Wyrmwood is the advertised Mad Max
meets Dawn of the Dead mash-up from writers Kiah and Tristan
Roache-Turner, with Kiah also directing. The story is about a virus
that ushers in the zombie apocalypse. Amidst the chaos of roaming
packs of flesh eating zombies in the Australian Outback, a mechanic
named Barry (Jay Gallagher) is looking for his sister Brooke (Bianca
Bradey) who was kidnapped and experimented on by a deranged mad
scientist like doctor.
The opening scene is bloody and tone
setting and shows a rag tag group dressed in random and worn out and
beat up sports gear like helmets, shoulder pads, and hockey masks.
The group comes out fighting zombies looking like Slipknot on a
battlefield.
As the story is set up and the virus
descends upon the living, we see a number of people turn into
zombies. One in particular will leave it's imagery in my mind for a
long time. The photo shoot sugar skull zombie is fantastic and
terrifying, a maniacal bloodthirsty thrashing rag doll of fury and
color and is one of the most memorable zombies I have ever seen.
When it comes to the zombies, the sound
is very effective and haunting. This isn't the clogged up, blood
rattled dry wheez breathing of The Walking Dead, it's an all out
siren scream that sounds like a drowning horse being ravaged by a
pack of animals. It's disturbing and unnerving and freaking awesome.
The lab where Brooke is held hostage is
portrayed like a house of horrors come to life. We see grisly and gut
covered computers and keyboards, human experiments and zombies
restrained to the blood soaked walls angrily wiggling and fighting to
be free. all overseen by a disco dancing deranged doctor.
Jay Gallagher shows shades of Bruce
Campbell from The Evil Dead movies in his performance sometimes and
it meshes greatly with the vibe of the movie. One scene in particular
has his face sprayed and covered in blood and I couldn't help but
think of Ash fighting the Deadites. There's even a scene when
Gallagher loads up a gun and says, “fuck yeah,” that is seemingly
his version of Campbells “groovy”. Don't misread here though,
it's an overall serious portrayal of a grief stricken man who lost
his family to the virus and he does a great job here.
I haven't even gotten to Bianca Bradey
yet. While she spends the majority of the movie held hostage in the
house of horrors lab, she makes the most of her screen time. Even
tied up in the lab her stare alone is enough to knock you out and her
icy cool delivery of lines like, “you want a zombie? I'll get you a
zombie,” turned me into an instant fan. She is a powerful screen
presence and has one hell of a commanding aura about her. Her role
here reminded me of another great performance I saw recently, Nicole
Alonso in Crawl or Die.
Wyrmwood reportedly took 4 years to
make, being filmed on weekends and around everybody's work schedules.
It sounds like a draining and daunting task to take on. But the end
result is a damn awesome movie that is one of the best zombie movies
to be seen in years. I loved Wyrmwood, I loved every minute of it.
This movie is a horror fans dream. It's the kind of movie you want to
make with your friends: a brilliant love letter to horror that also
stands strong as it's own story. Wyrmwood also manages to add a new
twist to the zombie mythology that worked beautifully in the world of
the film.
Do yourself a favor and watch this
immediately, and then watch it again with all your friends. The movie
is loud and gritty, colorful, fast, and a bloody good time. Movies
like this is why horror fans are horror fans.
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