Humans vs Zombies

After getting the opportunity to watch this movie I decided to write my very first review on IMDb. Not because I found the movie to be exceptional in itself but because the previous reviews puts the movie in an unfair light.

Mostly it's about expectations, if you watch it expecting some multi billion $ academy award winning production you will be disappointed but if you watch it expecting the kind of movie you often get when you watch a movie that has a 3 star average on IMDb you will have a much better experience. I was expecting a 3.

Humans Versus Zombies is not the best zombie movie ever but it's also not the worst movie ever made, it's actually pretty average, or at least not much worse (I watch anything with zombies in it, at least once, so I've seen a lot of really bad zombie movies..this is not one of them). The script is decent which in zombie land means that someone actually made an effort here, it's coherent enough to not be intrusive but it wont win any awards. Pretty much everything used in the movie is in the range of below average to average, the script, the acting, the effects, etc.

Don't let "average" discourage you from giving HVZ a chance though, this is one of the movies where the cast and crew makes good enough use of what they have to make you wonder what they could have done if given a larger budget to work with. There are people involved here that know what they are doing, making a movie with average tools often yields a terrible result but here they've done a much better job than you might expect.

Most of the acting is in the range of average to slightly above average, very little of it is actually bad (there's a few of the supporting actors and a few scenes where the acting is... less than stellar, but most of it is OK). Dora Madison Burge's (Tommi, the gamer girl) performance in some scenes was definitely above average and Brad (Chip Joslin) was hands down my favorite character who if this had been a big budget Hollywood version definitely would have been played by Jack Black (not that Chip did a bad job, on the contrary, Brad wouldn't have sucked if Chip hadn't played the character the way he did).

The effects were so so but they too were used effectively (ie with moderation, no long scenes zooming in on fake looking zombies or gore), there was some obvious CGI used in a scene (I wasn't looking for CGI so there may have been more that I didn't pay attention to but if so, good job then.) but it made sense where it was used and the scenes were shot in a way that made it not matter whether you'd notice the CGI or not (ie, this movie obviously is not a made for TV SyFy movie...SyFy shouldn't be allowed to use CGI at all, ever.).

If you watch the movie with reasonable expectations you'll most likely enjoy it. It's not Shaun of the Dead so don't expect it to be, it's not Resident Evil so don't expect that either. Expect an entertaining zombie movie that is far from perfect but also could be much much worse.

Speaking of SyFy, the previous zombie movie I watched was Zombie Apocalypse, a SyFy original! Humans Versus Zombies is a much better movie.

OK, I went to the screening with the assumption that this would be an OK movie due to the budget size, but let me tell you I was completely surprised at the content of this movie. It was well shot, great cinematography, great soundtrack, the acting was really good, you really believed the emotion and were drawn into it. the comedic element of the lines in the movie really surprised me and made this a very enjoyable movie...

although it is not the most kid friendly as it had a few adult scenes, but what horror movie doesn't? Brian Jaynes really out did himself. you can tell that the cast and crew really worked hard and they came up with a winner in my book. 5 stars. the only reason I gave it an 8 instead of 10 was because it did have a few imperfections but they did not detract from the enjoyability of this movie. would definitely recommend it to my friends.

There really isn't much of redeeming value in the movie, other than the pleasure of watching Madison Burge (as long as she isn't trying to act...to be fair, her horrible performance may be the fault of the director and/or writer).

The rest of the movie is just a poorly scripted, poorly directed, poorly acted attempt to cash in on the zombie movie craze. The makeup is awful, the special effects are high-school level.

And there's absolutely no sense of urgency. Which is death for a zombie film.

There's no use blaming the lack of budget -- Night of the Living Dead probably cost much less than this to make, and yet it remains one of the best of them.

I too was conned into watching this film because of the first few positive reviews -- where were obviously written by people involved in the production. No objective viewer could give this more than 3 out of 10 (and again, the movie gets extra points from me only because Madison Burge is easy on the eyes. If she wasn't in this movie, I'd be generous if I gave it 1 out of 10.).

Awful story, amateurish (boarderline absent) direction, terrible acting (what else can you do with cliché ridden dialogue) all of the performances were inconsistent, tele-novella class cinematography, bush league make-up, screwball continuity (that's if they even bothered to hire someone to do the job), incompetent editing, do I really have to go on? It makes me think even the craft service on this picture was bad.

Plus half of the movie is zooming in and out of Google Earth.

All of the people involved with making this picture should consider another line of work.

The first 4 reviews actually misled me into watching this movie. Anyone giving this film more than 2 stars is obviously in cahoots with the production.

Overall: unbearable. The quality of the production itself is decent, but even with all the rogue pop-culture references and randomly-placed aerial shots, these just don't even begin to make up for the story and acting.

Acting: terrible, with the exception of the "Brad" character who is pretty much the sole source of comedy in the film - so he doesn't count.

Plot: terrible. The very beginning was somewhat interesting, enough to lure you in, but then it becomes incredibly dull for the majority of the movie. If you enjoy endless, pointless, and mind-numbing teenage conversation mixed with a flat plot development - this film is for you.

This film was so bad, in fact, that it rubbed off on the film we decided to watch afterwards. This is what I get for choosing a film with such an unimaginative title like "Humans Versus Zombies."