Wyrmwood: Road Of The Dead

Wyrmwood:Road of the Dead (2014)

Runtime: 98 minutes

Directed by: Kiah Roache-Turner

Starring: Jay Gallagher, Bianca Bradley, Leon Burchill, Luke McKenzie, Yure Covich

From: Guerilla Films

This is another film I've seen at Enzian, having gone there to see it late last night. At least the audience experience there was better than my last two times at that theatre. As for this Australian horror/comedy... the Letterboxd review is below and I'll return Monday night.

I figured it was about time I experienced the Ozploitation scene of Australia and this movie is but one example of how the country still makes the sort of genre fare that gave it a good reputation back in the 70's and 80's. I was able to see this “zombie film” on the big screen; now, I think that genre is WAY played out by now but I was hoping I would enjoy this low budget thing, which I understand took 4 years to film as they only worked on it during weekends.

I've seen plenty of strong reviews for it. I wish I could say the same, but 3 stars is the highest I can give it. To start things off, this is “a zombie film” as much as, say, Nightmare City or Planet Terror. It's actually an event which I won't spoil-but is charming in how it's a plot device straight out of a 70's or 80's horror film-which causes many people to go mad and the reason why some aren't infected is also cute in being old school. These infected people move pretty fast so that's why I compared it to Nightmare City.

There's pathos to go along with the bloody action and there's a good amount of comedy, albeit on the crude side. It at least made me laugh and the funniest person was the Aboriginie character Benny. I don't know too much about the history between the white settlers of Australia and the true natives, but I presume it's like the United States between those white settlers and Native Americans so it was nice to see the indigenous people of that country get represented. Anyhow, thavis is how some mates come together and try to avoid getting killed and they spend a lot of time in the outback.

My main issue is that this is another case of a movie trying way too hard. To me they try so hard to be “a new cult hit” when I believe that many of those in the past weren't really trying to be that and it just naturally happened... they were trying so hard it seemed forced too often and there's one supporting character in particular who is so over the top and goofy I groaned whenever they appeared, which thankfully wasn't too often. Also, I understand with the budget and all that there's plenty of digital blood and digital squib shots but at least in a theatre it looked rather fake and some other effects shots were just bad. That's not even getting into the story issues or how there's plenty of contrivances.

I understand why some rate it high but due to what I mentioned, 3 stars is as high as I can realistically go... even if it tries to do something different among familiar trappings.