Bloodtype Online
For the best of the Horror/Cult/Exploitation film experience
Automaton Transfusion (2006)
Although the horror genre has had zombies in it for quite sometime it seems that there is a influx over the last few years that have had a new breed of zombie. They are fast, can run like the worlds greatest track star, and now are generally smarter than they've ever been before. This was certainly pushed forward by the remake of "Dawn of the Dead" hitting theaters and even before that when Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later" was released. But good or bad there have been plenty of movies to come out since then that have been a welcome part of the genre and many more that were nothing more than a cash in or a total waste of time. Going into "Automaton Transfusion" I had high hopes for this one as I heard a lot of buzz about it prior to seeing it, but unfortunately I'm thinking this one will be more of a waste of time than another welcome addition.
"Automaton Transfusion" is a hyper paced zombie flick in a world where everything seems to happen lightening fast. One day out of nowhere there seems to be a breakout at the local high school and when the kids are sent home early it seems that it has already taken it's toll on some of the surrounding area. Chris (Garrett Jones), Scott (William Howard Bowman), and Tim (Rowan Bousaid) plan to hit up a concert at a local bar that night and plan to drive into the city to go. On the other hand Chris' girlfriend Jackie (Juliet Reeves) goes out to party with her group of friends that happen to not get along with Chris and his crew. Of course when Chris and his buddies take that faithful drive into the city they realize that something is seriously wrong and it just so happens that it has something to do with zombies and the fact that they are hungry for human flesh.
As a fan of the zombie subgenre I also like to see how film makers can take an idea that's been done a million times like the zombie film and put their spin on it. Of course more times than not it's a total disaster, mainly because the zombie subgenre has been done to death at this point. But this movie was trying to do something and it just didn't work out as planned. If you watch the making of feature that comes on the DVD you'll hear that they were trying to make a zombie film that was at a breakneck speed, which actually works against the movie. There's not enough time for them to introduce characters and do much with them except for have them kill a zombie or get killed themself. That's not even the biggest problem in the movie and that's what the frustrating part was.
Another annoyance that I had with this one was the fact that they took the "shaky camera" that is used so much in today's cinema and turned the levels up to about a thousand. It was ridiculous that there were so many scenes in the movie completely ruined by erratic camera movements that aren't there for any other reason to add effect to the movie. Note to film makers: that shit simply doesn't work. If you can't create an atmosphere or feeling in your movie, shaking the hell out of the camera isn't going to help you do anything. Honestly I can go on for days about how frustrating it was to get to a scene that has some great gore gags going on and the whole time the camera is shaking like a drug addict going through withdrawal symptoms.
The acting in the movie is also something that takes it down a few notches. I did like the character of Scott played by William Howard Bowman but other than him there really wasn't anything of note to make the movie better. Most of the other characters were incredibly annoying or just didn't have any sort of personality for you to dive a damn about. Most of the time when this happens in a movie you don't mind because the characters get killed off and it pleases you as the viewer. But the problem here is the fact that when they do get bumped off it means nothing because you can barely see what the hell is happening granting you the viewer zero satisfaction.
But the main thing that pissed me off to no end about this one was the shitty fucking ending that it had. They were too lazy to tack an actual ending onto this pointless mess so they give you a "To Be Continued". Not to say that the movie doesn't have anything to the end at all, but this was just a total "go fuck yourself" to me when I was watching the movie and it really angered me.
So overall I would have to say that it would be wise to save your money and AVOID the hell out of this one. It's pointless, it's not really that fun of a zombie movie, and you'll just get frustrated watching a movie that had potential and flushes it down the toilet right in front of your face.
Rating - *
-Ed Demko
