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Awaken the Dead (2007)
Silver Storm Production’s “Awaken the Dead” is an original and action packed zombie/ redemption story about an alcoholic priests assigned to protect an assassins daughter named Mary( Played by Lindsay Morris) . Jeremiah is a mysterious assassin that sends both a priest and his daughter red letters. The letters have two different orders. One is for Mary to stay put in her home and the other is for Christopher(Played by Gary Douglas Kohn) aka Father Gideon to keep an eye on his daughter.
This is a solid film with an interesting story and some fun MTV style action that I didn’t mind for a change. The two main characters had some sexual tension and that was great being that the male was a priest. The female character Mary was so bitchy during the entire film it was hard to want her to survive. What was there to survive for you ask? Flesh eating zombies that appear out of no where right after an argument between Mary and her steroid pumping ex boyfriend. After she kills him in self defense, she and Christopher soon realize that his body is instantly cold. After realizing this they understand that there is something major going on and that the house is surrounded by the living dead.
Throughout the film the viewer gets more information on why zombies appeared in this neighborhood out of nowhere. Additional characters join the film like a hunting season obsessed survivalists, his whiny wife, a Jehovah Witness. The characters seem to think the problem may be Armageddon but soon they realize they could all be guinea pigs in a government experiment.
In between this story there is a high zombie body count that the violently suppressed priest takes no part in. The setting is totally inspired from “Night of the Living” Dead but because of the well layered story it becomes much more. During the isolation in the house there is a lot of religion talk but the bible has nothing to do with the destruction going on. I couldn’t wait for the priest to grow some balls or bust a cap in some walking corpse ass! By the look on the DVD art on my screener I knew that Christopher was eventually going to blast some zombies. The cover art did not lie and Chris and many other characters shot zombies point blank in the face.
The special effects were great, especially the gun shots. The make-up of the zombies was a little corny but it worked and the story made that easily forgivable. There was a large cast of zombies and it was great to watch a lot of them disappear from the hands of a redemption seeking priest. Great camera work enhanced the fight scenes and special effects.
The film has its comedic moments but a lot of the dialogue seemed pushed. Listening to characters speak made me think that the writer was getting a kick out of his own jokes. Too much of his personality shined through in all the one dimensional characters. Mary was just a completely miserable character but at least there was some explanation why she acts out the way she does. Jeffrey McMicheal Brookshire sure knew how to create a character with some baggage.
The movie had a great pace and despite some of the stereotypical characters the story moved along smoothly and kept me totally alert. Those looking for a score that coincides with the story may be disappointed because of the unknown artist soundtrack that pops up from scene to scene. I don’t think any of the music was awful but none of it was revolutionary by any means so it made me wonder why the fuck it was there! Although this type of a filmmaking choice bothers me it doesn’t determine how I feel about the narrative of the feature. The bottom line is the make up effects were above average on an independent film level, the writer played with some great concepts that kept this zombie flick fresh and there was some fun deadpan humor that was hit or miss. The action felt like a music video but the cool kills made up for that. It was refreshing to see a zombie film with a charming and mysterious story. The twist was a good one this time around and it was fun watching the cast work together for the common goal of survival. I almost forgot to mention how hot Lindsay Morris is. Tune in for her but not only for her because the film is another reason to support independent cinema over the mainstream disasters of recent memory! During this ride you will see plenty of zombies bumped off, a lot of character discoveries and an ending with political subtext that pays homage to George A. Romero just for being political subtext. It’s up to you to watch this? I recommend you do because I dug it. Find out if the gun holding priest bones the hot bodied Mary!
Rating - ***
-Russ Rutter
