User Reviews

And with those words, our ubiquitous couple walk off into the sunset together, having just survived a spade/knife fight and an attempt on their lives with a land rover. Warms the cockles doesn't it? Except in this film it doesn't. You'll have been too busy laughing at one of the most hilarious decapitations ever seen on film and wondering what the hell happened to the little boy who vanished from the cast twenty minutes ago with no explanation. Not to mention the strange case of the American dad who has a South African accented wife and daughter, but a USA sounding son. And then there's the..

But I digress, let's get to the plot.. for what it is. Another nuclear bomb, another bunch of mutated survivors on motorbikes, and yep, you guessed it.. plenty of leather and shades to go around. They are led by the typical bearded bloke with a rasping voice and a toy doll's head on his helmet(?) We knows he's in charge because he has the word BIGMAN engraved on the back of his jacket. During the opening, him and his crew of ruffians ransack a nunnery. (Oh the beasts!!) Turns out they're cannibals who roam around munching their way through the survivors of the holocaust. But have they met their match when they try to take over a farm presided over by a resourceful farmer and his feisty family? Let battle commence!!

All thumbs and no fingers sums up this little flick. Every single scene seems to be have been handled in the most clumsy way imaginable, so you get random camera angles and abrupt sudden cuts galore. You know from the budget that the acting isn't going to be the best and the dialogue won't win the screenwriter any Oscars, but it would be nice to have a few surprises along the way. Nothing in this film is anything less than predictable, from who will be the first to die (always the old guy) to the fact that the stereotypical young blonde hero who arrives on the scene in the middle will be the one to save the day. From a purely artistic point of view I've seen much worse even in the last month, but why waste time on this when there are so many other superior movies out there calling for your attention? In fact, some of them are probably on television right now. Go and take a look.. 3/10

A family of farmers take on a gang of cannibal motorcycle bikers in a post apocalypse wasteland, while joining forces with a stranger. Survival Zone has a workable premise, but it's filmed, directed and acted like a third rate Million Dollar Man rip off. In fact with so much barbarism and brute force that this genre brings, it's amazing how completely boring this movie is. It feels more like a dreadful retread of Last House On The Left or Straw Dogs then it does Mad Max and yet the film just lumbers to it's unexciting conclusion. Characters are nondescript, action is weak and suspense is nil. Survival Zone than is an absolute low point in a genre that said output rarely rates higher than a 2 star rating. The type of movie so repetitive, redundant and ridiculous that it doesn't end so much as it sags and limps to it's long overdue ending.

0 Out Of 4-(Bottom Of The Barrel)

I think it's fair to say that after the first two MAD MAX films, every producer in the world decided to jump on the bandwagon and release at least one or more rip-offs. This was the glorious era when the "post-apocalypse" film ruled the box office and Italy kept churning out more nuclear adventures than everyone else, until the Philippines took over later in the decade. SURVIVAL ZONE is yet another cheap and cheesy genre offering, with the notable difference in that it's a South African film! Otherwise the formula is pretty much standard: a motorbike gang (led by BIG MAN, who wears a doll's head on his helmet!) terrorise and kill people; members chain-whip each other to death, and a nun gets her face broken by a well-aimed punch. Well, it starts off good anyway, especially the big guy playing BIG MAN, who is awash (and unwashed) with homoerotic undertones.

Meanwhile, we meet a diverse farm family (family members are British, American, and South African, at least judging by their accents!) who you just know is going to get caught up in the violence. First of all a stupid old guy goes to feed his horses whilst the farm is under siege (talk about priorities) and ends up getting knifed, then the characters do lots of stupid and unbelievable things that makes you, the viewer, cry out in exasperation. After lots of waffle and non-activity, the father finally takes it on himself to battle the motorbike gang, so he sets up a wicked bomb and then undergoes a massive shoot-out (well as far as they can stretch to on the budget, that is). The finale involves a young, blond heroic guy who turns up taking on BIG MAN in a duel in the desert, which is as cheesy as it is genuinely entertaining.

As you can imagine, production values for this film are non-existent. There's no room for special effects and only a couple of semi-decent performances; nobody is a real professional here and there are no familiar faces. Despite brief references to cannibalism there is little gore and the blood we do see looks like red paint; the atmosphere does simmer with violence though and the suspense is actually pretty good for a little low-budget movie like this. It's not the greatest post-nuke flick in the world and neither is it the worst; fans of this genre would be wise to give it a look before dismissing it with all the others. Characterisation and realism are pretty rare in these kinds of films but they exist in abundance with this one.

After a devastating nuclear war most of the land has become contaminated by radioactive fallout. Only several scattered patches of land known as "survival zones" remain untainted. Rugged, hard-working farmer Ben Faber (forcefully essayed by dour, husky, pudgy-faced "2001: A Space Odysey" star Gary Lockwood) resides on one such area with his gutsy wife Lucy (lovely Camilla Spav), willful teenage daughter Rachel (comely brunette knockout Zoli Marki), adoring son, and feisty old buddy Uncle Luke. The Faber's peaceful existence gets jeopardized when a vicious horde of scummy, black leather-clad cannibalistic bikers led by the highly intimidating and intelligent Bigman (coolly underplayed by big, brawny, hirsute George Eastman lookalike Ian Steadman) stop by and lay siege to their house. Fortunately, nice guy itinerant loner Adam Strong (a likable turn by handsome, muscular Morgan Stevens) comes to the Fabers' aid.

The shopworn premise, basically just another rough'n'tumble post-nuke survivalist take on a classic Western movie scenario (the Fabers are clearly patterned after early settlers, with Strong as a heroic roving troubleshooter type and the bikers substituting for marauding Native Americans), doesn't promise much, but luckily the uniformly sound performances, unusually complex, well-drawn and even plausibly human characters, a welcome element of genuine humanity, Percival Rubens and Eric Brown's smart, surprisingly thoughtful and introspective script, a few unsettling oddball touches (Bigman has a severed doll's head affixed to the top of his motorcycle helmet), Rubens' capable direction, a sturdy theme which addresses how a man ought to fight for what's his and stand up for what he believes in (Ben refuses just to let the bikers destroy his farm without putting up a fight), an unsparingly harsh and savage tone (early in the picture the bikers raid a missionary and murder a bunch of nuns!), and shocking outbursts of raw, brutal violence lift this one well out of the rut. Vincent Cox and Colin Taylor's spare, stripped-down cinematography, shot on gritty film stock, gives the film a convincingly scrappy look. Only the somewhat sluggish pace and Nic Labuschagne's slushy, obtrusively overwrought score detract from this otherwise satisfyingly tense and gripping winner.