Virus Undead

I agree with most of the things "NeilCassidy" wrote above; compared to most other Horror Movies of German origin, this one seems like a fresh breeze. Obviously, its focus was more on the question "how do certain characters behave under siege", rather than on sheer gory splatter.

Compared to Uwe Boll's pathetic efforts (who obviously has a vastly bigger budget and seems to manage to hire very well-known actors on the cheap), I felt much better entertained. There's plenty of passion for detail (remember the cuckoo clock scene?) that I feel is completely missing in Boll's movies.

Now, if the writer would please do without those clichè villains in future scripts, I'd be quite thankful.

There are some very good things about VIRUS UNDEAD (Chiller is running it under the title THE BEAST WITHIN). The premise- virus spread by birds threatens to overrun the world- is sound enough in and of itself. The special effects and fight choreography are professionally done. And the film is very well photographed. In fact, if you put on a good CD and run this with the closed captioning on you might really enjoy it.

But no film can be better than the performances by the actors, and these actors couldn't do worse. I don't know that they're really inept or untalented actors. But they were born in Germany and as best I can tell are trying to perform in English, so you get some really off the wall line readings.

We've seen this story before. Young man goes to his grandfather's home after the old man passes away. On the way into town he and his friends meet a couple of cute girls and run afoul of some local louts. The sun sets, the zombies come out to play, mayhem ensues.

But because of the inept acting it's almost impossible to feel any connection to these characters and the screenplay doesn't really develop them as individuals.

The more I write, the more I think my concluding sentence in the first paragraph is right. In fact, there are so many clichés on parade here- wow, German cops live on donuts, too!- that you might not even want to run the closed captioning.

Footnote: Definite kudos to the director for being named Wolf Wolff. Please, Lord, let that be his real name. I don't see any major directing career for the man, but that is a totally righteous name.

I watched the movie at the FantasyFilmFestival in Berlin and I can't really recommend it. It was the only movie i've seen there, where people started booing after its showing.

I was hoping to see a good Zombie Splatter movie, because it was compared with 28 weeks later and Dawn of the Dead, but Virus Undead can't nearly compete with them.

I hoped all the time,that the action begins, but slow moving zombies who are dying such by body-shoots or punches are not really terrifying :)

Also the SpecialFX where'n really convincing and they tried to keep it cheap by not showing any bloody close ups...

Even the lighting and color grading was't the best at all and got a lack of continuity.

The both directors where really proud of it and called it "Dirty little Movie", but everything it was just little.

I don't hope to see movies like this again.

Considering the fact that most German horror movies of recent years came from amateurs with their video cameras and varying degrees of talent and that there hasn't been any real tradition of this kind of genre films for decades in this country, VIRUS UNDEAD certainly seems like a welcome breath of fresh air.

Not only was it actually filmed on 35mm, the whole workmanship on display here is miles above what you'd expect from a little low budget horror movie from Germany: The credit-sequence is extremely stylish, the digital special effects of helicopters and birds are surprisingly well done, there's some rather spectacular stunt work to be seen - in short: VIRUS UNDEAD looks professional.

More important, the movie's not only very well made on a purely technical level, it displays a very good eye from its two directors as well. There are some quite impressive shots and sequences to be seen here, especially in the second half of the movie, when the main characters are besieged in an old mansion. This was actually the part of VIRUS UNDEAD I enjoyed the most, because the skilled use of that beautiful location made for some chilling moments that reminded me of the haunting atmosphere of European horror classics from decades past.

So is this a flawless movie? No, of course not. I was a bit annoyed by the use of the English language, which sounded quite unnatural to me most of the time and seemed in harsh contrast to the obviously German locations. I got used to it as the movie went on though, and I understand it had to be filmed in English to get the financing done. I wasn't very fond of the main characters either who just didn't seem likable to me. The guy who turns psycho in the end did a good job though and was pretty convincing.

So while VIRUS UNDEAD is certainly far from perfect I definitely can't agree with the comment from another user that this was "the baddest Movie ever". It may not be 'the gooddest Movie ever' (ahem), but there's much to enjoy here.

where to start, i actually liked several aspects of this film. the effects weren't half bad and the nudity, although brief, was very sweet on the eyes...

the story didn't really hang together in my eyes, it was an attempt to involve a lot of different aspects and i sort of missed the whole point of the film. the story was quite lacking in imagination, the acting was quite bad - a bunch of Germans trying to sound extremely American by simply using the f**k word in almost every sentence does NOT take away the heavy German accent, OK guys? - and several scenes really called for a LOT more reaction from these stone faced actors.

Sure it's a horror film and I'm not expecting DeNiro to step in, but come on, at least PRETEND to be actors, OK? 4/10, that's all.. Nice cinematography though...