Demente

I was not expecting too much from the movie and it proved me right.

The acting seemed at least capable and sometimes quite good with Kayla Ewell and Ashlee Brian standing out a little.

The story line was the standard, people turn to Zombie like creatures and normal people turn to morons. Surely they could get someone to write in sensible characters. We are told it's important to be quiet but throughout the movie not only do the girls scream like banshees, they also constantly talk at the top of their voices or shout. Why is it that decent believable situations and characters are rarely written in to these movies? It's as though the movie makers just want to annoy the audience.

It's a low budget movie so don't expect any great special effects, major celebs or even minor ones. The "28 Days Later" style zombies lack the realism or makeup of said movie.

You might be disappointed by the ends of the movie, but if you have little else to do this is not the worse Zombie film I have ever seen and could have been quite good with believable characters even though it brought nothing new to the genre.

'The Demented.' The latest in a seemingly never-ending line of zombie films. Only the monsters aren't zombies - they're more the 'infected' that we've seen before in 28 Days/Weeks Later or the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. Both films were great successes, but, just because you have 'running zombies,' doesn't guarantee you an automatic hit.

Perhaps the main problem here are the characters. Okay, this is a horror film and no one's expecting deep and meaningful character developments with watertight arcs etc, but, both Dawn of the Deads, 28 Days/Weeks Later and others like them, proved that just because your heroes are getting chased by zombies, doesn't mean you can't give them some decent traits to make the audience relate to them.

In The Demented we have six friends. Let's call them, 'Attractive Blonde Female, Attractive Brunette Female, Attractive Mixed-race Female, Attractive Dark-haired Male, Attractive Blond-haired Male and Attractive African-American Male.' For that's all they are - we never really learn anything about them, so we don't really care when they start getting chewed up one by one.

And there isn't really that much gore. I know this is a cheap film, but a bit of entertaining mayhem might have given it a bit more of an edge. So our six generic protagonists get caught up in a zombie outbreak. How does it happen? Does it matter? Do you care? They just do. So they're chased continually, in between sneaking here and there while the zombies are 'sleeping standing up.' Whatever.

If you've never seen a zombie movie before (there must be one of you) then you may actually enjoy this. Or if this was made all those years ago before Night of the Living Dead, it may even have been called 'groundbreaking' and 'a classic.' However, it wasn't. And there's absolutely nothing here that you haven't seen before. If you like zombie films (or running zombie films in particular), stick with Dawn of the Dead 2004 or either 28 Days Later film. Both have budgets, gore, suspense, action and decent characterisation in them. The Demented has none of those, sadly.

4 friends get together at another friend's house to have fun. Along with his girl, this makes 3 couples. At some point during the course of their get together, they receive news of a terrorist attack via a telephone call from their friend's father who owns the house they're partying in. They are freaked out, naturally, and wonder if they should leave or stay put. They decide to stay (Hmmm...this can't be good).

They later become besieged by zombies of the fast-moving kind who for some reason at one point in the movie can't figure out what to do about a gate that is only a few inches taller than them. Reminds me here of the zombie movie with Dolph Lungren. Steep stairs are a breeze, but apparently this ability is not transferable to going over a gate 2 or 3 inches taller than you. Ah, well, can't have everything.

Let's see now... In this movie there's a lot of running, panicking, screaming, yelling as the zombies try to thin out the herd (the weak, the infirmed, the stupid...you know how it is). And what would a zombie movie be without some occasional "laying low". Or to put it in less cool terms: "Waiting until the dead stinking things leave". It becomes kind of like a video game. The group (whats left of them), learn that choppers are picking up survivors at strategic locations. Can they get to a rescue point without being the main course at a zombie banquet? If they can they get to fly away and give everything below them the middle finger.

The ending of the movie might be somewhat puzzling. There are 2 possible endings depending on WHEN the woman was dreaming or imagining things. You have to decide for yourself. Oh yeah, before I close, I must tell you that this movie strain of zombies are often in some kind of trance or suspended animation; dormant and "statue-like" until their food unwittingly wakes them by making too much noise. Then they become Olympic material. In a way it's kind of flattering though. You know, that something thinks you're so delicious that they break all kinds of records to get to you. Now that's love. Boloxxxi.

"The Demented" is sort of a reminiscent of a lower-budget version of "28 Days Later". So is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well that depends on what kind of zombies - or infected - you enjoy in movies.

Story-wise, then "The Demented" is a very standard movie as movies go in the zombie genre. A group of young people find themselves trapped in a rural setting when a biological outbreak takes place - turning people into crazed killers. And I would use the term zombie loosely here, as they aren't exactly zombies, if you measure them up by the standard of many movies in the genre.

The infected in the movie, like in "28 Days Later", are agile and fast running. And for some reason they have to make sounds like prowling animals. And also, once you become infected, your clothes become shredded and ripped. Try looking at all the infected, their clothes is all torn and ripped, and they are smeared in blood, yet they don't have any visible cuts, wounds, bite marks and the like. It was a little bit too ridiculous.

The way the movie ended was actually a nice twist to an otherwise generic zombie movie. I will not spoil anything by mentioning it here, but I didn't see that ending coming, not by a long shot.

As for the title of the movie, well, they could have found something more appropriate, as "The Demented" doesn't really do a zombie movie any kind of justice in any possible way.

For a zombie movie, then "The Demented" didn't really bring anything new or innovative to the genre. Everything in the movie has been done or seen before. But still, the movie was enjoyable and actually fared well for a movie of this production value.

There are movies that have in-depth plots. There are movies that have interesting, complex characters. These films often make us contemplate our existence through obtuse themes that require introspection and careful pondering. And there are movies that are none of these things and yet still maintain a level of entertainment - visceral experiences that emote excitement, or fright, or romance, or comedy... perhaps even all four if we're lucky.

The Demented has none of these traits. It is devoid of any artistic originality. It is predictable and bland. Watching it makes me contemplate how much I value the hours I have left on this earth, and whether or not I should choose to go do something else right at this moment. But The Demented is a cheap zombie flick, and this fact alone forgives many sins.

The ending however, catapults this film past redemption. It makes me angry in ways that other things make me angry, like willful ignorance, 3rd world poverty, and excessive Facebook selfies. In the last few minutes of the film, just before the credits rolled, had there been a baby present, I would have punched he/she in the face. Had there been an invaluable painting handy, I would have smashed it into oblivion and declared art dead forever.

This is what you can look forward to if you decide to watch this film. Perhaps that's what you're after: a reason to be depressed and angry at the world. Perhaps you're manic and need a reason to not love yourself anymore. Then this is the film for you.