SEVERED: FOREST OF THE DEAD (2005)

[The Burgomaster]

I just added this DVD to my collection and watching it tonight made me sort of sad.  Why?  Because it had so much potential to be one of the best zombie flicks, but somehow managed to trip all over itself and never amount to much.

The story begins with a group of environmentalists staging a protest near a logging camp.  One of the loggers ends up turning into a flesh-eating zombie when sap from a tree injected with experimental growth hormones gets into his bloodstream.  (I'm not sure what the connection is between growth hormones and zombies, but let's not dwell on that).  Before long, a bunch of other loggers become infected, the logging company seals off the roads leading into the forest (the nearest town is 200 miles away . . . too far to walk), and the uninfected loggers and environmentalists find themselves fighting to survive.

Unfortunately, this movie suffers from a few things:

* It tries VERY hard not to be campy and stupid.  As a result, it ends up being very serious, dry, and often boring.

* It uses too much "28 DAYS LATER extreme close-up, shaky-cam, choppy-editing," which makes the zombie attack scenes irritating to watch.

* Most of the best scenes are in the first half of the film (including a scene where the protestors chain themselves to trees . . . and then get attacked by zombies).  The second half of the film fizzles out.

* It has one of the most aggravating non-endings I have ever seen.  I was expecting a big finale, but the credits just started rolling before the movie reached a real conclusion.  I had to watch the final 2 minutes twice to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Not a terrible movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it just wasn't able to capitalize on what appeared to be a strong foundation.  A better director could have got so much more out of this.  But the DVD DOES have great cover art . . .

[Joe]

i really didnt like this movie at all.

[Mofo Rising]

Mostly boring.

The film is competently made for its apparent low-budget roots, and it manages to have several recognizable faces in it. Unfortunately, it's a rather by-the-numbers zombie film, and it never manages to garner a significant level of interest.

I think the worst part is that it has some rather sizable plot shifts that never gel together. In fact, it seems to be missing an entire reel at the beginning of the movie. I do like the setting, a Northwestern logging camp, but it's pretty much basic set-up, zombie attack, and then some sort of social commentary-type breakdown of society at the end. A lot of talk about this movie compares it to 28 Days Later, which is more than a little bit valid. Not just in film-style, but the logger camp at the end is very similar to the soldier camp in the above-mentioned movie. What was the time-span of this movie, a week or two? It doesn't make sense.

I didn't like it, two out of five.