The October Zombie-Thon! - Day 26: Dead Meat
Posted by Trevor Snyder on 10.26.2006
Damn Irish zombies, always after me Lucky Charms.
DEAD MEAT (2004)
Written & Directed by: Conor McMahon Country: Ireland
Well, here's a first, at least for me: a bonafide Irish zombie movie. That's right; no longer content to let the Italians and the French have all the undead European fun, the land of leprechauns, potato famines, and Colin Farrell has finally decided to get down with its bloody bad self and enter the gore-soaked fray. And I must say, after nearly a month of watching films from the same old suspects, it was fun to finally try something a little less common; even if, I must admit, I sometimes had a hard time making out what the characters were saying with the thick Irish accents. Oh well, that's where the DVD's subtitle feature comes in handy.
Helena (Marián Araújo) and Martin (David Ryan) are driving through the rural county of Leitrim, Ireland, when Martin suddenly hits and apparently kills a man wandering across the road. The young couple put the body in the car and are about to set off to find help when suddenly the man springs back to life and attacks them, biting Martin in the neck. A scared and stunned Helena runs to a nearby cottage looking for assistance, but instead soon finds herself under siege from a number of bloodthirsty zombies, including Martin himself.
Narrowly escaping with her life, Helena runs off into the beautiful Irish countryside (not that Helena is taking the time to appreciate its beauty, but I guess you can't blame her). She eventually meets up with the local gravedigger, Desmond (David Muyllaert), who proves to be quite handy with his shovel when it comes to fighting the ghouls off. Desmond informs Helena that this crisis started off as a mutated strain of mad cow disease, created when a local farmer begin feeding beef to his herd of cows. Despite the government's attempts to halt the infection by killing off all the county's cows, the infection still continued to spread, leading to the mess they now find themselves in.
The two press on towards Desmond's cottage, eventually meeting up with a young girl who has lost her parents, and another couple, a nurse and an irritable school coach who seems both put out by the crisis and positively giddy at the opportunity to whack zombie heads with his cricket bat. The five band together and attempt to get the hell out of the county, to an awaiting government set-up aid station, fighting off near-constant zombie attacks every step of the way.
Obviously, it's not everyday (or every year, or decade, for that matter) that we see a zombie film from Ireland, and it's always a pleasant treat to welcome a new country, and a new fresh batch of filmmakers from around the world, into the zombie fold. It's a shame, then, that Dead Meat doesn't really have a whole lot going for it in terms of standing out from the rest of the genre.
Oh, sure, the "mad cow" angle is a clever twist, but, with regards to the rest of the plot, there isn't much else here we haven't seen before, and don't see coming from a mile away. Couple run into zombie, man is bitten by zombie, girl runs for her life, girl meets up with fellow survivors, survivors pile into car, car wrecks or gets stuck in mud, zombies surround car, etc, etc. Whether we're talking about Night of the Living Dead or even yesterday's film, The Grapes of Death, we're certainly not in unfamiliar territory when it comes to the structure of the story here.
Not that that's an entirely bad thing, mind you. Sure, maybe I was a little disappointed to not see something new and groundbreaking from my first, and so far only, Irish zombie movie. But that kind of story has been working in the genre for years, so you can't really fault McMahon too much for sticking with what's proven to work. And as we've seen before, even the most simplistic, cliché-filled of plots can still work if handled by people with a true passion for the genre. And McMahon definitely seems to fit that bill.
What does breathe a little life (so to speak) into Dead Meat, and what will probably most intrigue genre fans wondering if what looks like just another standard-zombie-film is worth their time, is the movie's sense of humor. Whereas many zombie films of the past few years have been trying, usually in vain, to ape the social commentary of George Romero's Dead series, McMahon doesn't really seem all that interested in that. Instead, his primary influences appear to be the early madcap splatter-comedies of Peter Jackson and the blood-drenched slapstick of Sam Raimi. McMahon's film has a tendency to slide into the same kind of unhinged lunacy seen in films like Dead Alive and Evil Dead 2 - when a character sticks a vacuum cleaner into a zombies eye and sucks his eye right out, or when another clubs a zombie with The Club, you know McMahon has no interest in playing things completely straight.
Unfortunately, this may also be Dead Meat's biggest failing. There's no doubt that McMahon is a talented filmmaker; he shows as much with the film's effectively frenetic pacing and his especially impressive use of camera angles. So I have no doubt that, in his hands, Dead Meat could have been one hell of a serious, dread-filled straight horror film, or a hilarious, unforgettable zombie-comedy – if only he had decided to simply go one way or the other.
As a mishmash of the two, however, Dead Meat is never really able to find its footing. McMahon struggles with the tonal shifts between actual tension and goofy humor – all the more frustrating in that the jokes often serve to ruin several truly harrowing sequences. Take, for instance, the scene in which our heroes are stranded in a broken down van, trying to remain silent as they nervously listen for any approaching sounds. It's a genuinely nerve-wracking moment (McMahon is much better at creating true tension than even he may realize), so you can't help but be disappointed when the pay-off turns out to be a poorly staged "zombie-cow" attack.
Even smaller, less-intrusive moments of wackiness tend to drag down what could have otherwise been an effective, straight-ahead horror film. How is it, for example, that in the midst of a zombie invasion Helena suddenly develops a sense of aim so ridiculously heightened that she is able to kill a zombie by throwing a high heel at its head with pinpoint accuracy? These kind of things wouldn't matter in a film that has no desire to be anything but a goofball comedy, but because McMahon can never seem to decide which direction to take Dead Meat, they stick out like a sore thumb.
Still, despite these faults, McMahon stages a number of exciting, and sometimes scary, sequences, and doesn't skimp on at least one important element: the gore. If McMahon truly was influenced by the early films of Peter Jackson, it's only natural to assume he wouldn't shy away from the red stuff. True, Dead Meat doesn't come anywhere near the amount of carnage in Jackson's splatter-masterpiece Dead Alive, but, then again, what does? Still, Dead Meat is no slouch in the gore department, with the heroes' final stand against the zombies being particularly full of gruesome goodness (and enjoy that scene while you can, since it's the last fun you'll have before the all-too-sudden lame ending).
As for the cast, well…they certainly showed up to work each day. No offense to them, they're all effectively serviceable in their roles, but with such one-note characters to work with, most of them aren't really given much of a chance to stand out. The one notable exception is Eoin Whelan, who dives into the role of the short-fused coach with such gusto that at times he's chewing far more scenery than the ghouls do flesh. Plus, he looks quite a bit like Hunter S. Thompson – which I'm sure has no real significance, but still made his scenes a bit more entertaining, at least for me.
The 411: Well, Dead Meat is, without a doubt, the best Irish zombie movie I've ever seen. Apart from that, it's an OK film, but not necessarily a memorable one. The story is hampered by the film's inability to decide whether it wants to be an over-the-top zombie-comedy or a genuinely dread-filled scare-fest. Still, fans of Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson should have fun with Dead Meat's goofier moments, and the impressive direction of Conor McMahon (who also wrote the movie) makes this worth a casual look from the rest of the genre's fans. If nothing else, Dead Meat serves as evidence that McMahon might be one heck of a talent within the genre, if only he can eventually make a film that sticks with one tone throughout.
