Grave Mistake

Bought a horror movie pack and this was one was in the bundle, so I thought OK I'll give it a try. My goodness! I wish I could rewind my mind along with everyone who was present in watching this film with me. I understand the idea of making films on little or no budgets (i.e. Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity) but this is absolutely horrible writing and some of the worst special effects I have ever seen. I teach at a elementary school and have seen better effects by the kids in the magnet program. I usually don't write reviews but something about this movie rubbed me the wrong way with it's perversions and mockery of the mentally handicap along with underlying racism. I also looked up the writer, director, producer, editor Shawn Darling and found that he has been making movies and doing special effects for years, so there is really no excuse as to why he would make such a terrible film. I would strongly suggest he try a alternate profession. Do not waste your time or money on this film.

When the opening frames of Grave Mistake hit my screen I sighed, the camera effects were one of those they use when the budget is limited and it looked dreadful. I prepared myself for the worst and maybe that's why I came away quite surprised.

Grave Mistake though advertised as a horror is more of a comedy and tells the usual story of a group of survivors during a zombie apocalypse and does it quite well.

The first half is full of laughs, interesting deaths and competence.

The second forgets its a comedy and becomes a generic clichéd zombie flick and a distinctly average one at that.

And that is a damn shame as the first half really entertained me and was an example of what you can do to make the most of a minimal budget.

Full of quirky characters, some great deaths, oddly good sfx and some great comedy it's worth your time but expect disappointment by the end.

The Good:

Great first half

Really quite funny

Interesting characters

Strong sfx considering the budget

The Bad:

Weak second half

Camera effects are shoddy

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Fu-Manchu is a martial art

The creators definitely had a thing for zombie children

Try as I might, I just couldn't get into this film that much in the beginning.. The special effects were pretty impressive for a budget this size, the pedestrian acting I can easily overlook, and unlike, say, Storm of the Dead (another film in the Catacomb of Creepshows box-set) this one had, you know zombies. But none of the plot lines either the kid running away from his abusive stepfather nor the lovebirds angle resonated with me a whole lot. And a zombie survival guide 'master' whom acted kind of like Bill Murray in Caddyshack was pretty annoying, but not as annoying as the stepfather character (although I suspect only one was by design) However I like the film more as it wore on, so it's not totally worthless.

Shawn Darling literally did everything on this film, director, music etc. You name it he had a hand in it.

I really enjoyed this effort and it delivered, for me, all that I was expecting, and more.

A group of people have to fight off the undead. That's about it really.

Lets start with some of the characters. Seth Darling (obviously related to the director) plays Alex a young boy that is abused by his step father and finds himself with, his abuser, in the group of survivors. A good performance from him. Then there's Monika (Wendy Andrews) the gutsy female survivor who is a love interest to Mike. She's so tough that she hardly bat's an eyelid when her son turns into a zombie and has his head blown off a few feet away from her!!! James Blackburn plays Mike Shaw, your friendly mechanic and ,leader of the group of survivors. He was a believable hero.

Yes it is low budget, but I found a lot to like in this film. The effects were excellent and were a few notches above the budget limitations. The zombies were also very effective and were of the dawn of the dead variety.

Speaking of Dawn of the dead, this is an obvious homage as there are some very similar characters and situations. The survivors hold up in a hardware shop and arm themselves with weapons. There is a black hero who looked very much like Ken Foree.

I got involved in the characters and the step father of Alex was without any moral fiber. He beat Alex, beat his wife and then turns out to be a racist. You really wanted bad things to happen to him.

All in all a good effort that had a good story and some comedic touches and delivers on the gory goods.

Beware !!!! do not watch the trailer 1st as this includes all of the best bits and gives away most of the plot.

After a man by the name of "Karl King" (Stephen W. Eckles) murders his wife and buries her in a field, he makes an even worse mistake by dumping chemical toxins on her grave which produces a type of virus that causes a zombie epidemic to hit a small town in New Mexico. The story then meanders from one character to another who team up to face this epidemic in a quest to survive. So far so good. However, after the first few minutes it got really, really bad. As a matter of fact, at some point it got so bad that it was actually funny. Now, I initially considered the idea that because it was so funny the best way to watch this movie was to invite some good friends over and serve lots of beer. But as the movie progressed I discovered that it became less funny and more awful and then realized that this could result in the loss of good friends--and lots of beer. So I reconsidered. Be that as it may, other than possibly the actress Tracy Melhorn (as "Linneah Savini") I really didn't see any redeemable features in this film. Add in the fact that since her role was so limited I now believe that the best thing a person should do is to skip this film altogether. Failing that, I suppose they could probably try the "good friends with lots of beer" approach. But they shouldn't blame me for what happens afterward because I have tried to warn them.