Frankly, I’m not sure how to rate the French-made zombie film “The Night Eats The World” — Green Ooze or Yellow Puss?!? From the looks of the set, the considerable number of zombie extras not to mention their make-up and training, there seems to be some money behind this. It mostly has just one actor, however — and he’s good, don’t get me wrong — but when a film does the artsy focal on one lone-character story … is that an artistic thing or lack-of-funding thing?
So, the story starts out with this hipsterish guy in Paris showing up at his now ex-girlfriend’s big house-party to get his most sacred of personal effects (cassette tapes with noise-music he’s made) when she does the “Let’s Be Friends” thing with her new boyfriend with a better beard wrapped around her like corndog breading.
When she insists that he ought to stick-around and hang out (AKA brushing him off), hipster ex-boyfriend goes pensive and waits around for his stuff instead of dude’ing up, asking for his STUFF and NOW so he can GTF out of there and on with his sappy life. He locks himself in one of her rooms and falls asleep. When he wakes up the next morning he leaves the room to find that her flat is a wreck. He seems to be thinking “It must have been some night … but can I get my STUFF now and get on with my life, PLEASE.” Then come the zombies, he’s apparently the only one alive, and he locks himself in the building — surviving on the former tenants’ food stocks and a shotgun with an endless supply of ammo. But that’s only the beginning of the story …
The film then becomes a touchy-feely interpersonal-view of one guy’s loneliness. In other words, it’s “Home Alone” but with far less laughs, more zombies, and one bought of shaving.
So was The Night Eats The World a
bad, okay, or a great film?
The DVD box touts on the cover …
“The most innovative zombie movie since Shaun Of The Dead“
– Indiewire
I’m not buying it! In content these are two very different films; in context … yeah, okay …. maybe. The quotes on the back of the case by Bloody Disgusting, AV Club, and Dread Central range from “possibly accurate” to “I think somebody got bribed”.
The film description on the back of the DVD case is blaughze’, poorly written, and arguably inaccurate. To me, the title doesn’t apparently have anything to do with the story. The promotional photos make this look like more of a straightforward zombie-fight gore-fest when in reality it’s more of … I don’t know, an art film?!?
In the end, all I can say about The Night Eats The World is … is it “Good”, yes …. but is it “Great” …. sorry, no. I think you’re better off getting a copy of my book followed by making some cookies, and re-watching Shaun Of The Dead