The Mad

I'm not sure what the fate of The Mad is but lovers of zombie films should give it a go whenever and however it becomes available for public consumption. The Mad is a surprisingly funny and twisted addition to the zombie genre. I laughed really hard at a few moments in the film and I am usually immune to laughter. But the script is very funny.

Billy Zane is pitch perfect, as is the actress who plays his daughter, Maggie Castle. The rest of the cast is admirable but the real standouts are this father and daughter duo.

It took too long to get going and lost a bit of it's steam throughout the second half. And only because it could have used more zombie action and less meaningless effects segues have I rated it as such.

Family bickering during a zombie crisis was never this good.

In the increasingly popular movie genre of zombie comedies, The Mad is an excellent entry. I saw the premiere of this film at the Canadian Filmmaker's Festival last week and it was a bucket of fun.

The film stars Billy Zane (Dr. Hunt) and Maggie Castle (his daughter Amy) as they attempt to navigate the usually rocky terrain of a family road trip, complete with Amy's boyfriend and the Doc's girlfriend (played to bitchy perfection by Shauna MacDonald).

I can't say too much without giving the premise away, but suffice it to say, when the zombies appear, there's a pleasant amount of blood and gibbets of flesh to go around.

Zane does well in a comedic role, and the supporting performances are strong.

This movie does exactly what it's supposed to do: makes you laugh, frightens you, and leaves you feeling satisfyingly entertained.

One additional thing I have to mention: saw the cover art for the upcoming DVD and it doesn't really speak to what the movie's about: this is a zombie comedy, not a purely gruesome horror flick. Just my opinion.

Having screened The Mad at the Gala Opening at the 2007 Canadian Filmmakers Festival, I can say that it would be a shame for this movie to be relegated to the 'Direct to Video Pile'. It's likely to become a cult movie in a similar vein to "Shaun of the Dead", "Evil Dead", "Return of the Living Dead", etc.

A tad slow in places, the intelligent humour and earnestness of the characters more than makes up for any shortcomings. This movie makes no pretense to being anything other than fun.

Nice to see Billy Zane in something other than a dramatic role, with luck we'll see more comedic acting from Zane in the future as he seemed to have a great deal of fun with this role.

Go 'Team Chris'

"The Mad" is without a doubt meant to be bad. There can be little doubt that both the cast, the director, and most likely the screen writer foreordained this to be a laughably bad film. There are time in which Billy Zane's performance not only breaks the forth wall it shatters it into a thousand pieces, leaving the viewer in a vortex of both confusion and pure hilarity. If it's not zombies, who's only zombie like aspect is alka-seltzer driven mouth foam, it's seemingly omniscience beef patties that attack the characters in-mass. The full affect of this leaves one with more per-zombie-giggles than "FIDO". If you happen to have a group of pro-zombie minded friends and what a movie to put everyone in stitches try "The Mad".

I was just saying that I feel like seeing one unapologetic movie like Crank or Feast. The Mad is just that: a ridiculous zombie flick that doesn't take itself seriously for one single moment.

Was it good? Absolutely not. But it was fun enough. Perfect tension breaker after you've watched three other horror movies and felt like unwinding a bit.

Anyway, it is not as good as Feast, nor as fun, but at least is one film that breaks the norm and makes a little difference. Of course, meat corporations would have approved making a movie about how eating bio steak turns people into zombies :)