Review: Super Z

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2023
Images from the Internet

Super Z (aka Super Z: Smart-Ass Zombies!)
Directed by Julien de Volte and Arnaud Tabarly
La Ruche Productions; MVD Visual
80 minutes, 2022 / 2023
www.facebook.com/SuperZ 
www.MVDVisual.com

Zombie-love in the States is obvious, but it is also far flung across the world, such as Train to Busan (2016) in Korea, and in Europe, there is the recent Ever After (EndZeit) (2018) from Germany. Those films, however, are dead serious (pun intended).

On the other hand, there is Super Z, hailing out of France, which is a bloody and gory comedy. There are not too many zombie comedies in general, though there are the likes of Aaah! Zombies!! (aka Wasting Away) and Bong of the Dead (2011), not to mention the infamous Shaun of the Dead (2004), which even predates this release. This feature is based on the directors’ 2014 short film, “The Foodies.”

Audrey Giacomin, iJohan Libéreau, Julien Courbey, Florence Bebic-Veruni

In French (with subtitles), of course, this multi-level story of death, flesh and lust starts in a laboratory called The Purgatory, of a corporation led by Le PDG/The CEO (Jacques Boudet, who has had a long and storied career in French cinema). There is even a picture of himself on his desk. He is assisted in this endeavor by the over the top Le savant fou/The Mad Scientist (Jean-François Gallotte), who gleefully tortures the people/zombies on whom he works. As you may notice, some characters are expressed as their titles or roles, rather than their given names.

But the scientist has taken an extra step on his own and has made them more than just killing and eating machines, he has given them sentience, so they are aware of what is going on and can even talk. However, that is mostly trash talk, taunting like the French guards in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), except full of vulgarity and profanity.

Fabian Ara

The main test subjects are a family of four: “father” Gertre (Johan Libéreau), “mother” Stephana (Julien Courbey), and “daughters” Marcelline (Audrey Giacomini) and Georgette (Florence Bebic-Veruni). After they escape the facility, along the way, while having – er – dinner, they manage to turn a young man into one of them, Yvon (Fabien Ara), whom they adopt. The transformation takes only seconds. Yvon confuses me, though; is he supposed to be a teen? He plays his role like a man-child a la Lou Costello or a Jerry Lewis character (remember how popular Lewis was in France?). He is into rap, wears his extended cap sideways, pants hanging below his butt, and has his name on a gold chain. And he’s a bit annoying; no where as interesting as the foursome family. I do have to concede, though, that the “young” daughters are also played by adults.

Sent after them is Le mercinaire/The Mercenary (Lauren Bouhnik) and his cousin, La cousin (Jo Prestia, who also has quite the filmography), out to hunt and kill the escapees. This scenario, in some twisted way, reminds me a bit of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, with the hungry foursome as the escaped slaves being Eliza and her family, and Le mercinaire as Simon Legree.

Holed up in a cabin (see?), the extended zombie family fixes it up and feeds of people going by on a nearby walking path in joyous and bloody ways. Some family dinner table scenes are hysterical for both normality and – er – not (more on this later), and yet is extremely and disturbingly full of blood and gore. They plot their revenge against the world of humans, but what happens when one of them becomes infatuated by living, tooth-impaired, Augustine (Marion Mezadorian)? There is a definite Romeo and Juliet aspect to it, including a balcony scene. Smart.

While the excitement lasts throughout, with very little lulls, it also picks up significantly in the third Act when the mercenaries show up at the CEO’s insistence to do away with what he considers a failed experiment(s).

Lauren Bouhnik

You can see the influence of other films throughout, such as an homage to the ending of Mother’s Day (1980), which made me smile. Another interesting aspect of the film is that as absurd as it is, there is also a “normal” aspect of it, such as the zombies drinking wine, smoking, taking drugs, sleeping (and snoring), loving and arguing. I really enjoyed that. To them, even though they despise the living beyond the food aspect, they are not much different in so many ways.

But what is most notable is the gore effects and make-up, which look phenomenal. These were handled by Stéphanie Couste, Harold Levy, Cédric Martin and Vanessa Ricolleau. It does not surprise me it took four people, because there is a lot going on here, from zombie make-up, the gore SFX, and body parts.

Taunting a second time...

Sexually, it is quite crude, with masturbating and zombie sex, among other aspects I will not discuss because I do not want to give too much away. This film just revels in absurdist humor, which is bound to make some laugh, but will also guarantee some will find repulsive in both visuals, comments made by characters, and the degree of wit (mostly low level). But I found it quite fun and full of great moments. Also, their voices are quite growly and screechy, almost as though their voices have been sped up. This is especially true of Stephana. I am grateful for the English subtitles, because even if it was in English, I may have trouble making out the dialogue; however, the subtitles are not the best, being all white, but still appreciated, as I was with the film in general.

IMDB listing HERE

Review: The Black Gate

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2020

Images from the Internet

The Black Gate

Directed by Guillaume Beylard, Fabrice Martin

Montpellier Underground Pictures

78 minutes, 2017 / 2019

www.facebook.com/The-Black-Gate/

First of all, let me be clear that despite it’s name, this feature has nothing to do with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), even if the theme of the troupe of main characters are on a journey to return a book, rather than a golden ring (more Evil Dead than Frodo).

I’m going to be honest with youse. When I initially took a gander at some of the stills from this French film (with subtitles), I was somewhat concerned. It looked a bit like some 1980s kid thing, like The Gate (1987; don’t get me wrong, that was a decent film for what it was). Lots of swirling lights and demons with faces that were also swirling, glowing spheres. I am happy to say that I was flat out wrong.

Two siblings, Sarah (Jeanne Dessart), an archeology student, and her brother David (Nicolas Couchet) come into possession of said mysterious book of mystical incantations through their late uncle, who accidentally opened up the Black Gate, which connects this world to another that is keen on possessing human’s souls and turning them into literal George Romero-style (slow) flesh-eating zombies.

Jeanne Dessart

After you get past a certain point of the fantastic and start into the horror in the second act, the pace picks up incredibly fast, furious, and gory. It does take a moment or a few to get used to the pace of the film, which looks like a music video with swirling cameras and quick edits. If you have not noticed by my previous comments, there is a lot of swirling.

In a separate story, three bank robbers are on the run, and their car breaks down just outside of where Sarah and David are situated with some hooded ghoulies (it’s probably okay to call them demons, I guess) coming after them. Joining the sibs’ quest is one of the robbers, the hot-headed Jeff (Jonathan Raffin). Their mission will be filled with danger, zombies, demons, guns, swords, a mysterious man in black wearing a leather cowboy hat (I kid you not), and of course, the Book.

Nicolas Couchet and Jonathan Raffin

What really makes the film for me, is just how deeply Leo Fulci, Mario Bava, and the Italian horror cinema from the 1980s is referenced in imagery throughout the whole picture, right down to maggots on the face of a zombie, and close-ups of their faces. In fact, I believe that if this was released back then, it would be part of the canon by now. During the end credits, there is a nod to several directors, including Fulci, Argento, Raimi and Carpenter.

The music is also very Italian cinema style, right out of Gremlin, with electronic Phillip Glass type of repetition of notes series. It made me think of Argento and Bava’s works. Lots of dissonant notes, shrill and, once again, swirling.

The locations are fantastic, either being a small town or an estate filled with ancient stone and brick buildings and edifices, giving an atmosphere that plays well into the story of a timeless evil. As for the titular doorway itself, the black gate proper seems like a giant vagina inspired by HR Giger.

Speaking of the look of the film, the cinematography is purposefully a bit strong on the eye, with many shots overexposed to wash the images out a bit, making them dream-like. It has a look making the viewer feel like they are having a sun-stroke. It is an interesting effect that works well for the story and the overall theme of images.

The gore is really enjoyable, in a cartoonish way, much like (again) the Italian films of said genre. Hearts, rotting corpses, and gun splatter, are just a few of the methods in the SFX tool kit here. The demonic creatures in the robes are kind of campy, but the physical effects on the kills and the zombies made me smile. There is a mixture of physical and digital SFX. The digital ones look like a throwback to pre-HD CGI when it was more in its nascent form, but it is the physical make-up that is the attention-getter. I am not necessarily one who prefers one over the other (make-up vs. computer-generated), but here the zombies are the winner.

As for the acting, it’s a bit over the top when the action level rises, but that’s the genre they’re modeling themselves after, and in that way they are successful, but it really does feel like this should be on VHS rather than digital; that being said, I am grateful for the modern clarity of image. Dessart is rather attractive, Couchet looks like a football/soccer ruffian, and Raffin is dashingly handsome, even if his character is more anti-hero.

This is a film that may be under the radar for many horror fans in the West, but it’s worth seeking out, especially if you are a fan of the 1980s Italian zombi and giallo styles. Somewhere Fulci is either happy or garrulous, as was his nature.

Review: Nécrologies

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2020

Images from the Internet

Nécrologies (aka Obituaries)

Directed by Fabien Chombart, Guillaume Defare, Nathalie Epoque, Francois Message, Alexis Wawerka

Les Films d’à Côté / Sticky Notes Films / SRS Cinema

75 minutes, 2017 / 2019

http://necrologies-lefilm.com/

www.facebook.com/necrologieslefilm/

http://ukfilmchannel.co.uk

When one thinks of French cinema, the obvious go-tos are romances or silly comedies (Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie, 2001, was both), emotional dramas such as those by Goddard and Truffaut, or cinema of the fantastique, like The City of Lost Children (1995, also by Jeunet).

They do not, however, produce too many films of the horror genre, so when I had the opportunity to get a glance at this anthology, my bouche began arroser.

Alexis Wawerka

For the wrap-around story, a guy with a horror blog (why does that sound familiar…) is taking selfies of himself in a late-night, closed cemetery. He is stopped by the gargle-voiced cimetiére watchman (Jean-Clause Dreyfus, lead actor of the 1991 post-Apocalyptic film, Delicatessen). He presents our blogger with a book, from which springs our tales. We return between each of the stories to the office of the caretaker as the blogger becomes more and more intrigued by these tales, requesting more. Googly-eyed Dreyfus is more than happy to comply, putting off calling the cops on the trespasser to tell just one more…

Sophie Jarmouni

First up is Nathalie Epoque’s "Appel Mortel" (“The Call of Death”). It’s kind of a silly story in the long run, but on the other hand, there is a level of imagination that went into this very simple tale that made it enjoyable when the punchline hit. In it, Elsa (Sophie Jarmouni) returns home after a rendezvous, and starts getting phone calls on her outdated flip phone from a stalker, threating to tell her boyfriend about her little tryst. Essentially, this is mostly a one-person story with most other voices coming over the phone. Luckily, Jarmouni, who has a bit of a Liza feel to her appearance, can totally handle it. Again, it had me saying, “really?” at the end, but I was smiling at the time.

Fabien Chombart, "La Bête" (“The Beast”) is up next (there is a bit of a “Belle” here, as well). As an everyman type guy (David Faure) is driving through the woods, he spots a woman (Sabine Rosoli) along the road who appears to be wounded. Following her deep into the forest, he learns the secret that at first scares him. While I thought of a number of ways the story could go, it didn’t follow any of them, so all the better. While there is some dialogue, honestly it wouldn’t matter if the sound was on or off for this one, as the story about the connection between the two of them crosses the language requirement. So far, the collection is impressive.

For the third story, Ludovic (Alexis Wawerka), the trespasser passes one along, namely François Message’s "Le Retour des Hommes-Lézards" (“The Return of the Lizardmen”). While the other shorts so far deal somewhat with technology, this one relies heavily on the paranoia conspiracy theories that are rampant on the internet. An indie filmmaker investigates a ritual by the Duckpeople (who believe in a Christ-like figure) who claim there are Lizardpeople trying to control of the Earth (what, no mention of “V”?), even though there is no proof of any of it on either side. It’s easy to see where it’s going, but this one is actually very funny in a dark tone that never really gets too heavy. Again, I smiled all the way through it for its reliance on conspiracies in this era of Internet loonies who will believe just about anything that is outside the norm (flat earthers, “Killary,” the moon landing, Trump followers believing the ContraVirus is a hoax, etc.). The ending is predictable, yet still kept my interest.

Linnea Quigley

Wawerka (who also plays the blogger of the wraparound), directs the next one, “Une affaire d'enfer" (“A Hell of a Bargain”). A real estate agent is heavy handedly pressuring an old woman and her pet to sell her house at a bargain rate. When she refuses, the result is shocking. But not as much so as when her pet, Puzo, takes it personally. There is a bit of puppetry involved here, and a nice appearance by our own Scream Cameo Queen, Linnea Quigley. It’s not brilliant, but it is bloody and relies on a bunch of previous work such as Trilogy of Terror, yet there is still some originality in it, a bit of body parts, and a satisfying ending, even if you see it coming.

Up last is "L'oeil de Taal" (“The Eye of Taal’”), by Guillaume Defare. This is definitely the most fantastique or surreal of the collection. Taal is the embodiment of death, a leather-wearing cowboy (yes, in France) with a skull-like face. An artist tells some tales about people who have met him (oui, this is an anthology within an anthology; perhaps a meta-anthology?); those who come face to face with our soul rustler tend not have long endings. This one is a bit heavier than the other tales, and is still enjoyable, but I also found it the weakest of the batch, even though it looks beautiful, is well edited and the execution of mixing color with black & white work well. That probably is because most of these are pretty light tales of fluff and fun, and this one is deeper, and some ways doesn’t fit it. Perhaps it should have been in a different collection where it would have been cozier, or started this one off. Again, good tale and I’m not complaining about it overall, it’s more the juxtaposition with the others.

As for the wraparound, well that ends pretty predictably, again with a nod and a wink, but it was also nicely done. As anthologies go this one is a really fine gathering of material that generally works well together, which is just want you should want as a viewer.

Review: The Hunt

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Blog,
2012 Images from the Internet

The Hunt

Directed by Thomas Szczepanski

Full Screen

74 minutes, 2010 / 2012

MVDvisual.com

I have seen a lot of disparaging films coming from Europe over the past few years that deals with violence, nihilism, gore, disturbing messages, and a story that somehow involves the porn industry in some fashion. A Serbian Film immediately comes to mind, for example.

The latest was actually completed in 2010, but somehow only made distribution in the New World recently. Filmed in French with subtitles, although there are actually whole swathes of this movie that have no dialog, so it’s not like you have to worry about reading the translation, right?

The basic premise is that a scandal reporter, who is stuck writing bestiality porn (see?), is told by his editor it’s either find a story for her to buy or it’s buh-bye. Through information from his girlfriend (a dominatrix, of course; I mean it's France, right?), he finds out that something salacious is happening at a mansion in the woods in which rich people partake. Shades of Hostel, one may think, but actually it is yet another remake of The Most Dangerous Game. Really?

I will definitely give it that there are some modern (culturally speaking) touches, bringing in that bleak tendency that central Europe has been favoring for its storytelling over the past few years. In other words, it is unpredictably predictable. You may not see exactly what is going to happen coming, but you’ll probably know somewhat where you’ll be by the end. Perhaps I’ve watched too much CSI, Law and Order, Mystery Theatre, etc.?

Let me say that the movie is actually beautifully shot, with loving care to shadows, light, angles and the like, and the gore is handled well (I’m guessing a mix of prosthetics and digital). The acting is also right where it should be, especially when so much of this is silent (other than an annoying instrumental soundtrack) so there is a lot of reliance on facial features.

However (you may wanna duck now), even at the short length of 74 minutes, I found this long and tedious. Despite the gore and body count, I was bored most of the time and had to really concentrate not to do some scanning. It’s a good 40 minutes before anything in the story starts to take real shape, not counting the opening, which would have been perfect as a short.

By the time things picked up, I already didn’t care about the main character, who is dragged down to the level of the game participants as he varies between hunted and hunter.

Sure it’s a beautiful looking piece of art, but there is just too much lack of originality, pacing, and real story as opposed to numerous artsy shots of the sky through the trees.

Hopefully, what happens (or doesn’t happen) at the end does not mean that a sequel is in the works. It’s rare a film makes me feel like I’ve wasted my time, even those with zero budgets, but this is certainly one of them.

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