I just watched Virus Undead and I have to admit I'm disappointed.
First off, I was stunned that somebody on this production had the really stupid idea to have German actors speak English. While the guys certainly aren't bad with the language, some of them still have a pretty strong German accent, making the whole ordeal somewhat of a joke to me.
On top of that, the movie tries way too hard to have your typical US hillbilly scenery and character clichés, which are already a vast exaggeration when set in the middle of nowhere in the US, but just don't work at all in a town in the middle of Germany. You have the default unfriendly "town sheriff", complete with sunglasses and donuts, the commonly known town ruffian, including tons of tattoos, a goatee, leather clothing and a pea-sized brain and they even have a "restaurant" in the middle of the woods making sausage out of any dead animal they can find. Those two things made me wonder why the writers were too afraid to actually try something fresh and simply go with the "set in Germany" thing and pull through with it. Instead, they chose to take the generic "hillbilly town" cliché and move it over here. Kind of idiotic. Just like the hillbilly town in horror flicks is a big exaggeration of clichés about American towns in the middle of nowhere, an exaggeration of clichés about small German towns would have been far more entertaining and would have worked a lot better. Basically, this movie tries very hard to be an American B-movie set in Germany played by German actors, which was what I found very disappointing.
The story covers the basics of "virus causing zombies", but doesn't go any further than a rough outline and the characters are walking clichés with some odd moments here and there. I agree with NeilCassidy, though, that the movie at least looks professional.
Overall it has some mildly entertaining moments and is well done on the technical side of things, but to me the story and setting were pretty much atrocious. I've seen a lot worse films, but this one stands out for almost intentionally ruining any potential it might have had.
First off, I was stunned that somebody on this production had the really stupid idea to have German actors speak English. While the guys certainly aren't bad with the language, some of them still have a pretty strong German accent, making the whole ordeal somewhat of a joke to me.
On top of that, the movie tries way too hard to have your typical US hillbilly scenery and character clichés, which are already a vast exaggeration when set in the middle of nowhere in the US, but just don't work at all in a town in the middle of Germany. You have the default unfriendly "town sheriff", complete with sunglasses and donuts, the commonly known town ruffian, including tons of tattoos, a goatee, leather clothing and a pea-sized brain and they even have a "restaurant" in the middle of the woods making sausage out of any dead animal they can find. Those two things made me wonder why the writers were too afraid to actually try something fresh and simply go with the "set in Germany" thing and pull through with it. Instead, they chose to take the generic "hillbilly town" cliché and move it over here. Kind of idiotic. Just like the hillbilly town in horror flicks is a big exaggeration of clichés about American towns in the middle of nowhere, an exaggeration of clichés about small German towns would have been far more entertaining and would have worked a lot better. Basically, this movie tries very hard to be an American B-movie set in Germany played by German actors, which was what I found very disappointing.
The story covers the basics of "virus causing zombies", but doesn't go any further than a rough outline and the characters are walking clichés with some odd moments here and there. I agree with NeilCassidy, though, that the movie at least looks professional.
Overall it has some mildly entertaining moments and is well done on the technical side of things, but to me the story and setting were pretty much atrocious. I've seen a lot worse films, but this one stands out for almost intentionally ruining any potential it might have had.