Thursday, April 19, 2012

Feeding the Masses (2004)

FEEDING THE MASSES - starring Billy Garberina (DVD)

Director: Richard Griffin
Writer: Trent Haaga
Synopsis: darkly satiric horror film that takes an acid look at the current state of the news media while a mysterious plague is bringing the dead back to life. A small group of news reporters and their military escort set out to tell the truth about what's happening in the world, despite the government's efforts to take control of the media.


A commentary on society using zombies...Holy George Romero!!

1) ACTING: The acting in this one was plausible at best, and sadly, the lead actor playing "Torch" really was over the top. He could act physically, had a lot of difficulty delivering his lines convincingly.

2) PRODUCTION: This was shot on digital video, which did help it look better than a lot of low budget movies out there. Unfortunately, the commercials and little shorts that pop up throughout the movie are filmed in cheesy real life. The soundtrack was good; adding a sense of genuine creepiness and suspense to the film. Sadly, this movie was seriously hurt by the budgetary limitations. Minimal blood and gore, minimal zombie make up, sub-par props and low quality CGI make this movie seem worse than it it.

3) THE ZOMBIES: Nothing new brought to the zombie genre. The zombies in this one are typical Romero Shamblers and they do what zombies do best...kill and eat. I felt that the zombies here were actually secondary to the movie.

4) THE CAUSE: A contagion called the Lazarus Virus.

5) NUDITY: Wait til you see the sex show...

FINAL: Looking back at this movie, I have to applaud the makers of this movie for taking a different approach to doing a zombie movie. The only thing that really saves this from being typical low budget indie zombie fare, is the plot. The people behind this could have easily hashed out another "virus hits town, people die and turn into zombies, a group of unlikely heroes makes their way to safety." But they chose to make a statement about how the media and government is involved in our lives during times of crisis. And on that level, I feel that they have succeeded. I would really like to see this remade with a serious budget that could effectively handle the social satire and commentary that is being made by the producers.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5

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