To kako

I didn't really expect much from this movie, being a Greek zombie movie and all, but my prejudice was quickly put to shame. "Evil" (or "To Kako") turned out to be somewhat of a surprise.

Think a mixture of "28 Days Later" and Peter Jackson's "Dead Alive" (aka "Braindead"), then you sort of have the thing that is "Evil".

Personally, I am not keen on zombies that are super agile and running around, as they are in this movie. That being said, then the director of this movie managed to uphold a very "28 Days Later" feeling all throughout the entire movie, and for that, thumbs up.

There was a good amount of gore in the movie as well, though the movie was fairly low-budget, they managed to make the effects look nice and realistic enough. And again, thumbs up on that.

However, one thing that didn't really sit well with me was the characters in the movie. They weren't really given much space to unfold or develop. And as such, they were fairly two-dimensional. There were some attempts thrown in at being funny, particularly from the Argyris guy, whether or not that is good, is a personal preference, I, however, just didn't find the forced humor at place in the movie.

Now, this movie is of course a mile and a stone away from being up to most Hollywood productions, but still, if you are a zombie aficionado, there is some good stuff here and good entertainment, and "Evil" should - and deserves - a place in the movie collection of any zombie aficionado.

So you might wonder why I am only rating "Evil" a 5 out of 10 rating. Well, simply because I don't find agile, running zombies particularly enjoyable, and also because of the misplaced attempts of humor in the movie. "Evil" has a lot to offer, but with some adjustments, it could have been so much more. But with "Evil", Greece has put itself on the world map of the zombie infection.

On a closing note, then the ending of the movie was just priceless. It was the best part of the entire movie. And what a way to leave the audience hanging. Several rotting thumbs up for the bold ending of the movie.

I think it's fair to say that Greece is hardly renowned for its horror movie output (to date I have only seen one other scary film from this country—Nico Mastorakis' infamous 'video nasty' Island of Death), but having just enjoyed zombie romp 'To Kako' (AKA Evil), I reckon that the Greeks should spend less time smashing plates and more time smashing skulls, 'cos they're actually pretty good at it!

Director Yorgos Noussias begins his film with the discovery of an enormous cavern on the outskirts of Athens, within which lurks an evil force that is capable of transforming people into flesh-craving zombies. After initially possessing three construction workers who investigate the cavern, the force spreads rapidly throughout the city leaving only a small group of survivors—buxom teenager Jenny, her sexy neighbour, a randy taxi driver, a soldier, and a football fan—desperately searching for a way out of their predicament.

Whilst this might not be the most imaginative of plots, Noussias's superb handling of his material more than makes up for the lack of originality in narrative: genuinely atmospheric scenes of horror are expertly combined with bloody moments of knockabout splat-stick comedy to make this a thoroughly entertaining 83 minutes of scares, OTT gore and laughs. And for a film with such a small budget, this film looks absolutely fabulous, with great cinematography (the shots of the deserted city are particularly cool), snazzy editing (the MTV stylings are a little over-done, perhaps, but it's still technically impressive stuff), and loads of amazing special effects (both traditional and digital).

The blurb on the DVD packaging describes the film as 'a rapid-fire series of over-the-top-gross-out gags and gore' but I feel that this description does not really do the film justice. Yes, 'To Kako' offers gore-hounds a smörgåsbord of splatterific effects and bad-taste humour—crushed heads, decapitations, eviscerations, and juicy impalements—but there is more to Noussias' movie than just a mindless comedy gore-fest: in addition to making viewers laugh, the director also manages to deliver carefully constructed scenes of tension and excitement, allows his viewers to care about his characters before he has them pulled apart and eaten, and presents an excellent downbeat ending that sees the last four survivors facing insurmountable odds as the undead close in for the kill, thus qualifying 'To Kako' as a bona fide horror experience.

An evil force is awakened in downtown Athens transforming the unsuspecting citizens into raving zombies. The few survivors will have to fight hard for their lives. To the death.

I have come to have fairly low expectations from the zombie subgenre of horror films. Every year there seems to be one good one and fifty bad ones. For every "Dead Snow" or "Zombieland" we get any number of kids with a $50 budget slapping makeup on and filming themselves trudging through the city... and it gets old.

That being said, this was a pleasant surprise. Not being overly familiar with Greek cinema I was not sure what to expect -- would there be a budget? Could the actors act? Could the director direct? I am pleased to say the film had all three.

While at times it devolves into poor computer graphics, it is largely an entertaining horror comedy, with more than enough blood and guts to satisfy just about anyone. I loved the reminiscence of some of the great splatter films ("Evil Dead" and "Dead Alive" come to mind). And the clever shots reminded me -- in a good way -- of "Run Lola Run".

There are also some very well-placed crane and overhead shots. If these were real (and not a computer trick), they were incredible. And even if they were a computer trick, they were a darn good one. I would gladly recommend this to any blood-and-guts zombie fan.

First of all, let's make clear that from the technical viewpoint, this movie isn't even close to what we might call "a decent attempt". The acting is in general horrible, the directing (a few scenes aside) ranges from inadequate to disturbing etc. In a nutshell, there seems to be a mix of very low budget and talentless crew that add up to poor performances and visuals.

However, the story is worth noticing for the way it handles contemporary Greek capital city characters. The group of survivors trying to hold on to life is a mixture of everyday people one would definitely come across if one hanged around Athens for a day or two. That keeps the (otherwise simple) story going and serves as a comical relief Greeks can easily respond to.Furthermore, the movie's ending offers a great visual and also a very satisfying conclusion.

To sum up, this is a rather poor attempt towards a decent Greek splatter film. Even with a low budget, there is no excuse for some of the shortcomings of it. However, it really DESERVES a viewing, because 1) it will make you laugh, 2) the characters will make you feel right at home and 3) it's a Greek splatter horror film, and you won't find many of these (it's the only one I've come across so far).

When I first heard about the making of Greek zombie film, I must admit i felt really excited but a bit weary at the same time.

Excited because this was going to be a first for my country, but a bit uncertain of what it could turn out like...I knew that the guys that made the film were working on a shoelace budget and I was worried that as proper "gore" is quite expensive to create, the whole film would be just people with ketchup on their faces walking around Athens.

From the first moment watching this film you realize that it is made by people who love this kind of genre , for people who love this genre.

Don't expect any hidden meanings when watching "evil". The film is here to entertain us and it succeeds in doing so big time!

The acting is good, the effects are surprisingly convincing, and most of all it is really funny!

Obviously the guys who made this film were inspired by Peter Jackson's "Braindead" . Trying to combine humor with horror is really difficult but they did a great job!

I heard somewhere that the guys have currently plans for a new movie. I just cant wait! And guys if you are reading this... please please please let me be in it! I'll do it for free!