Monday, November 24 - Movies

The Age

Thursday November 20, 2008

Craig Mathieson

Undead (2003)

SBS, 10.55pm

PROVING that for once Australian cinema could be at the start of a trend and not sulking down the back hoping for a few golden crumbs, Queensland brothers Michael and Peter Spierig offered up this cheap but moderately entertaining zombie film in 2003. Released just as Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later was scaring audiences half to death, Undead was a zombie movie far more in thrall to the genre's tradition, tipping its hat to George A. Romero's various ground-breaking efforts (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead) while transplanting the setting to a coastal fishing town in the north of Australia. A meteor shower sees the inhabitants of the village turned into flesh-hungry creatures that zombie-lurch back and forth as they look for human brains and the other delicacies they prefer. Those fighting them off include a beauty queen (Felicity Mason) and a truculent hillbilly (Mungo McKay), although the most memorable character is a peevish member of the Queensland police force (Dirk Hunter) who looks and acts as if he has been freeze-dried from demonstrator-bashing days of the Bjelke-Petersen government. The lack of money shows, but the giddy joy at filmmaking - not to mention buckets of gore and bodily fluids - is readily apparent, although the twist ending is more perplexing than unexpected. As for the Spierig brothers, they recently made a vampire film in Queensland, although this time with Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe. -- CRAIG MATHIESON

© 2008 The Age

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