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How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 29 January 2015
This article is a review of WYRMWOOD.Seen at the Busan International Film Festival 2014. (For more information, click here.)
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“This morning I shot my wife and child with a nail gun,” Barry (Jay Gallagher)
The title supposedly refers to a biblical apocalypse. WYRMWOOD is too budget to be apocalyptic. This Australian zombie-comedy tries to jumble the rulebook; but while being gory genre fun, lacks scope and panache. Do we really need another addition to the patience-zapping undead genre? Even television’s THE WALKING DEAD is patchy (season two is a dreary dud). Let’s have a moratorium shall we filmmakers? Think of it in farming terms, where a field can be over-ploughed unless it is allowed to lie fallow.
At least the “zombie” word is used. How can the population, after the plethora of movie offerings, not know what the deceased returning to life as cannibalistic automatons are? Shooting stars falling to Earth, bringing a disease, and turning certain susceptible peeps into a new danger on the food chain, is the catalyst.
The title supposedly refers to a biblical apocalypse. WYRMWOOD is too budget to be apocalyptic. This Australian zombie-comedy tries to jumble the rulebook; but while being gory genre fun, lacks scope and panache. Do we really need another addition to the patience-zapping undead genre? Even television’s THE WALKING DEAD is patchy (season two is a dreary dud). Let’s have a moratorium shall we filmmakers? Think of it in farming terms, where a field can be over-ploughed unless it is allowed to lie fallow.
At least the “zombie” word is used. How can the population, after the plethora of movie offerings, not know what the deceased returning to life as cannibalistic automatons are? Shooting stars falling to Earth, bringing a disease, and turning certain susceptible peeps into a new danger on the food chain, is the catalyst.
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“Barry, there is someone in the kitchen,” wife Annie (Catherine Terracini), is not something you want to hear at night (even if your name isn’t Barry). Descending to investigate, a zombie has broken in and puts up quite a fight. Meanwhile, the lead’s sister, Brooke (Bianca Bradey), is defending herself in a garage.
Road and chase movie elements are thrown in as Brooke is captured by an annoyingly O.T.T. mad scientist, doing experiments to discover more about the disease - including infecting the heroine with zombie blood. They are meant to be in a truck, but it never has the jostle of movement about it.
Tension and mild carnage come in the form of Barry teaming up with some random survivors and heading to find sibling, while sister is searching for a means of escape. It’s Australia, so of course a cricket bat has to be used to dispatch a hungry lifeless assailant.
WYRMWOOD attempts to re-mythologise:
- Zombie breath is flammable and can be used as a fuel (they breathe?!),
- The new species are faster/stronger at night,
- Brooke, once infected, can control the undead through some sort of telekinesis.
As one types, one realises how brainless those narrative tweaks are.
What is also added to the negative column: Crass dialogue, the banal liberal use of the f-word, and Brooke having her cleavage cheaply on display; all pointing to a dearth of ideas. Physical humour and an indifference to rating make the runtime just about watchable.
Certainly not up there with more serious Oz-maggedon flicks: THE ROVER and the MAD MAX trilogy.
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