Isle of the Dead

Years after a zombie outbreak, a team of soldiers sent to the island stronghold of a reclusive doctor finds his studies on a deadly virus program has unleashed a swarm of zombies on the island and must try to hold off the increasingly intelligent beings to get off alive.

This one wasn't all that bad but it did have its flaws. One of the few things that does come off rather nicely is the zombie action within this one, which tends to follow the channel's standards of action content within here. The film's switches from the short, brief scenarios to the longer, more involved set-ups makes for a good time here when it features the battles with the creatures, from the opening scenes of the compound being overrun and taking out the entire team of soldiers and scientists in the facility's wings and corridors that starts this one off rather nicely, the first scenes of their attack in the jungle where the creatures come pouring out of the jungle walls in waves after them is a strong and effective outing while their confrontation with the horde later on in the underground sections of the entire island coming alive in the facility trying to take them out resulting in constant and continuous gun-battles to hold them off as they retreat from the compound through the rest of the island trying to get to safety that's actually exceptionally fun. When this one gets into the shorter encounters, there's some more fun as these are based more on short, quick gunfights which are fun and thrilling, yet the highlight of it all is the series of rather fun and brutal zombie- on-zombie brawls that really makes this one end on a higher note than expected. Coupled with the rather fun zombie make-up and a nice amount of gore, there's a lot to like with this one. There's still some rather sizable flaws, starting with the rather lame story that really makes no sense at all here. There's little reason for them to even be attempting to weaponize a product the way they state here, and it really manages to strain credibility the way it goes for the group returning after such an extended absence that doesn't seem to show any kind of residual damage in the intervening years. Not only that, but the internal logic within this one comes into question with the idea of being unable to trust their potential prisoner yet continuously do so, long after the time to distrust them becomes obvious, which all make the story here quite hard to swallow. Likewise, there's also the fact that the film also features the same rather lame CGI for the vast majority of its gore and bloodshed sequences that it becomes quite detrimental and distracting during the zombie carnage which really comes off a lot more amateurishly than expected. As some might also question the use of the zombies gaining new abilities here with the enhanced speech and recognition factors, it's not enough to lower this against the other small flaws.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

I just wanted to leave a fair warning for people who are curious enough about "Isle of the Dead" to browse this section of IMDb. The rating and many of the reviews apply an impression of the movie being mediocre. I'm not sure if maybe people nowadays have a distorted understanding of the term "mediocre"? I usually use it to describe something being average, right in the center between "good" and "bad", not having features that justify becoming positively excited about, but also not in a region to evoke anger or similarly negative feelings.

There isn't anything that I could imagine to happen that would make an averagely intelligent person use the term "mediocre" after seeing this movie. Even the makeup, which might pass as average in a competently lit production, is degraded by the director's absence of talent and skill. With, let's say, a "mediocre" amount of perception and experience with movies, it isn't difficult to notice when, where and how to use the lighting available in the sets of this production, to an effect that might efficiently utilize mood, atmosphere and suspense. Like most incapable directors nowadays, Nick Lyon decided to leave these aspects to the sound design, with the idea that you can get an audience to react with tension when loud noise is constantly wearing down their nerves. As a consequence, instead of having zombies that unnerve due to subtle movement discrepancies, giving the observer a growing feeling that something is wrong with that person, standing unstably in the dim light, you get screaming, fidgeting clown-zombies that pound their chests and cheer on the stronger leader-zombies, as they all macho-jerk through brightly lit tunnels, clearly exposing their rubber masks and unevenly painted faces.

The action almost solely consists of shootouts with zombies appearing suddenly and silently out of nowhere, giving this amazing contrast of them behaving as impeccable ninjas until a *camera* (that is to say "the movie audience") has sight of them, which immediately turns them into screaming berserkers, regardless of whether a living human is anywhere near them or not. The remaining 20% of the action are ambitious but inappropriate melee fights, where soldiers decide to not use their ample time to shoot zombies but brawl them until they fall to the ground, a good distance away, and THEN open fire at them. Sarcasm aside, I might give the movie credit for at least decently ambitious melee combat. Sadly, it's getting lost on the dumb situations it is being used in. Just like any element of a movie, it won't cause excitement if it doesn't have a believable purpose and if nothing relatable is at stake.

Like most Asylum movies, Isle of the Dead doesn't have an actual story. Their usual filmmaking process is to acquire a couple of sets that can serve as a location for a shallow plagiarization idea and slap a quickly improvised script on top, that rudimentarily ties the places and events together. The sets for this movie are "jungle", "abandoned factory site" and "abandoned science lab". The script clumsily touches on the usual subjects connected to the zombie genre, without caring about logic or coherence. Regardless of that, the movie isn't shy to fill a sizable amount of its run time with dialog, that after a while becomes painful to listen to.

My recommendation is to avoid this movie and try something less conventional, like "The Girl with all the Gifts" (2016) or something smarter, like "Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead" (2014) (the movie, not the TV series).

Of course I would have to sit down to watch a movie such as "Isle of the Dead", given the fact that it is another zombie movie. And anything even remotely zombie will be appealing to me.

However, I didn't really have much hope or expectations for "Isle of the Dead". Which turned out to be for the best, because this was a very generic and mediocre movie, even for a zombie movie.

The story was adequate enough, though. It is about a small group of soldiers set afoot on a remote and isolated island where they are to discover the disappearance of a previous group of soldiers and also to seek out the chief scientist of a research facility.

It does seem quite like a simplistic storyline, doesn't it? Well, right, because it was. But hey, most zombie movies can't really boast with having intricate and elaborated plot lines and story lines. However, it turned out to be fair enough.

As for the acting in the movie, well I will say that people were doing good enough jobs with their given roles and characters, and taking into consideration the magnitude of the script and storyline. However, it was a shame that Sydney Viengluang didn't have a bigger part than she did, because she does perform quite well in the "Z Nation" zombie TV series.

The special effects in "Isle of the Dead" were actually quite good, taking into consideration the production level of the movie. However, they tended to fall into that classic error of zombie movies, where they put lots of make-up on the face, then forget about the neck and the rest of the body. A classic and stupid rookie mistake to make.

One thing that didn't sit well with me was the über-zombies, the ones that got out of containment and were able to speak and make coherent thinking and planning (for some reason). It just added a level of stupidity to the movie. And also, the ridiculous showdown between the two über-zombies towards the end of the movie was just like a slap to the face with a dead herring. Wow, that was awful.

All in all, then "Isle of the Dead" turned out to be a very genetic and mediocre addition to the zombie movie catalogue. There is nothing noteworthy to be had in "Isle of the Dead", and whether or not you watch it will have little impact on your extended take on the zombie genre.

Now that I have seen it, I can check it off the zombie-watch-list. However, I doubt that I will ever make a second trip back to watch this ever again.

In an isolated island in South Pacific, there is an outbreak in a top-secret military facility where Colonel Aiden Wexler (D.C. Douglas) is researching biological weapon. Ten years later, a small squad is sent to the island to investigate the status of the facility. They shall contact their helicopter a couple of hours later; otherwise the place will be bombed and totally destroyed. Along their journey, they are attacked by zombies and when they reach the building, they find Aiden alive. Out of the blue, Dr. Mikaela Usylvich (Maryse Ouellet Mizanin) that is assisting the mission discloses that is Aiden's daughter.

"Isle of the Dead" is another lame Sci-Fi production, with another terrible story and awful acting. The zombie story is senseless and the situations are quite ridiculous. Why a military squad with a few soldiers should be sent to a doomed island ten years after an incident? If the intention would be to see whether there are zombies or not, wouldn't be easier to monitor using a satellite? The insane Colonel Aiden Wexler contaminates Pugh and attacks three other soldiers. Why he was not killed when he was found? Instead, the survivors bring Aiden, who is contaminated, with them. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

A team of soldiers are sent to an island where a reclusive doctor has been working on a deadly virus programme, soon they find themselves fighting off a horde of zombies for survival.

For an Asylum production this is an above average offering from director Nick Lysons. Thankfully it's played serious and benefits from an on location shoot rather than cheap sets. The zombie make-up holds up for the budget. Christopher Cano and Chris Ridenhour score compliments the great cinematography by Laura Beth Lov. This is where Lyon's and crew shine. If nothing else Isle of the Dead looks fantastic.

It features enhanced zombies with plenty of head shots, blood and a nice amount of gore. It's a pity the overuse of CGI takes you out some moments. Writers Jacob Cooney and Brandon Trenz screenplay is at times overtly talky, borrowing dialogue from better films.

The cast are a mixed bag. Notable is Maryse Mizanin with an accent to die for as Mikaela Usylvich who has some memorable moments. D.C. Douglas as Colonel Aiden Wexle echoes Day of the Dead's Richard LibertyLogan, while channeling William Shatner.

Overall, it's yet another addition to an already saturated genre, but in its league it's one of the better additions. For Asylum, it's Best Picture and Director worthy.