Exit Humanity

Zombies. They're everywhere. They're on our DVD shelves, on our television screens and in our Netflix queue's. Their hunger for human flesh seems only equaled by their hunger for our entertainment viewing time.

We've long thought and wrote that zombies, by nature, are a boring antagonist. Whether fast (28 Days Later) or slow (Night of the Living Dead), zombies have little character, can do little more than moan, and are usually only scary when accompanied by a horde of other flesh eating zombies.

A quick Google search of zombie films listed over 700 titles which would suggest that the genre from which George Romero made a career has been done (dare we say it….) to death.

The oversaturation of the zombie genre mustn't have been lost on writer/director John Geddes. His awareness of the 'been there, done that' factor must have been electrifying the talented Canadian's synapses when he began scripting Exit Humanity – a zombie film set shortly after the American Civil War in the 1870's.

Exit Humanity follows a solider by the name of Edward Young (Mark Gibson in a thoroughly convincing role) who is returning to his homeland after the American Civil War. The War might be over, but the fight as just begun. Zombies run the landscape and when Edward's wife turns, Edward is forced to kill her in gruesome fashion. Edward then embarks on a journey to find his son – a journey that will be fraught with the undead.

Director John Geddes does a fantastic job of making the landscape and the era a character unto itself in the film. The location shoots standing in for America circa 1870's is what gives Exit Humanity a creative edge in a tired genre. But where praise can be lauded for the setting, issue can be stated for the length of the film combined with a seriousness that alienates a bloodthirsty audience hungry for splatter. Long stretches of monotone description and explanation fell flat and left us bored and indi-glowing our wristwatch to determine the remaining minutes of the ordeal.

There is a good story to be told here, it is just executed with such a lack of urgency that it wears down its audience and wastes supporting roles by Bill Moseley, Dee Wallace and Stephen McHattie not to mention a fascinating narration by Brian Cox that supports the animated sections of the film which are unarguably the film's high points.

While waiting in line and reading the Toronto After Dark program and their description of the film, we were hoping for a Dead Birds (2004) type of horror periodic. Instead, we got an interesting but ultimately defective experiment. One that slipped more than it gripped and was flawed more than it gnawed.

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"Exit Humanity" is one of the best zombie movies in its genre; that being a zombie movie set in a Western setting, more specifically during and in the aftermath of the American Civil War. Far better than "Undead or Alive", "Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies" and "Cowboys vs Zombies", "Exit Humanity" is a definite must if you are planning to watch a zombie/western movie.

I sat down to watch "Exit Humanity" with no particular expectations as I had honestly never heard about the movie prior to finding it by sheer luck. And being a fan of all things zombie, I was intrigued and just had to watch it. And now that I have, I must admit that I am more than pleasantly surprised.

The story in the movie is about an outbreak of undead starting in 1865 as the Civil War is at its last chapter. Flash forward six years, we find Edward Young in a small farm house, where his wife is dead and his son is missing in a country ravaged by hordes of the walking dead. Edward sets out to find his son, embarking on a task in a world that is dying.

I found the story to be rather good actually, and it managed to keep me interested all the way up to the very end. There weren't any particular surprise story twists or turn of events, and the movie went on straight ahead at a good pace. And that worked out nicely enough.

The people cast for "Exit Humanity" were doing great jobs, and if you are a movie fan, you will see a couple of familiar faces. I am not familiar with Mark Gibson (playing Edward Young), but he did a good job with his role. And I was more than surprised (and thrilled) to find Bill Mosely (playing General Williams)in the movie, as I've always enjoyed his movies. Then you also have Dee Wallace (playing Eve), Stephen McHattie (playing Medic Johnson) and Brian Cox (the Narrator). So there were some familiar faces and voices around.

As for the zombies in the movie, well most of them were really nice. Lots of good make-up and details. And there were also plenty of gore and wounds to go around to keep most of the gorehounds out there more than satisfied. And thumbs up on not having super agile zombies that run and jump around, I am most definitely not a fan of those type of zombies. Two things to point out about the zombies; I didn't get the black shark-like eyes, what was up with that? Wouldn't eyes glaze over and become milky-grayish after death occurs? And the tone of gray they used on the faces (but sometimes forgot to put on the zombies hands and necks) was a bit too gray, standing out in contrast. That sort of reminded me of the old 70's zombies movies. But aside from those two minor things, then the zombies were good, nicely put together and worked out well.

Being a big zombie fan, then I found "Exit Humanity" to be rather good. I was thoroughly entertained by this movie.

A unique and well done dramatic zombie period piece. The rustic technology free setting creates nice isolation which helps increase the tension. I love zombies, and these zombies are the best I've seen in a long time. Not just the makeup, which was great, but the acting and serious tone of the movie, help it excel. The music was wonderful, while the acting and narration was well done. The animation added an art-house feel, yet not overused. Not a typical horror film, but a serious drama about humanity. Definitely going to keep an eye on this director. I wish there was more of a scare element. I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

A very ambitious movie, that has great cinematography and with Brian Cox one of the best narrators it could've hired (Morgan Freeman excluded, though I doubt he'd do a movie like this). It tries to go the philosophical road and almost completely convinces. The acting is good and if you liked something like Stake Land, than you have to watch this too of course.

I think that the movie does not live entirely up to its high goals, but at least it did set them high. The filmmakers really wanted to say more and not only make another horror movie. So if you're looking for cheap scares, you should go look elsewhere! Not everyones cup of tea and with some major flaws, you might want to rent, before you buy it

Exit Humanity is not a movie to watch for action, blood and gore. It's a slow period piece that follows one man's journey of survival through an undead outbreak after the civil war.

It's got a great 1860's feel to it, pretty good acting and script, a plot with lots of potential, and is interspersed with some superb narration & animated sequences.

But there are 2 major flaws to Exit Humanity:

1) It is Slow. This movie is about 110min long, and it should have been 80. Long periods given to the protagonist's grief should have been pared down.

2) The script/plot touches onto the history and ancient origin of the undead, and a possible cure, but doesn't go further. I was hoping the protagonist would continue his journey of discovery concerning the undead - which via his journal, would connect & help fight the 20th century outbreaks. But no, this potentially exiting avenue was left unexplored.

Pretty good movie: I give Exit Humanity 6 out of 10.