is still good, but the one i saw in theaters was better, and made more sense. this new version seemed like they cut out a lot of plot to get to the action. hopefully they'll be putting out the longer version.

I thoroughly enjoyed this low-budget flick. It's a zombie movie with a human twist, centered on Angela. She's been murdered but can't die like a lot of other people who find themselves now as the undead. She, like them, wants to have a life but she has to figure out where she fits into the world. She goes from joining an unrealistic, touchy-feely self-help group for zombies that sits around and talks and gets nowhere to being kidnapped by a radical zombie group.

Meanwhile, vigilantes bent on wiping out all zombies intrude, with her murderous ex-boyfriend along for the ride. It all culminates in a blood bath, of course... but while the gore goes over the top, it's not without a good deal of emotional impact. Angela will finally learn how to stop being a victim and stand up for herself. The writing is good and the acting is as well through most of this.

I came close to loving ZA, but the acting of Christa McNamee as The Commandant detracted a little too much from the rest of the film for that. Joshua Nelson is quite good; this seems a better vehicle for him than "The Blood Shed," for instance. Gina Ramsden turns in what I thought a strong performance as Angela.

I like the way that the zombies themselves were handled in this, too. They're neither lumbering reanimated corpses nor supercharged high-speed killers. They can think and feel and even act like normal people. They're nearly impossible to truly kill, too, which the film shows has its good points and a LOT of bad ones.

While there are some humorous moments, calling this a satire isn't a fair label. Most of the humor is quite dark and the movie seems more concerned with making a point about abusive relationships, people's prejudices and vanity. For a low-budget flick, there's a lot here for the viewer if he's not entirely distracted by the gore, but still enough of that to keep a gore-hound happy, too.

I'll forego a summary of the plot as it's available on many of the reviews already.

This was actually an alright movie!

The plot is fairly basic as a fanatical zombie group fights a fanatical human group. The trend to have zombies as more than just mindless, thoughtless, and speechless beings is a nice change (although there will always be a part of me who loves the Romero dead) I think what this story lacks however is a clear or at least defined subtext. It's fraught with social commentary, which I enjoy, but I feel like it's a bit all over the map. You can insert almost any "large group oppresses a minority group" commentary and it works. First that comes to mind is racism though. Second comes the idea of religious fundamentalism which is a bit more deep but just as interchangeable.

Acting is actually pretty good. I like that the content is taken seriously by the film makers and I think that comes off well on screen. I think a lot of the actors put a lot into this and while there are times where the acting is a little stale or reactions are sub par, I think in general acting was a positive.

One problem I have is during large portions of the beginning of the film, the soundtrack is far too loud compared to the dialogue and it's distracting. Editing isn't bad in the film but there are some sections where the cuts are off beat and a bit rough.

Another issue I have with this is the amount of girls in underwear or underwear visible from angles which allow for upskirts. It's not like I have some problem with it overall but I do feel like by putting your main character in a skirt the entire movie then positioning the camera just right to catch those upskirts is a bit much. Maybe they were trying to hit more of a young male demographic but I think it's distracting from a decent film.

There seems to be an abandonment halfway through the film of what is "normal" in the world. It's clear there are these 2 extremist groups but there is no sense of what the rest of the world actually feels as zombies are able to hold jobs and mingle at will with humans who tend to have no problem with it. It feels like I'm forced to watch only what these crazies are doing giving me little middle ground and honestly little break between one crazy group and the other.

General camera work and lighting is alright. I think many shots are underexposed and framed poorly while others look great minus the low camera quality.

As this is a zombie movie it's important to mention gore and SFX. If you want gore, well there's plenty of bites, head chopping, bullet wounds etc. I think it looked pretty good and I was impressed. Of course many of the gun shots (and there are a lot) have very low quality muzzle flashes but given the amount of other SFX I think the flashes can be excused.

Overall, i think It's moderately entertaining. It's nothing fantastic but certainly better than much of the drudge that swarms the zombie genre. They took it seriously and so will I. I give it a 6 for accomplishing a decent story, good gore and better than your average zombie movies acting. I take off for the general pacing, an unclear subtext, at times rough camera, editing, and audio work and, the unnecessary use of language and panty shots. (Before you go and say "wow, who made you PC police" I think offensive words can be used if there is a clear meaning and it has some relevance to character or plot such but in this case neither occurred and I just felt it was unnecessary usage)

I was very much looking forward to this movie after seeing the outstanding Strange Things Happen at Sundown by the same crew. But this movie doesn't have the humor and thrills that Strange Things had. And it's not nearly half as entertaining.

We start by seeing various news feeds about people not dying or the dead returning to life. Then we meet Josh who in a rage shoots his girlfriend Angela. For reasons unknown, indeed anyone who dies comes back to life. Angela is no different. They do all seem to suffer from some skin decay but otherwise are no different from humans, well that and some of them feed on living flesh.

The unique aspect of the story is that with this many zombies, they now form a full minority group that suffer discrimination, that has its own support group, that is attacked for being different, etc. Angela, for instance joins Zombies Anonymous (hence the title) a support group that among other things tries to quench their hunger for flesh. All this is quite funny and ingenious.

We also get to meet 3 tough-guy wanna bees who terrorize and attack our poor zombies and are eager to join an anti-zombie gang, led by someone called The Commandant, a tough chick. They manage to join and our gang works on hits against zombies.

Parallel to this gang and the Commandant is a group of zombies led by a girl named Solstice who presents herself as some type of angelic spiritual guru figure and works on getting zombies to relish their flesh eating nature rather than to try and "recover" or pretend to be normal.

This all leads to rather violent confrontations among these groups.

The resulting movie isn't quite as interesting as the story may sound. The main problem is that these zombies are presented as a sympathetic weak minority rather than the brutal killers we expect and want them to be. They are pretty low on the social and animal scale and humans kick them around easily. So we have a zombie movie with unscary zombies. Not good. Second, this movie is rather tame- lacking violence, gore, and nudity. Some of the violence and gore has been edited out by the moronic distributors who also changed the title. But for once, the new title is actually better than the original "Last Rites of the Dead" which sounds much more dark, lofty, and horrific than the resulting movie. Thankfully, the producers posted the missing scenes on YouTube. So its not clear what the original movie would have been like in its fullness.

Compared to the masterpiece that Strange Things at Sundown is (that's right), this movie just doesn't give us much to like. The main character of Angela is rather dull nor is she pretty enough to make up for the dullness. There aren't really any character to like or root for. The Commandant, which is the only interesting character, is presented as too mean to like. The movie obviously doesn't want us to like someone who is out there to kill some harmless minority. In a way this movie, thematically at least, tries to be somewhat of a standard Hollywood movie: politically correct; all the men are presented as dumb; there's not 1 but 3 main female characters: the heroine victim and the two evil characters. As a result it is far less edgy and original than expected. Somewhat worth a rental, but definitely don't miss Strange Things Happen at Sundown.

This film is the most brilliant take on living dead that I have ever seen! If only all indie films could turn out like this, it may raise the cloud that blocks small budgeted films from getting the recognition they deserve. Sure, we have all seen living dead films before. The idea may seem rote, but not here. Here the dead are just as alive in their brains and personality as they ever were. Sure, their bodies died, but nothing else changed. These are not zombies. They are real people who's bodies died. Its such an amazing difference in concept! The story centers around Angela, and her "even after dead" drama with her boy friend, Josh. And all the complexities that go into being a walking dead person in todays society while still wrestling with your once living issues. These roles are perfectly played by Gina Ramsden and Jashua Nelson. Really, perfectly played. No bad acting here! These folks are dead on in their roles. The supporting cast is excellent as well. Last Rites of the Dead is a must see. It has some blood and gore for the fans of such, but really, its an amazing horror tale in the truest sense, so much more realistic than what we ever think of for the genre these days. It will probably be called a horror film, no doubt, and really I guess it is, but I think it was far more human really...Its, to me, as much drama as it is horror...

I was genuinely impressed with this low budget flick! It was not at all what I expected. I went in expecting some slapstick hijinks about dead people trying to live in modern world, but wound up engrossed in an insightful and thought provoking film.

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There were a few flaws such as flat lighting / cinematography at certain points, and I found the end scenes in the "bad" zombie house to be a little over the top, and some people might not like how the zombies can still feel pain etc. However, I found the camera work and editing top notch, all of the actors were generally believable as real people. I found the commandant to be a truly terrifying and WONDERFULLY portrayed character. Yeah, not much else to say about this movie. I loved it, hope the cast and crew keep up the good work. You could tell this was a real labor of love. It was a shining gem amidst all the other low budget / Indie zombie films out there today.

Story: Quick synopsis since this is a lesser known movie: The dead in this world don't stay dead, they come back as zombies, but not zombies in the traditional sense that they are mindless corpses with only the drive to eat and a basic fight or flight response. These zombies retail all the intelligence and memories of the living. That said, they do eat raw meat. The can get by just eating raw ground chuck but they are stricken with headaches that only go away when they eat the still warm flesh of humans. The living aren't okay with this and zombies are treated as second class citizens who are usually fired from their jobs for being zombies and sometimes executed by humans who are afraid of them. This leads to an industry of cosmetic products designed to hide the fact that a person is a zombie.

So, it is in this world that we meet our main protagonist, Angie, who is killed by an abusive boyfriend. She then tries to go about her"life" as if nothing happened and tries to hide the fact that she's a zombie. It should come as no surprise that this turns into a metaphor for being different and encourages people to stop conforming and be themselves.

I was surprised that this was more serious than humorous, given the title, but it actually has some really strong themes and ideas presented. There are some laughs sprinkled throughout, but I don't think I'd call it a comedy. The first half of this movie was absolutely genius, but the second half faltered a little bit. I have to give it a B.

Acting: I have to give props to Gina Ramsden for playing a very effective girl next door sort of character. Christa McNamee plays an absolutely terrifying Commandant who leads death squads against zombies. Most of the rest of the cast does a pretty good job, and by pretty good I mean pretty good for a Hollywood movie. By B horror standards, they are phenomenal. B

Visuals: I watch a lot of bad horror movies and have a fairly strong stomach, but this one made me want to gag a few times. Granted, I think I was fighting a virus when I watched it, so it may have just been me instead of the movie. Anyhow, this is a gross movie. I wouldn't advise eating anything when you watch it. Also, the whole world looks dirty and depressingly gross. This was no doubt by design, so I have to give props. B

Sound: This was probably the weakest link in the chain. The sound was much better than some B horror movies, but there was almost constantly a hiss in the background that comes from poor sound equipment. The music also didn't leave a huge impression on me either. C

Overall: This may be one of the few B horror movies that I actually give a B to. It should have been shorter and losses steam in the second half, but it's still much, much better than the rest of the horror crap that's out there. I got my copy used from Blockbuster for about five bucks and I think it's worth paying up to twelve dollars for this movie (that includes shipping if you should decide to order it). If you're into indie horror, I have to believe you'll enjoy this movie. B

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The premise of this movie was pretty decent, and I thought rather funny. Unfortunately it didn't deliver.

I don't quite see how people can rave about how great this movie was and how great the talent was. It was ultra low budget with very forced acting and sub-par makeup. Did I say forced acting? I meant terrible acting. Overly dramatic attempts to do simple things like cocking a shotgun. Moves from sad to really annoying. What was the budget for this fiasco? 13 bucks? The idea of a zombie support group is rather intriguing, but turns out that the zombies in question are self-loathing zombies? Come on.

Honestly it reminded me of a low budget version of every single other movie that scapegoats a group of society real or imagined, be it aliens or zombies, in some sort of thin ploy to expose the ways of our society. Been done, shouldn't be done again. Waste of 90 minutes of my life.