Dead Meat

This film had some good potential but just sort of fizzles out instead.Oh this movie was close to being one of the good ones.

The story takes place in Ireland which provides some good horror film locations---castles,woods,isolated cottages and the dark gloomy countryside itself.And they were all used but just not that well.The movie is about a few folks fighting off flesh eating humans and cows,yes cows,after a really bad strain of mad cow disease infects both cows and humans.Right off the bat I'll just say the zombie cows were just silly.Didn't work at all.There were also several silly scenes that just didn't ring true,for instance,one of the surviving women fights off a zombie by throwing her shoe and sticking her high heel in it's head.Now what are the chances of killing a zombie like that in real life? Well you know what I mean.

But on the plus side are some really good fight scenes with the zombies and some good gore and blood. This movie was on the verge of being really good several times and just didn't get over the hump due to weak areas in the plot and those silly mad cows.

I'm really disappointed in this film,I'd rather a movie completely suck than be so close to being good and not quite making it.

A young couple accidentally run over a pedestrian in rural Ireland. If we didn't know from the opening shots or advance publicity that this was to be a zombie movie, we are soon left in no doubt. Comments on the car radio about mad cow disease dispense with the 'how' problem quite efficiently and the rest of the movie just gets on with being a nice gory tribute to the genre with plenty of Irish humour thrown in.

The pedestrian gets up and walks after being run over, then attacks the driver. Helena heads for a cottage, fights off more zombies, teams up with another 'normal' human, fights off more zombies, finds someone with a mini-bus, fights off more zombies etc. You get the idea. Generally speaking, originality is not the strong card in Dead Meat – everything is recycled, from moons going behind clouds, to scary castles, to ghoulish faces coming out of the bogs silhouetted by torchlight, creepy crawlies on a plate of food or a decomposing body, to the story line itself and final denouement. Dead Meat's winning streak is firstly that it uses the classic elements in a way that is almost deferential to films like Bad Taste, Evil Dead and Night of the Living Dead, secondly that it is well edited to be genuinely scary, and thirdly that it uses heavy doses of inimitable Irish humour.

Much credit goes to Conor McMahon who wrote, directed and edited the film on a budget of about £125,000. One of the leading characters, the mini-van driver who is described as 'slightly normal', is very memorable as a the sort of jovial Irishman who picks an argument with everyone first (living or dead) to decide if he likes them. I also enjoyed the (at times rather 'home-made'-looking) special effects - these rarely missed an opportunity to show the variety of horribleness portrayed by different zombies or hacked off body parts. For sheer entertainment, Dead Meat is a must for horror fans. Other audiences may have problems with the poor sound quality on some of the voices, the Irish accents (dialogue is not too important but adds to the humour), or the unashamed purveyance of formula, but for an aspiring young director, the signs from this first feature are good.

One thing is for sure: this one isn't recommended unless you're into the genre. The movie itself feels like something of Peter Jackson's old works, judging of the splatter, the camera work and the neatly applied effects. The plot didn't really catch me and there were a few moments which I just found plain boring here due to the lack of action. At the same time I have to admit that there were some scenes which made me choke of laughter. What about a crazy cow facing her death through a baseball or a different approach to drive-by's with swinging bats chopping off zombie heads. Now that's some joy I tell you. The Irish accent tops it all.

This was a great movie. Obviously shot on tape this normally brings problems technically to viewing pleasure, combined with some performances that had great weakness one might be led to thinking that you were viewing another straight to video rubbish film. However quickly the dimensions of the character and the inventiveness of the director with his choice of camera set ups led to an exciting and dramatically interesting film in which one had interest and emotion invest within unlike many bigger zombie films with far greater budgets as was sadly the case with Land of the dead. To be highly recommended for those who not only like gory and inventive horror but also to those who wish for greater depth within the film.

This may not be the best movie, but is very entertaining.