Reviews

"Zombie Apocalypse" premiered on the 'Syfy Channel' on October 27th, 2011. with the pleasant surprise of mixed reviews implying that film was 'one of the better films produced by The Asylum/ what's been introduced on the Syfy channel' I decided to check out the film my self.

The first few scenes were extremely impressive, introducing the film when the virus was spreading across globe-wide, six months later, 90% of the population wiped out; only a small group of survivors left civilised. "Zombie Apocalypse" has a very basic plot - A small group of survivors try to get Catalina, rumoured that there was a refuge on the island, with Cassie hinting that her husband remains on the island as a doctor. Simple as that, a basic plot, with interesting aspects here and there. However, the term 'Zombies' was over-used, made the film less believable, but however - it's a zombie film, what can be believable.

"Zombie Apocalypse" was directed by Nick Lyon, who is known to his other projects being finalised on the Syfy channel, such as Annihilation Earth and Rise Of The Zombies, including Zombie Apocalypse. Nick Lyon is definitely a director that made the film much better than it intended it to be, he truly captured some beautiful moments within the film that caught my eye, such as - when Taryn Manning ran into the school-showers and a zombie was chasing after her, as she hid behind one of the shower walls then attacked him after a little game of Hide & Seek, all done into one take, which I was impressed about. The Asylum have a reputation for 'stealing' other films ideas and interpret into their own piece of work, "Zombie Apocalypse" highlights say that it's in the style of 'Dawn Of The Dead' - Ving Rhames, as you can see, and an interpret of 'Zombieland' which I quite didn't get the idea off. However, the film does get a thumbs up for me, especially by the same company who produced "Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus and SuperCroc"

The film "Zombie Apocalypse" did have minor flaws, the down-fall of the film had to be the special effects, the blood-bursts were just not realistic and it got irritating at times, especially when a shot-gun exploded a zombies arm off, but what can you do on a million-dollar production, you can't have every aspect perfected in this situation. I do give the film credit for the damaged cities and the constant smoke-effect in the background of a scene. It was a pleasure to see Ving Rhames rise up on another zombie film, which was a surprise as he took on a supporting character and not a lead, but his character did out-shine in the film, but I kept thinking, how much did the production pay him...

I do recommend you buying this on Blu-Ray, (I had to of course) it looked out-standing once it hit my screen, it's a definite buy if you're a zombie-lover and bored on a Saturday night, but if you're more into a CGI-Explosion film, this film won't be the right choice for you. Overall, I give this film a 10/10, not just for the minor-mistakes but mostly for the pure entertainment. -Trent Browning

"The Haunting Of Whaley House" is about a young adult named 'Penny' who works in the Whaley House as a tour guider, later on: Penny discovers that seizures and accidents happens constantly during the house tours. Penny is then later persuaded by her friends to intrude the Whaley House at night: to see if the house is truly haunted. I later discovered that The cast and crew of "The Haunting Of Whaley House" is actually one huge family! whether they are close friends or related to one-another: Marion 'The Ghost Girl' is actually the director's daughter and one of the visitors 'the lady with the camera' (on the tour) is his wife.

"The Haunting Of Whaley House" was shot on a budget of 115,000 dollars and twelve days to shoot the entire film: Jose Prendes "The Director" him-self quoted "Actually, everything you pointed out was forced on me by The Asylum. They made me kill tons of people and they told me (the day before starting production I might add) that I had to have nudity in the movie, and it wouldn't make sense for the main cast to get naked, so I had to shoehorn a scene where a chick gets topless. I tried to make it as obvious as possible what I was doing with that without saying "hey, tits!". As for the Oil Man sequence, that is my greatest regret. With 12 days we had to rush A LOT! And that final scene with Penny was shot in 2 hours, which unfortunately means we had to shear away 6 pages of action. It was a huge, tragic loss for me."

No matter what Jose Prendes believes about 'cutting out all the action in the ending', it was still a magnificent film: it shows where talent can take you in Hollywood. It would've been great to see what happened with the extended ending scene - ...Maybe Jose himself can tell us on his Facebook Fanpage on what truly happened in the six pages cut out. Check out Jose Prendes upcoming project 'Hansel & Gretel' featuring Dee Wallace, Stephanie Greco 'Penny in The Haunting Of Whaley House' and Brent Lydic dropping out January 8th, 2013.

The Haunting Of Whaley House 10/10 -Trent Browning

I was wondering around in Civic Video just to find something interesting for the night to watch: I came across this film 'Amusement' so I hired it out for the night: watched it when I got home immediately. I have to say: what a huge mistake that was. It had its up's and down's during the film (E.G: The clown in the bedroom: that was well done) and the down sides were more of a 'amusement' as I can say. It needed to be plotted out a whole lot better, it's one of those films were you confused throughout it then it makes sense during the end. A huge negative during the ending was that the girl was locked in the back of the van (couldn't get out) and she ends up driving the broken down car at the final scenes: it doesn't make sense at all. I wish it stuck to one main idea throughout the film (I would say the clown one) since it was more appealing. Shelby, not rarely Lisa as well never got any screen time throughout the film, I didn't even remember she was in it to be honest. A forgettable film, wasn't planned out enough, went too fast and it was incredibly unrealistic, 3/10.

-Spoilers Included-

First of all, I would like to say that I'm a huge fan of 'After Dark Films' been a follower for quite some time now, but this film was just above average. The pace wasn't just fast enough for me to click on: it went from (fast -when around 20 minutes through the whole cast is dead- to extremely slow: when she finds out she's one of them) I have to admit the acting featured in the film is quite good, the script, the effects and the filming techniques, but it just missed some spark. It may be a cheaper rip-off from 30 Days At Night, but if you're interested in gory vampire films, I would recommend you to watch this, if you can survive being awake!

Words can't express how truly entertaining this film is, it's just one of those films were Hollywood finally grabbed an idea were it's not actually curap. This film opened my eyes to my surroundings: it makes you think 'Wow, could this actually happen to me' lucky I'm not a bully, I would of been dead by now! For a film with a budget of 1,000,000 dollars I have to admit this was extremely impressive, you don't see low-budget films do great anymore, it's all cheap acting, cheap effects and more cheap s*it. It's right on my top 10 low-budget great horror films after Saw 1. Keep up your good work After Dark Films, I'm extremely impatient for your new film 'Re-Kill'to be released.

I'm sorry to whoever enjoyed the film, but when I first saw the first 5 people die, they were all dark skinned people, isn't that a bit racist... I mean come on people, who kills off 5 people that are dark skinned in a row + Meagan Good eventually dying. Also, the movie was stupid on how they plotted it. Whoever came up with this idea needs a massive smack on the forehead and locked in prison until they get their senses in their head. I mean.. come on, I laughed at the part when the demon guy destroys her house, I mean is that possible.. While Meagan Good is trapped under the book case, the dumb blonde is just standing there while 'Cece' Is stabbing the voodoo doll, SHE'S JUST STANDING THERE, NOT HELPING HER AT ALL GETTING THE BOOKCASE OFF.. I mean what the hell, then Meagan Good dies. The dumb blonde survives in the end, that's all I got possibly say.