Zombie Doom (1999)
By: Devon Bertsch on August 18, 2006.
Share
 0 Comments |
 |
| Shock-O-Rama (USA). All Regions, NTSC. 2.15:1 (Non-anamorphic). English DD 2.0. 78 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
 |
| Credits |
Director: Andreas
Schnaas
Starring: Andreas Schnaas,
Marc Trinkhaus, Uwe Grüntjes, Joe Neumann,
Xiu-Yong Lin, Winni Holl
Screenplay: Andreas
Schnaas
Country: Germany
AKA: Violent Shit III:
Infantry of Doom
|
Anybody familiar with the work of Andreas Schnass
will know what they're heading into here,
another widescreen (approximately 2.15:1) yet somehow
shot on video gore flick.
Zombie Doom is really Violent Shit III. Yes,
there were two instalments before this one. Karl
the Butcher is back, but the star of this film,
as with the prequel, is Karl Jr. Little Karl's
now the leader of a militia of chintzy mask wearers,
and he's decided to cover up one of his
eyes with some bad latex or something. Maybe his
dad did this after coming home in Violent
Shit II? Anyway, some guys land on the
Karls' island, and end up in a Most
Dangerous Game situation. Meanwhile,
Karl Jr. has a Hitler knockoff working on a race
of übermensch, but Psuedo-Adolf seems only
capable of creating He-Man like characters that
move around in jerky stop motion. The plot is
nonsense, the character actions nonsensical.
Production values are very home-grown. Karl Jr.'s
army has really thin weapons, use rubbish bin
lids as shields, and wear even cheaper versions
of his mask. Some of the scenes are shot like
war footage, and surprisingly there are a FEW
well-staged shots. Unfortunately, Schnass'
appreciation for martial arts films turns up again,
and he pays homage in an appalling ninjitsu sequence
packed with lame fighting. There's nothing
on a Sonny Chiba movie here; not even the inclusion
of a flying guillotine can save this climactic
battle. Of course, maybe if the flying guillotine
had been used with anything resembling clever
filming, it might've been better. Schnass
should really stick to horror until he can at
least rival kung fu films from the 50s. Another
possible nod to kung fu films is the presence
of a henchman that appears to have been modelled
as a cross between Jason Vorhees and Shih Kien
from Enter the Dragon.
But no one will give two fucks about any of that,
anyway. This movie exists for one thing and one
thing only: Gore. Violent Zombie Shit
Doom is loaded with the red stuff. Some
of it is quite imaginative, if not even remotely
realistic, and I have enjoyed the nasty tongue
in cheek feel of the latter Shit films. Some of the FX are good, much improved
on Schnass' earlier work. Most of the FX
are passable for the two Deutschmark budget, but
there are a few that are very poor. Violent
Zombie Shit Doom is a zealous stab at
a splatfest sans budget, so I find it hard to
not appreciate it as an achievement on some level. |
| Video |
| Violent Zombie Shit Doom is presented
widescreen for reasons only known to Schnass. The
film has heavy video grain, pixelation, and looks
quite murky. |
| Audio |
Judging from the sound FX and the score, the original
German audio track is probably okay, but the two-channel
English dub track present here is egregious. If
two Deutschmarks went into the film, half that went
into the English dub. The sound is incredibly bad,
filled with echoes, and seems like one guy talking
over the background soundtrack. It's almost
surreal how the backing audio doesn't match
the echo from the dubbing room. Even if Shock-O-Rama
weren't going to subtitle the movie, it would've
been nice to have the original German audio. The
plot (or what's masquerading as one) isn't
that hard to follow, and then I would have had a
choice, and enjoyed the movie MUCH more. It's
nice that two films are included, but I would've
preferred just one with a German audio and subs.
I would say this is the second worst dub job ever
except…
The bonus film, Zombie
'90: Extreme Pestilence has one
that's EVEN WORSE. The dubbers have gone
for more distinct voices than the mono-timbre
sound of Violent Zombie Shit Doom,
so everybody sounds silly. The audio has jumpy
edits as the dub track cuts in, the background
noise is sometimes lost altogether, and the dubbers
even left in flubs! The dubbers also added a bunch
of BAD jokes when they evidently felt the film
was too quiet. One guy now thinks a huge bunch
of fog came from his girlfriend's fart…okay,
maybe that joke was originally in the film, but
there is a lot of new gibberish. One doctor is
dubbed like a black stereotype and says "damn"
every few seconds. Even more bizarre is that he
now walks around with a tendency to EXPLAIN the
scenes he's in. The biggest insult comes
when, after having a dream sequence with a shitload
of new speeches about how it must all be a dream,
the doctor screams "Zombie cam!" when
the camera "attacks" him. Either the
original actor was a ventriloquist, or this film
has had some major tampering. There is once again
no German option, leaving me to suffer through
the second worst dub of all time. The honour of
first place goes to the English dub of Revenge
of the Living Dead that was circulating
on the bootleg circuit a few years back, which
MUST have been dubbed by one guy and his significant
other. |
| Extra Features |
| The main extra is obviously Zombie '90.
The movie is also pretty silly and heavily padded.
Some of the more interesting points include: A zombie
that lays patiently while being eviscerated, and
doesn't sit up until the Damn Doctor arrives
with the gun. The two guys who walk WAAAAAAY out
of a building before discussing the zombie plague.
The Damn Doctor just wandering around the woods
with his gun drawn threatening people (good thing
they were all zombies). The odd zombies with their
faces smeared in something that resembles doo doo.
The Damn Doctor sliding down a little hill, knocking
himself out (!!!), then dreaming he's taking
a crap.
Again, the gore is the draw here, but it's
not much of a draw this time. The movie is ALMOST
as bad as Violent Shit. More
extremely fake body parts are cut up and off by
these weapon wielding zombies, and more red paint
sprays and sprays. The worst effect is the baby
dismemberment. No real effort is made to disguise
the fact that there was never a real baby, only
an infant doll. It's ripped apart with great
vigour, but it's just funny. The gore is
shoddy for the most part, but there is one kind
of cool decap involving the smashing of a car
window.
Zombie '90 made me want
to watch a Percles Lewnes movie instead. The only
thing scary about this film was the threat of
a sequel.
The DVD also features eight trailers for very
nude, very lesbian driven sex parodies of Hollywood
blockbusters; nine Shock-o-Rama trailers; seven
Retro Seduction trailers; an offer for Alternative
Cinema Magazine; and a web address. |
| The Verdict |
| The DVD's cheap. There're two movies
that were very rare in the states…but the
dubbing…the dubbing…THE DUBBING!! The
whole Violent Shit trilogy is supposed
to be getting a more deluxe treatment, so just hold
out for that. |
|
| User Comments |
 |
0 user comments have been posted so far |
|
| |
 |
