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Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard
Starz / Anchor Bay // Unrated // February 3, 2015
List Price: $22.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Okay, okay, the "elephant's graveyard" in the title is just a metaphor. Zombie Killers may not have any undead pachyderms stomping around, but you do get to see fracking-spawned zombies being gunned down by a squad of paintballers, and that definitely counts for something.
As far as the few dozen survivors banded together in Elwood know, they might as well be all that's left. Some unseen force has infected seemingly everyone and everything the world over, animating the lifeless corpses of its victims and ravaging civilization in the process. The occasional straggler stumbles in, if only to report that yet another outpost has fallen, but that's essentially where the world ends. There are three reasons Elwood still stands. First is the rigorous testing of food and water to prevent the infection from seizing hold of their community. Second is the "eviction" of anyone suffering from the early signs of this contagion. They're offered the choice between excommunication and a mercy killing, but in practice, the end result is most always a bullet through the head. Elwood is protected further by the "Zombie Killers", a squad of teenagers and twentysomethings that gun down the undead that wander too close to camp and are also responsible for bringing desperately needed supplies back to the camp. These tactics have kept Elwood "safe" so far, but a wave of destruction is coming that could bring a brutal, bloody end to the community...that is, if Elwood doesn't tear itself apart first.
If Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard were a more traditional gutmuncher, this would be the part of the review where I'd start rattling off the central characters and the ways in which they help shape the story. I can't even come close, and that's part of where Zombie Killers goes off the rails. At the core of the movie is a community, one that's endured because they've made decisions that no one else could, would, or arguably even should. Zombie Killers certainly boasts a cast large enough to stand in for an entire town. It's just that Elwood is so fragmented that it never really feels as if everyone is part of a community...just pockets of people whose paths occasionally cross. I get the sense that Elwood is meant to achieve something similar to what Stephen King has with Castle Rock, where the town is a character in its own right, but it doesn't really come together. There are so many characters that it's a struggle to remember the names of more than a handful. The movie's focus is scattered in so many different directions that hardly anyone has a chance to make much of an impact. Dee Wallace's Sharon cancer plight can only be so affecting when her time on-screen is limited to a few short minutes. Toni (Mischa Barton) is the first member of the community to become pregnant, but that hint of the potential future of humanity has to share screentime with the brawls over who the father is and her marriage to a much-older man wielding more than his share of dark secrets. The slasher fanatic in me cackles with joy whenever I see Felissa Rose here as a cult-like religious leader, but she's kept too far off on the periphery to meaningfully impact the plot. Though I'm more of a fan of his previous direct-to-video zombie outing, The Mad, Billy Zane definitely makes the greatest impression of any of the cast as the leader of the Zombie Killers. Those are the biggest names but just a sliver of the sprawling ensemble. There are far too many other characters and subplots to list here, and they generally just get in the way. It doesn't help that as proud as low budget auteur Harrison Smith is of his repertory cast, several really shaky performances drag the movie down.
Zombie Killers is so overstuffed that the drama among the living doesn't have a chance to work, let alone the havoc wrought by the undead. In a lot of ways, that makes sense. Much like The Walking Dead and Romero's iconic work, its zombies are more of a force of nature that looms in the background, with other survivors posing the greatest threat. I appreciate that approach in concept, but the undead are so marginal for the overwhelming majority of Zombie Killers that I'm not sure I even want to classify it as a zombie flick. The undead don't make their first appearance in the movie until the ten minute mark, and even then it's through the scope of a rifle, posing no immediate danger. Zombies aren't directly responsible for anyone's death until ten minutes before the end credits start their upward crawl. There's not a single on-screen kill by the undead. There's nothing even close until 85 minutes in (!), when a horde of corpses shamble towards a group of people, the camera tilts away, and screams bellow out. Throughout the chaotic final moments of Zombie Killers, several poor bastards are encircled by the undead, but whatever happens next is left entirely to the imagination. There's no gore whatsoever and very little blood. Zombie Killers is unrated, but if not for a hasty surgical operation, I'm pretty sure it'd be a very soft PG-13...something that could air on Syfy on a Sunday afternoon with few-to-no changes. Though this is largely by design -- writer/director Harrison Smith has said that Zombie Killers aims for "survival action" more than anything else -- don't go into this expecting a traditional horror flick. For what it's worth, though, the movie's zombies diverge in numerous different ways from the Romero handbook, and that very different tack is greatly appreciated. (In fact, the greatest inspiration taken from Romero is sociopolitical commentary.) There are several sequences where my eyes widened and a smile crept across my face as the movie would do something intriguingly unique with zombie lore. Part of me is chomping at the bit to say more, but that'd spoil some of the best elements of Zombie Killers, and that's no good for anyone.
Zombie Killers has ambition to spare but doesn't manage to stick the landing. The undead are so infrequently seen and so rarely pose a direct threat that it doesn't work on any pulse-pounding action level. The titular 'Zombie Killers' are introduced playing paintball, not by gunning down hordes of gutmunchers, and that's kind of dramatically inert. It's post-modern to a fault, too frequently comparing what's unfolding to other zombie flicks, and a sequence where the squad starts aggressively quoting random movies isn't nearly as fun as it's clearly intended to be. The story is so overstuffed and unfocused that it feels as if Smith plopped a 300 page screenplay on someone's desk, an exasperated producer reminded him that they only have a few weeks and however many hundreds of thousands of dollars to make this sucker, so Smith started ripping out pages a fistful at a time. If Zombie Killers had the resources to match what I suspect its original vision may have been, or if its scope and focus had been tightened significantly, this could've been something really remarkable. The inspired camerawork, distinctive zombies, and some exceptional choices in locations hint at what could have been. The middle ground it stumbles into instead is too uneven to warrant a purchase sight-unseen. An interesting misfire but difficult to recommend beyond a rental, despite the very appealing $9.99 sticker price at Amazon and Best Buy as I write this. Rent It.
Release Notes
Although the DVD release of Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard is shambling onto store shelves everywhere on February 3rd, this Blu-ray disc is exclusive to Best Buy for a few months. It looks like this high-def release goes wide on May 5th.
Video
Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard is a bit erratic visually, and I'm sure a lot of that is just an ambitious, cinematic eye colliding head-on with the constraints of time and budget. In close-to-medium shots when the camera has plenty of light to play with, the image is pretty much always razor-sharp and richly detailed. More dimly-lit sequences -- particularly interiors -- tend to look kind of thin, milky, and wispy by comparison. Zombie Killers unleashes a number of sweeping panoramic shots that in so many ways are skillfully executed, yet they're often noticeably lacking in crispness and clarity. One of the featurettes on this disc touches briefly on the attention paid to Zombie Killers' palette. I'm not sure how much that intent is reflected in the final product, but much of the saturation has been drained from the movie's colors. I'm sure that's meant to reflect the story's dour, downbeat tone, but the emphasis on dull greens, browns, yellows, and grays quickly feels rather stale. Part of this too is personal preference, I know, but the overly digital look to the photography saps away some of the cinematic sheen that Zombie Killers is aiming for. Don't get thrown off by what may read like an endless laundry list of complaints, though. Despite some of its rough edges, Zombie Killers is an otherwise nicely polished production boasting some gleamingly sharp high-def photography, and you definitely wouldn't want to settle for DVD here.
As for as the rest of the technical bullet points...? 2.39:1 aspect ratio. AVC encode. BD-25 disc.
Audio
The aural end of Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard is even more mixed. This 16-bit Dolby TrueHD soundtrack is technically in 5.1 but might as well be straightahead stereo. Bass response is modest at best, never really threatening to rattle the room even in the movie's most chaotic moments. Outside of reinforcing the score, the sound design struggles to figure out what to do with the surrounds. Pretty much all of the atmospherics are limited to the front channels. There are so many sequences with chirping cicadas in the background, for instance, and even those are entirely rooted up front. At one point, a crack of gunfire rings out in the cavernous remains of a fracking site. The reverb of the gunshot, the rocks that tumble afterwards, the moans of untold legions of the undead that follow: this is a sequence tailor-made to seize full advantage of every available channel, yet again, the surrounds are dead silent. Dialogue isn't rendered as well as it ought to be, coming through somewhat harshly and strained. It's not painful to listen to or anything quite that extreme, but pumped through both my home theater and through a reasonably nice pair of headphones, dialogue reproduction is below par. This just isn't a movie mixed with home theater rigs in mind.
There aren't any alternate soundtracks or audio commentaries this time around. Subtitles are limited to English (SDH) and Spanish.
Extras
The Final Word
Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard isn't just another direct-to-video gutmuncher mindlessly retracing Romero's footsteps. This is a movie that defiantly sets out to accomplish something different, and it's propelled by a number of concepts that are impressively large in size and scope. As worthy of respect as that is, Zombie Killers' reach exceeds its grasp. Such an endless list of characters are piled on that most everyone is underserviced, something that's not helped by the wildly uneven abilities of the cast. Elwood is more of a loose concept that people talk about rather than anything that feels like an actual community. Up until the final reel, there are so few of the undead skulking around that Zombie Killers doesn't exactly live up to its title. This is a movie that'd benefit from either being a lot bigger or a lot smaller. As it is, Zombie Killers feels like it was meant to be a sprawling epic, one that was too quickly whittled down to fit this runtime and budget, and the end result is sort of the worst of both worlds. Rent It.
) |
| [click on the thumbnail to enlarge] |
As far as the few dozen survivors banded together in Elwood know, they might as well be all that's left. Some unseen force has infected seemingly everyone and everything the world over, animating the lifeless corpses of its victims and ravaging civilization in the process. The occasional straggler stumbles in, if only to report that yet another outpost has fallen, but that's essentially where the world ends. There are three reasons Elwood still stands. First is the rigorous testing of food and water to prevent the infection from seizing hold of their community. Second is the "eviction" of anyone suffering from the early signs of this contagion. They're offered the choice between excommunication and a mercy killing, but in practice, the end result is most always a bullet through the head. Elwood is protected further by the "Zombie Killers", a squad of teenagers and twentysomethings that gun down the undead that wander too close to camp and are also responsible for bringing desperately needed supplies back to the camp. These tactics have kept Elwood "safe" so far, but a wave of destruction is coming that could bring a brutal, bloody end to the community...that is, if Elwood doesn't tear itself apart first.
If Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard were a more traditional gutmuncher, this would be the part of the review where I'd start rattling off the central characters and the ways in which they help shape the story. I can't even come close, and that's part of where Zombie Killers goes off the rails. At the core of the movie is a community, one that's endured because they've made decisions that no one else could, would, or arguably even should. Zombie Killers certainly boasts a cast large enough to stand in for an entire town. It's just that Elwood is so fragmented that it never really feels as if everyone is part of a community...just pockets of people whose paths occasionally cross. I get the sense that Elwood is meant to achieve something similar to what Stephen King has with Castle Rock, where the town is a character in its own right, but it doesn't really come together. There are so many characters that it's a struggle to remember the names of more than a handful. The movie's focus is scattered in so many different directions that hardly anyone has a chance to make much of an impact. Dee Wallace's Sharon cancer plight can only be so affecting when her time on-screen is limited to a few short minutes. Toni (Mischa Barton) is the first member of the community to become pregnant, but that hint of the potential future of humanity has to share screentime with the brawls over who the father is and her marriage to a much-older man wielding more than his share of dark secrets. The slasher fanatic in me cackles with joy whenever I see Felissa Rose here as a cult-like religious leader, but she's kept too far off on the periphery to meaningfully impact the plot. Though I'm more of a fan of his previous direct-to-video zombie outing, The Mad, Billy Zane definitely makes the greatest impression of any of the cast as the leader of the Zombie Killers. Those are the biggest names but just a sliver of the sprawling ensemble. There are far too many other characters and subplots to list here, and they generally just get in the way. It doesn't help that as proud as low budget auteur Harrison Smith is of his repertory cast, several really shaky performances drag the movie down.
Zombie Killers is so overstuffed that the drama among the living doesn't have a chance to work, let alone the havoc wrought by the undead. In a lot of ways, that makes sense. Much like The Walking Dead and Romero's iconic work, its zombies are more of a force of nature that looms in the background, with other survivors posing the greatest threat. I appreciate that approach in concept, but the undead are so marginal for the overwhelming majority of Zombie Killers that I'm not sure I even want to classify it as a zombie flick. The undead don't make their first appearance in the movie until the ten minute mark, and even then it's through the scope of a rifle, posing no immediate danger. Zombies aren't directly responsible for anyone's death until ten minutes before the end credits start their upward crawl. There's not a single on-screen kill by the undead. There's nothing even close until 85 minutes in (!), when a horde of corpses shamble towards a group of people, the camera tilts away, and screams bellow out. Throughout the chaotic final moments of Zombie Killers, several poor bastards are encircled by the undead, but whatever happens next is left entirely to the imagination. There's no gore whatsoever and very little blood. Zombie Killers is unrated, but if not for a hasty surgical operation, I'm pretty sure it'd be a very soft PG-13...something that could air on Syfy on a Sunday afternoon with few-to-no changes. Though this is largely by design -- writer/director Harrison Smith has said that Zombie Killers aims for "survival action" more than anything else -- don't go into this expecting a traditional horror flick. For what it's worth, though, the movie's zombies diverge in numerous different ways from the Romero handbook, and that very different tack is greatly appreciated. (In fact, the greatest inspiration taken from Romero is sociopolitical commentary.) There are several sequences where my eyes widened and a smile crept across my face as the movie would do something intriguingly unique with zombie lore. Part of me is chomping at the bit to say more, but that'd spoil some of the best elements of Zombie Killers, and that's no good for anyone.
) |
| [click on the thumbnail to enlarge] |
Zombie Killers has ambition to spare but doesn't manage to stick the landing. The undead are so infrequently seen and so rarely pose a direct threat that it doesn't work on any pulse-pounding action level. The titular 'Zombie Killers' are introduced playing paintball, not by gunning down hordes of gutmunchers, and that's kind of dramatically inert. It's post-modern to a fault, too frequently comparing what's unfolding to other zombie flicks, and a sequence where the squad starts aggressively quoting random movies isn't nearly as fun as it's clearly intended to be. The story is so overstuffed and unfocused that it feels as if Smith plopped a 300 page screenplay on someone's desk, an exasperated producer reminded him that they only have a few weeks and however many hundreds of thousands of dollars to make this sucker, so Smith started ripping out pages a fistful at a time. If Zombie Killers had the resources to match what I suspect its original vision may have been, or if its scope and focus had been tightened significantly, this could've been something really remarkable. The inspired camerawork, distinctive zombies, and some exceptional choices in locations hint at what could have been. The middle ground it stumbles into instead is too uneven to warrant a purchase sight-unseen. An interesting misfire but difficult to recommend beyond a rental, despite the very appealing $9.99 sticker price at Amazon and Best Buy as I write this. Rent It.
Release Notes
Although the DVD release of Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard is shambling onto store shelves everywhere on February 3rd, this Blu-ray disc is exclusive to Best Buy for a few months. It looks like this high-def release goes wide on May 5th.
Video
Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard is a bit erratic visually, and I'm sure a lot of that is just an ambitious, cinematic eye colliding head-on with the constraints of time and budget. In close-to-medium shots when the camera has plenty of light to play with, the image is pretty much always razor-sharp and richly detailed. More dimly-lit sequences -- particularly interiors -- tend to look kind of thin, milky, and wispy by comparison. Zombie Killers unleashes a number of sweeping panoramic shots that in so many ways are skillfully executed, yet they're often noticeably lacking in crispness and clarity. One of the featurettes on this disc touches briefly on the attention paid to Zombie Killers' palette. I'm not sure how much that intent is reflected in the final product, but much of the saturation has been drained from the movie's colors. I'm sure that's meant to reflect the story's dour, downbeat tone, but the emphasis on dull greens, browns, yellows, and grays quickly feels rather stale. Part of this too is personal preference, I know, but the overly digital look to the photography saps away some of the cinematic sheen that Zombie Killers is aiming for. Don't get thrown off by what may read like an endless laundry list of complaints, though. Despite some of its rough edges, Zombie Killers is an otherwise nicely polished production boasting some gleamingly sharp high-def photography, and you definitely wouldn't want to settle for DVD here.
As for as the rest of the technical bullet points...? 2.39:1 aspect ratio. AVC encode. BD-25 disc.
Audio
The aural end of Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard is even more mixed. This 16-bit Dolby TrueHD soundtrack is technically in 5.1 but might as well be straightahead stereo. Bass response is modest at best, never really threatening to rattle the room even in the movie's most chaotic moments. Outside of reinforcing the score, the sound design struggles to figure out what to do with the surrounds. Pretty much all of the atmospherics are limited to the front channels. There are so many sequences with chirping cicadas in the background, for instance, and even those are entirely rooted up front. At one point, a crack of gunfire rings out in the cavernous remains of a fracking site. The reverb of the gunshot, the rocks that tumble afterwards, the moans of untold legions of the undead that follow: this is a sequence tailor-made to seize full advantage of every available channel, yet again, the surrounds are dead silent. Dialogue isn't rendered as well as it ought to be, coming through somewhat harshly and strained. It's not painful to listen to or anything quite that extreme, but pumped through both my home theater and through a reasonably nice pair of headphones, dialogue reproduction is below par. This just isn't a movie mixed with home theater rigs in mind.
) |
| [click on the thumbnail to enlarge] |
There aren't any alternate soundtracks or audio commentaries this time around. Subtitles are limited to English (SDH) and Spanish.
Extras
- Featurettes (15 min.; HD): No commentary, no slipcover, no DVD, and no digital copy code or anything like that. The extras on Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard are limited to three featurettes, each clocking in right at five minutes in length. First up, the three guys behind Bloodbath and Beyond visit the set of Zombie Killers, although it seems to be pushing viewers to their YouTube channel more than anything else. A catch-all behind the scenes piece is little more than the cast and crew noting how impressed they were by the screenplay and how much they enjoyed working on the movie. These two featurettes are earnest and likeable enough, but they don't have anything all that substantial to offer. Of far more interest is the featurette that delves into the look of Zombie Killers: ensuring that this movie's zombies stand out from the rest of the undead hordes, the gradually escalating arsenal to take down the undead, and how its Western-inspired visuals play with color.
The Final Word
Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard isn't just another direct-to-video gutmuncher mindlessly retracing Romero's footsteps. This is a movie that defiantly sets out to accomplish something different, and it's propelled by a number of concepts that are impressively large in size and scope. As worthy of respect as that is, Zombie Killers' reach exceeds its grasp. Such an endless list of characters are piled on that most everyone is underserviced, something that's not helped by the wildly uneven abilities of the cast. Elwood is more of a loose concept that people talk about rather than anything that feels like an actual community. Up until the final reel, there are so few of the undead skulking around that Zombie Killers doesn't exactly live up to its title. This is a movie that'd benefit from either being a lot bigger or a lot smaller. As it is, Zombie Killers feels like it was meant to be a sprawling epic, one that was too quickly whittled down to fit this runtime and budget, and the end result is sort of the worst of both worlds. Rent It.
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