Yes, I am including Breach (2020, also titled Anti-Life) in my zombie film reviews. WHY? Because, by today’s zombie film standards, this fits the model … well, not any worse than Billy Elliot.
Around the year 2242 A.D., Earth is facing an extinction level event. 300,000 survivors are selected to board a spaceship called the Ark (meanwhile 19 billion people are left behind for the big bye-bye). This ship will take them to a planet to be newly colonized, which will be called New Earth. Extinction level event, Ark, New Earth — yeah, I know, real inventive. Shortly into the multi-month trip, a saboteur releases something on board to kill off the crew and 300K passengers in hypersleep. This wormy slug thing kills people, infects them, and turns the dead in to reanimated (<– SEE, zombie film!) killer monsters.
I’ll stop there because I hate spoilers.
I picked up on Breach from folks talking about it online. Folks seemed to either love it or hate it. It’s sci-fi, Bruce Willis and Thomas Jane are the only recognizable stars — ehh — I had to watch it! So far as I could tell this was a moderately budgeted film (that flopped in the theaters, but it was released just as COVID-19 restrictions were being loosened) that takes you by surprise. It might not have been spectacular, but I thought it was pretty good. As zombie films go, understanding that it might be a zombie film … I’d give it a Yellow Puss rating.
This is what a dentist sees following Hallowe’en weekend…
The Return of the Living Dead III (1993) was neither a terrible or great zombie movie, so I rate it Yellow Puss. But first, what happened…
A teen uses an Army chemical to revive his dead girlfriend after a motorcycle accident.
Okay, it was a little more complex than that. Government scientists are trying to use the 2-4-5 Trioxin substance from previous films to re-animate the dead for military use. Curt, the teenage son of the program director, comes to learn of the process. Later he and his girlfriend, Julie, get into an accident while riding his motorcycle — during which she dies. Grief-stricken, Curt uses some Trioxin to bring Julie back to life. He then helps Julie deal with her new existence as military agents and local gang members try to track them down — and Julie becomes … Hungry for BRAINS.
Trust us, we’re from the government.
The Return of the Living Dead III bears little resemblance to its predecessors — for better and for worse. It drops the comedy in the previous films, replacing it with horror, science fiction, and romance. The Trioxin substance is carried over, but with different effects than in the previous films. These zombies infect their victims by biting them whereas in the previous films only exposure to Trioxin (as a gas or in exposed water) could turn a corpse into a zombie.
Remember at the beginning of this post where I wrote that I viewed this as neither a terrible or great Zombie movie? It was campy, it was made for around $2M and flopped at the US box office making only $54,207, and much of the delivery could have been better timed.
To its credit however…. the film offered a few a few new things to me from zombie films.
If you have read my other posts you know that I generally dislike when Z-films make cognizant zombies. In The Return of the Living Dead III the film presents a reasonable way that a zombie could have though, could have awareness, and could speak.
One of the main characters — Julie, played by Mindy Clarke or better known as Melinda Clarke — becomes the zombie, and the story follows her experience. Instead of an anonymous mass of zombies being a looming threatening presence that occasionally comes around to move the story along, this zombie is always present and is not exactly the ‘evil’ in the mix of the story. There are other zombie films I am aware of that follow a main-character zombie, however I have not yet seen one of these.
The zombie is female and remains (well, more or less) attractive. She has awareness of her past and present emotions, and that she has started having problems with sensing any sensation when she touches something. In her confusion she begins to modify her body with first small and then large piercings (which was all the rage yet around that time) which ultimately she can use as weapons.
Yes, Ms. Nandi!
Also if you have read my other posts you know that I make commentary on gratuitous displays of women’s’ breasts. Let’s be clear on something here …. it’s not that I mind or dislike women’s breasts — being a heterosexual male, I prefer them. Gratuitous display of women’s breasts are common in zombie films BECAUSE IT TENDS TO HELP SELL TICKETS in a genre that is often low-budget and not as attractive to ticket-buying audience members. Seeing a lot of these films, I’ve seen a lot of these breasts, and it just gets old — okay?!? That said….
Ms. Nandi says DON’T MESS WITH MS. NANDI OR HER PEOPLE!!!
In The Return of the Living Dead III you see Julie/Melinda Clarke’s 24 year-old human and zombie breasts. Rare, if ever, have I seen female zombie breasts. As zombies go, they weren’t disgusting. As humans go …. uh, yeah, better still. (And if you REALLY need to see Julie/Melinda Clarke’s zombie breasts, FINE, here ya go … ya wanker.)
Now that that’s over with…
She played a dead chick in Firefly “Heart Of Gold” too
Now, you might be asking yourself “Who is Melinda Clarke?” and/or “Why is BagpiperDon drawing so much attention to this chick?!?” The answer to that is simple — she may be the only person from this film who made it ANYWHERE in the TV/film industry. Quite frankly, I didn’t recognize her in this Return of the Living Dead. I know her from a number of things — I’ve seen her, recognized her, but I’ve never known who she is. I know Melinda Clarke from the 2002/03 Firefly TV series as Nandi “Heart of Gold”. I’ve seen her as Lady Heather in CSI. Any time I’ve seen her she’s played stable-footed woman who is a palpable presence.
Okay, so if you’ve looked at at my blog at all — and if you haven’t I wouldn’t be surprised — you know that when it comes to movies, most of my thing is reviewing zombie films …. and occasionally movies that I think are important for musicians/artists to view. As much as I get a kick out of Z-films, I am as much or more of a fan of Sci-Fi. Kill Command
I got my hands on Kill Command by accident — call it a happy accident. When I go to my local library looking for films, I have a habit — I check the Sci-Fi section, followed by Action, then usually Westerns, and then whatever else. The organization at the library strikes me as weird sometimes when it comes to films — this was listed-as and filed-in Action … which it is an Action film but in my mind it’s Sci-Fi before that. Whatever … I watch every zombie film I can get my hands on, so of course — I took Kill Command home!
You know when you’ve watched all the recent movies … you feel like there’s nothing to see and you have nothing to do … and you pick up some film to relax with even though it doesn’t look very promising … and as you get into the flick you expected to be a potboiler and suddenly you’re faced with the reality that the film is pretty durn FANTASTIC? And then the more you watch you feel like you’ve discovered some secret film that your friends don’t know about because usually all you see is HolloWood or American films and pretty much miss everything that comes out of Europe. Yeah, if you’re a Sci-Fi fan, that’s Kill Command!
A glimpse into the near-future — placing your order at a fast-food joint…
KILL COMMAND, also known as IDENTIFY …
… takes you into a technologically advanced near future. The Harbinger Corporation supplies the military with warfare A.I. systems. A programming anomaly has been discovered at an undisclosed island — the Harbinger I Training Facility. A scientific specialist has been sent in with a team of six American marines — all of whom have been assigned to a two-day training mission.
As the night and following day unfolds, they discovery that the team has been inserted into a coup de grace where the intelligent and flawed combat machines have taken over the facility … and are beginning to attack the team … and learn their human combat tactics.
Trust me, these guys are worse than unannounced visits by door-to-door religious fanatics.
The film was released on 13 May 2016 in the United Kingdom and received a limited screening in the US on 25 November 2016, ultimately receiving mixed to positive reviews. Here’s the thing, my fellow ‘Murcians — there are a lot of films outside of the U.S. that we are unaware of. In the world of film, the American/HolloWood arena is the big player — and not everything outside of that arena makes it in* …. and a lot of it is good material, too! Maybe “Kill Command” wouldn’t have been a huge film on the U.S. scene, but with the right marketing I think it would have gone over well. Instead, you heard it here … for free …. because I love Sci-Fi. (*Did you see the 2001 film “The 51st State” staring Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Carlyleand Meat Loaf? I was in Glasgow when it was out. We drove by a theater that displayed a movie poster for a flick I had never heard of. I was told two things — there are a lot of films made in Europe and I will never see this one in America. For that reason alone I thought to go see it while I was there, but I ended up seeing The Lord Of The Rings instead sitting in the worst movie theater seat in all of Scotland. Fortunately, the film did make it to America as “Formula 51“.)
No red shirts on this guy!
You had me at “GIANT KILLER ROBOTS”
Kill Command has everything Action Sci-Fi fans LOVE! A futuristic setting, advanced technology, soldiers with cybernetic enhancements, things blowing up, lotsa guns going PEW PEW PEW, and GIANTKILLERROBOTS. There’s even a cyborg! Oh, and a super-cool weird-techy vehicle like this…
I am currently 23 minutes into seeing this film for the first time. Frankly I’m not paying full attention — I’m busy on my laptop working to start my company (yeah … that’s all) — I am, however, forming a few first impressions. Without pulling any punches, I’m trying to figure out how to say that this film delivers … moreover it delivers where the re-make of Red Dawn flat out failed. Yes, I know, neither of the Red Dawn films were zombie flicks — that’s not the point.
I’m impressed by the depiction of chaos and survival once the invader have hit — in Red Dawn the U.S. being invaded by one or more foreign countries whereas in WWZ humanity world wide is being invaded by our favourite plague … ZOMBIES! My impression of the Red Dawn re-make is that it was crafted in part to grab the teeny-boppers who went nutz over hunky werewolves and love-lorn glittering vampires. In other words, the re-Red Dawn survival and tactics would have gotten the Wolverines killed.
Pretty freaky, eh?
In my mind WWZ does a good job of depicting post-catastrophe society and tactics necessary to survive. As Z-films go, this film clearly has money behind it. It gets off to a start quick, and then gives its set-up. The zombies have intense movement and drive which doesn’t seem to be explained (but like I said, I’m not giving it my full 84% focus), at least not as of yet.
I’ve been curious how this might play out; I haven’t read the book but I have heard some of the audio-book. Action, adventure, mystery. There is a journey, but not the typical journey. In a way the zombie chaos is worse than the survivor chaos.
Stylistically speaking, I quite like the movement look that the production achieved for the zombies. Time and time again you seem similar movements from zombies — but in this film not only did the film-makers find a different way for the zombies to move, it ties in with the zombies’ drive, how they work as zombies.
This may be the biggest (stand alone) zombie film made yet.
To avoid this, get to the airport WAY EARLY like your dad.
Yes, I am including Breach (2020, also titled Anti-Life) in my zombie film reviews. WHY? Because, by today’s zombie film standards, this fits the model … well, not any worse than Billy Elliot.
IMDb
Wikipedia
Rotten Tomatoes
The Return of the Living Dead III bears little resemblance to its predecessors — for better and for worse. It drops the comedy in the previous films, replacing it with horror, science fiction, and romance. The Trioxin substance is carried over, but with different effects than in the previous films. These zombies infect their victims by biting them whereas in the previous films only exposure to Trioxin (as a gas or in exposed water) could turn a corpse into a zombie.
One of the main characters — Julie, played by Mindy Clarke or better known as 
(*Did you see the 2001 film “
