Sick: Survive The Night (2012)

Sick: Survive The Night (2012)
Director: Ryan M. Andrews
Writers: Ryan M. Andrews, Chris Cull

Yawn. Yet another low budget zombie film. This one had so little money it explains what happened to the world by showing the reaction of a character as she listens to multiple newscasts via a radio. No stock footage of riots. No archival video of cities collapsing. Just a medium shot of a face as we hear the tale of a virus infecting humanity and turning people into mindless flesh eating creatures.

Two years after civilization collapsed four groups remain. There's the research lab protected by military who are looking for a cure. The pointdexters are led by Dr Rozetta who frequently verbally clashes with the soldiers in what looks like a school. The second group are those humans that have banded together to build a settlement for protection. The third group are the vultures who swoop down on weaker parties to steal and scavenge from them. The last group are the brain chomping, once human, monsters. At least the last group I understood what they were doing in the film. Their motivation was to eat humans. Not sure what everyone else was up to. Anyway, representatives from all four groups converge on a single family dwelling to battle it out.

Curiously, the script isn't packed with wall to wall zombie (mutant?) action. Instead we are regaled by the inexperienced thespians as they chew through page after page of talking without saying anything, yelling and crying. I can't recall another zombie film with this much crying.

Romero's DAY OF THE DEAD (an obvious inspiration) highlighted the bickering that stems from being confined with people you don't see eye to eye with but that film had a smart script and actors who brought the characters to life. Here we have characters sitting at school desks, or on a sofa, bitchin' and moaning about idiotic things. There's a character who is supposed to be a bad ass bitch but she is gut shot and out of the film before we see her doing anything other than posturing. Another character ties up his teammate threatening to kill him for reasons that I couldn't fathom. And I suspect the writers couldn't convince anyone of their explanation either.

SICK is one tedious scene after another. The Canadian film offers nothing new, and can't rise to being an entertaining zombie film. It doesn't have to be good, it only has to keep my interest.

Genre darling Debbie Rochon plays a scientist at a remote location who sends video reports to the protagonists' lab.

* out of ****

Stake Land II (2016)

aka: The Stakelander
Dir: Dan Berk, Robert Olsen

I would not have guessed that the vampire apocalypse film STAKE LAND would get a sequel. The film does offer a different take on end times, and does a wonderful job of world creation, but its deliberate pace and inward reflection (think Terrence Malick directing a vampire flick) did not lend itself to becoming a franchise. I found the film to be above average, a tad too slowly paced for the material, but recommend it to viewers looking for a fresh take on bloodsuckers rampaging across a broken country. Here we are six years later with a follow-up.

Martin (Connor Paolo CAMP HELL), his family destroyed by The Mother (Kristina Hughes FEROCIOUS), the leader of a vampire pack, searches for his former mentor Mister (Nick Damici who also wrote the script). His plan is to find the vampire slayer extraordinaire and team up to crush The Mother and her minions. His journey takes him across North America pitting him against vampires, the malignant cult The Brotherhood and other humans who seemingly have given up hope for a better world and have turned to cannibalism for sustenance and redneck gladiatorial combat for entertainment. The world is shit, humans are no longer working together.

Finding Mister the two do team up and find a community that does work together. They also learn that they have fallen into a trap laid by The Mother who's forces are gathered to destroy the community and Mister.

Most of the navel-gazing of the first film is gone leaving the basic framework of the post-apocalyptic road film (MAD MAX II, THE ROAD, PHANTASM series). The pace is picked up, this film runs a scant 81 minutes, with an emphasis on action rather than characters. Unfortunately the low budget, it is a Syfy Channel feature, hampers the action. A few of the action set pieces left me scratching my head as to why they were shot that way but in the context of not having the funds I can understand. Fortunately the world building carried over from the original film goes a long way to elevating this film. I found the world to be that rich in ideas. It would make for an interesting role playing game where there is no limit to the imagination's budget.

Steve Williams plays a veterinarian turned doctor in the community under siege by the vampires. Look for producer Larry Fessenden in a small role as a guard who isn't as perceptive as he needs to be.

For those who enjoyed the first film, keep in mind the tonal shift of the sequel. I found this film to be just as entertaining as the first but in a different way.

** 1/2 out of ****

The Park is Mine (1985)

Dir:  Steven Hilliard Stern

After the suicide of a fellow Vietnam vet, Mitch (Tommy Lee Jones BLACK MOON RISING) receives a letter from the dead man. The letter contains a key and a curious note about a plan to take over New York's Central Park. Following up on the letter, Mitch discovers a cache of weapons and learns that explosive devices are already in place around the park. Committing himself to the plan his friend could not follow through with, Mitch prepares to hold the park for 72 hours as a protest.

One should always carry a MG to a protest

As the protest is to be peaceful, Mitch alerts the authorities of his intent to give them time to clear out a police station located in the park. He then blows it up real good. Well aware now that Mitch is serious about controlling the park, the park is evacuated and a police cordon set up around the perimeter. The Police Commissioner (Lawrence Dane SCANNERS) and the Deputy Mayor float a story that it is a terrorist organization holding the park. Officer Eubanks (Yaphet Kotto ALIEN) is disgusted by his superior's handling of the event.

Chain smoking veteran reporter Valery (Helen Shaver THE AMITYVILLE HORROR) sneaks past the police line and enters the park with a video camera to learn about the man at the center of the story. Discovered by Mitch, who wishes her no harm, they develop a camaraderie.

Unwilling to wait out Mitch, the authorities send in two mercenaries, one of them is played by Taekwondo master Jong Soo Park, to take him out.

Valery is ready for an interview

Going into the Toronto shot, made for HBO THE PARK IS MINE I thought this was going to be another film in the crazed Vietnam war vet sub-genre. The character of Mitch is troubled, his wife will not have anything to do with him and he can't hold down a job. And anyone who thinks using AK-47s, claymore mines, a M-79 grenade launcher and a machinegun to stage a peaceful protest is a good idea is a few cartridges short of a full magazine. But Mitch's never fully explained protest is more of a cry for help for the common man than the demented ramblings of a soldier exposed to too much agent orange. The reasons for the protest may be better explained in the novel of the same name written by Stephen Peters but the film presents Mitch as having nothing better to do that week so he takes over the park and rambles on about how we mistreat one another when we should be looking out for our neighbour.

Gotta love the Yankees cap

THE PARK IS MINE isn't a deep nor heavy look at one man's reaction to the sad and troubling newspaper headlines (the same headlines one reads today). It also isn't an action heavy exploitationer. Instead it is an above average film with decent performances despite the lack of character development that sticks to the middle.

Tangerine Dream composed the sound track.

**1/2 out of ****