Exit Humanity

A unique and well done dramatic zombie period piece. The rustic technology free setting creates nice isolation which helps increase the tension. I love zombies, and these zombies are the best I've seen in a long time. Not just the makeup, which was great, but the acting and serious tone of the movie, help it excel. The music was wonderful, while the acting and narration was well done. The animation added an art-house feel, yet not overused. Not a typical horror film, but a serious drama about humanity. Definitely going to keep an eye on this director. I wish there was more of a scare element. I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

"Exit Humanity" is one of the best zombie movies in its genre; that being a zombie movie set in a Western setting, more specifically during and in the aftermath of the American Civil War. Far better than "Undead or Alive", "Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies" and "Cowboys vs Zombies", "Exit Humanity" is a definite must if you are planning to watch a zombie/western movie.

I sat down to watch "Exit Humanity" with no particular expectations as I had honestly never heard about the movie prior to finding it by sheer luck. And being a fan of all things zombie, I was intrigued and just had to watch it. And now that I have, I must admit that I am more than pleasantly surprised.

The story in the movie is about an outbreak of undead starting in 1865 as the Civil War is at its last chapter. Flash forward six years, we find Edward Young in a small farm house, where his wife is dead and his son is missing in a country ravaged by hordes of the walking dead. Edward sets out to find his son, embarking on a task in a world that is dying.

I found the story to be rather good actually, and it managed to keep me interested all the way up to the very end. There weren't any particular surprise story twists or turn of events, and the movie went on straight ahead at a good pace. And that worked out nicely enough.

The people cast for "Exit Humanity" were doing great jobs, and if you are a movie fan, you will see a couple of familiar faces. I am not familiar with Mark Gibson (playing Edward Young), but he did a good job with his role. And I was more than surprised (and thrilled) to find Bill Mosely (playing General Williams)in the movie, as I've always enjoyed his movies. Then you also have Dee Wallace (playing Eve), Stephen McHattie (playing Medic Johnson) and Brian Cox (the Narrator). So there were some familiar faces and voices around.

As for the zombies in the movie, well most of them were really nice. Lots of good make-up and details. And there were also plenty of gore and wounds to go around to keep most of the gorehounds out there more than satisfied. And thumbs up on not having super agile zombies that run and jump around, I am most definitely not a fan of those type of zombies. Two things to point out about the zombies; I didn't get the black shark-like eyes, what was up with that? Wouldn't eyes glaze over and become milky-grayish after death occurs? And the tone of gray they used on the faces (but sometimes forgot to put on the zombies hands and necks) was a bit too gray, standing out in contrast. That sort of reminded me of the old 70's zombies movies. But aside from those two minor things, then the zombies were good, nicely put together and worked out well.

Being a big zombie fan, then I found "Exit Humanity" to be rather good. I was thoroughly entertained by this movie.

Civil War zombies! Yes, EXIT HUMANITY has the distinction of being a historical zombie flick, an extremely limited sub-genre at present, so it has novelty value going for it. Unfortunately it turns out that this ultra-cheap Canadian quickie was filmed in the woods without a whole lot of originality or indeed direction despite the intrigue raised by the premise.

The main character is a former soldier who wanders around some very mundane locales while battling a few zombies here and there. The lack of budget really hurts this film, as it's often forced to descend into dodgy animation in order to portray key sequences. The effect is amateurish to say the least and the main actor doesn't really inspire much confidence in the viewer either.

There are a few conversations on the nature of war and the like before this descends into characters stumbling around in near-darkness and killing each other. There are a few familiar faces here (Dee Wallace and Bill Moseley, along with Brian Cox providing the narration) but otherwise nothing much to recommend it.

A narrator (Brian Cox) reads a journal from the 19th century about the outbreak of the dead returning to life. It's 1865 Tennessee. Edward Young (Mark Gibson) is a Confederate soldier who encounters undead Union soldiers. Six years later, his home is attacked, his wife killed, and his son Adam goes missing. He finds him turned and has to destroy the body. He is in despair after losing everything. He finds Isaac in a desolate farmhouse.

This small Canadian horror indie is too slow and too long. There isn't enough to justify the extended length. I can deal with the indie factor but it needs to be tighter. The lengthening of every scene strips away much of the needed intensity. I would also definitely eliminate reading the journal aspect. This concept of a zombie apocalypse in Civil War era is intriguing and could be compelling for an indie. The execution here is unable to make this good enough to seek out.

Exit Humanity is an interesting approach to a typical zombie outbreak story. It is told by a narrator (Brian Cox) and in chapters from a journal by Confederate soldier, Edward Young (Mark Gibson) who details the story of a zombie outbreak that occurs just as the Civil War is ending. Director/writer John Geddes does give us a lot of the traditional zombie movie elements like the flesh eating, the shot to the head and the humans who are worse then the ravenous zombies but, also gives us a unique setting, some nicely visualized dream sequences and even some really cool flashbacks and montage sequences done with animation. The make up effects are good, although the film lacks the abundant gore fans look for, and Gibson makes a nice hero trying to keep his humanity despite what is happening around him. But, there are some flaws that keep the film from being a really strong entry in the zombie sub-genre, the pace is rather slow, the film is a tad long, and despite his novel touches and setting, there really isn't anything new story wise here or themes that others haven't touched on before in these films, although, the cause of his zombie plague was a cool twist once revealed. His cast also includes genre favorites Dee Wallce as "Eve" a healer thought to be a witch and Bill Mosley as "General Williams" a megalomaniac who wants to find a cure to the zombie plague so he may become rich and powerful and doesn't care how many innocents die while his outmatched doctor (Stephen McHattie) experiments on both the dead and the living. All in all it's not bad and certainly worth a watch if you like zombie movies and, most of all, John Geddes shows some nice potential as a filmmaker. He utilizes his more unique touches well, he frames his shots very nicely and pulls off some effective moments. A nice horror debut for Mr. Geddes.