I watched "Zombie Bloodbath" expecting gore and not much else. I was surprised at how much more it had to offer.
First, its flaws.
1. It's extremely low-budget. For many of you, it will be the lowest-budgeted movie you'll ever see. Shot on video, no professional actors, a couple of nonsensical things. Despite being gory, the effects are all quite simple. (If this is a deal-breaker for you...what the heck were you expecting?)
2. It's only an hour long. An hour and ten minutes, actually, but the story ends after an hour. This is lame, but the film gets credit for not ruining the pacing just to fill out the running time.
3. Takes awhile to take shape. Starts off with a few subplots that never go anywhere.
Now, the awesome things.
1. Scary. Not like "The Ring," but much more so than you'd expect. It's got a couple of predictable-but-effective scenes where someone slowly gets ready to do something like open a door, and then something jumps out at us.
MUCH cooler, though: Usually in zombie movies, a person who gets close to a zombie IMMEDIATELY either gets away, bitten, or ripped to pieces. In ZB, there's always an uncertain, extended struggle, and usually it involves a person dealing with a bunch of zombies at once. Despite the fact that all the zombies look like your little brother on Halloween, these scenes are INCREDIBLY tense and nerve-wracking! I was really amazed that these scenes were so effective, and even while I was watching them, I was wondering how I could possibly find them scary.
2. Soulful. Just because a movie is low-budget doesn't mean it's got more spirit than a Hollywood movie. Countless straight-to-DVD zombie movies are paycheck-motivated more than anything else. Some aren't. This one REALLY wasn't. ZB has so much heart that it's sometimes awkward.
Example: a woman has a nervous breakdown and weeps uncontrollably after the death of her husband. If I was watching the movie with friends, I would have been obligated to laugh at it due to the low production values. But Sheets gives you permission to take it seriously, if you are so inclined.
Later, when a character commits suicide with a pistol, the otherwise abundant gore is tastefully absent. Rather than just childishly trying to shock the viewer, Sheets has enough balls to assume that you will care about his characters as much as he does, and not want to watch them blow their brains out.
3. Engrossing. After things got started, the pacing was incredibly tight. Additionally, it had a really "big" feel to it, which is incredibly rare in low-budget horror. It had a few scenes in open, urban areas, and the central action continually was moving to new settings. I was a little worried that it would be another board-up-the-house movie, but it was actually quite an adventure.
4. Gross. Pretty much what you'd expect :)
