The October Zombie-Thon 2009 - Day 17: The Forever Dead
Posted by Trevor Snyder on 10.17.2009
Zombie bunnies...it had to happen eventually.
FOREVER DEAD (2007)
Directed by: Christine Parker
Written by: Bill Mulligan & Christine Parker
Country: USA
I have reviewed female-directed zombie movies twice before in the Zombie-Thon. Elza Kephart's Graveyard Alive: A Zombie Nurse in Love, about a homely nurse turned hottie zombie, was a witty, subversive tale of female empowerment gone wrong. American Zombie, directed by Grace Lee, was a sly mockumentary meant to draw parallels between the treatment of its undead subjects and real life intolerance. Both films strived to approach the zombie genre in a new, fresh way – offering pleasantly unique and offbeat takes on a well-worn concept.
Christine Parker isn't interested in anything like that.
As co-writer, director, producer, editor, and camerawoman of The Forever Dead, Christine Parker is looking for nothing more than to make a balls-to-the-wall splatter-fest, the same kind of over-the-top opus that has long been the primary contribution of the low-budget zombie world. This sort of ridiculously violent zombie film has long been seen as a boys-only playground when it comes to directors, but Parker wants to prove that a woman with similarly twisted sensibilities can hang with the boys anytime.
The good news is, she pulls it off. The bad news, I guess, would be that she pulls it off in both the good and bad areas. For while her film is at times an outrageous blast of gory fun, it also falls victim to the same sort of amateurish incompetence that plagues many of its male-directed peers. So, in that regard, Parker has proven that a woman can make a dumb zombie movie just as well as a guy can…but viewers who aren't really into this sort of thing will just end up wondering why any woman would want to.
But, no matter. If you're reading the Zombie-Thon, I can only assume that, like me, you are into this sort of thing. And, therefore, the gender of the film's director is not really as important as just whether or not you're actually going to enjoy watching it. Well, I enjoyed it…at least some of the time.
The film story's involves a genetically altered rabbit named "Bugs" that gets loose from the medical facility where it is kept and promptly attacks several rednecks in the surrounding rural area. These early sequences with the rabbit attacks are some of the film's most entertaining – not because they are truly suspenseful, but because the obvious rabbit puppet (you can usually see the string pulling it along) is freaking hilarious. It calls to mind the killer rabbit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail – not that I'm saying The Forever Dead is anywhere near the level of a Python film (I'm not crazy). Heck, I'm not even sure Parker was trying for humor with these scenes. But they are funny, and end up inadvertently setting the stage for a film more parody-based than The Forever Dead ever actually ends up being.
It's pretty disappointing, then, that the film slips into rather boring territory for awhile after that, as we watch the now zombified locals spread the infection around town. It's the same sort of standard "introduce a character, watch them get attacked, repeat" approach that has bogged down so many other movies I have seen. Sure, it's also where we start meeting and getting to know all of the movie's main characters, but the pace just isn't speedy enough. Not even the decent (for this sort of budget) gore during the attacks or the occasional "what the fuck" moments (like when a zombie pauses from his chasing a human to swing on a vine and let out a Tarzan yell) can completely stave off the ennui caused by this middle section of the film.
Thankfully, things start picking up again when we catch up with the arrogant Adam Dumas (co-writer Bill Mulligan), who runs the medical facility that Bugs came from. Dumas has killed his wife (we won't find out why till later), and has driven her body out to a secluded spot in the woods to bury her, Unfortunately, his efforts keep getting interrupted by both zombies and the victims they are pursuing, and I couldn't help but laugh at Dumas' exasperation as his task continues to grow more and more difficult. Of course, this being a zombie movie, it turns out all his efforts were for naught, as those he buried simply raise up out of the ground anyway – ending an already humorous sequence on a high note.
Things really pick up after that, as Dumas and the film's other main characters all end up together in an abandoned house, barricading themselves against the zombie onslaught outside. It's the most time-honored tradition in the zombie genre, and it can be boring. But it works if the character interactions are actually interesting and humorous, as they are here. I'm not saying all of the dialogue is great or anything, but there are some truly amusing moments, such as when Dumas decides they will have to grab a zombie from outside and bring it in to experiment on, in order to figure out what kills these things. The only problem? Every zombie he points to turns out to be the former loved one (or at least acquaintance) of one of the people in the house, making them less than willing to go along with his plan.
Of course, Dumas has no such qualms about destroying the re-animated corpse of his wife, and so she becomes his "volunteer." This, too, leads to one of the film's better segments, as Dumas – aided by two over-eager teenage delinquents – eagerly attempts to destroy his former wife with great zeal. He's clearly having a great time (he even gets to bust out the old "either this woman is dead or my watch has stopped" line), and even if what his character is doing is pretty reprehensible, the enthusiasm of his performance makes the scene quite the funny bit.
If the film has a major failing from here on out, it's the letdown of an ending. The film seemingly builds to a big climax, but never really delivers it. Instead, we get one final scene with a character that by that point we have forgotten all about, and then we simply learn everyone else's fate in an oddly abridged end-credits montage that feels more than a little ripped off from Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake. I guess maybe this is because The Forever Dead was actually conceived as a feature-length prequel to an earlier 15 minute short film of Parker's called Second Death. I haven't seen Second Death (it is frustratingly not included on the DVD), so I'm not sure if this final montage represents a summary of that film. All I know is that as a finale to The Forever Dead, it feels pretty weak.
There are other shortcomings, to be sure. Many of the performances are…questionable. The plentiful gore is inconsistent in quality. The behavior of the zombies is also inconsistent, as this is another movie that can't decide whether it wants to use slow zombies or fast zombies, so it just splits the difference and uses them both, with no regard to explaining why some act one way or others act another. And while I thought it was a neat touch to reveal how the seemingly un-connected characters were in fact all tied together even before the zombie invasion, some of the connections are quite the stretch. Then again, this is a film about a bunny-created zombie plague, so I guess plausibility isn't really one of the chief concerns.
Still, the mix of what works and what doesn't isn't nearly as negatively lopsided as it is in many other films of its ilk. The Forever Dead is by no means a masterpiece, and anyone with no tolerance for cheesy B-movies should definitely not even bother with it. But those who are fans of corny schlock will actually find quite a few agreeable sequences here (assuming they can make it through the boring middle). It's no future cult classic, but it's a frequently enjoyable example of the loving, home-made zombie film, and shows there is still some life to be had in some of the genre's more common clichés and scenarios.
FINAL SCORE: 2.5 out of 4 Bubs (Mildly Recommended)
