Bullet Points: Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead
There are really only two ways to do a zombie movie; it’s either some sort of commentary on the human condition, complete with people crying and growing huge beards and whining about having to kill the infected. Or you have a movie that is just an excuse to watch people blow the heads off of other people with shotguns! I reviewed World War Z a couple weeks ago and had a few issues with it so I thought that I would give this Australian zombie flick a go. Follow me mate!
The Gist: As a zombie plague sweeps through Australia, two survivors attempt to make their way across the devastated land to rescue one man’s sister. They’ll have to survive not only the flesh-eating zombies but also the mysterious soldiers abducting people around the countryside.
The Cast: Having never seen any of these actors in a movie before I was very pleased with the performances. I guess I don’t keep up too much on Australian cinema but that’s something that I’m trying to remedy after my last couple viewings of films from Down Under. Jay Gallagher plays our main survivor and he’s looking for his cute sister Brooke played by Bianca Bradey. She spent most of the movie covered in blood but still managed to win my heart. She was most definitely not one to be messed with. The supported cast included Leon Burchill who was amazing, and also Keith Angius who left an impression in a short amount of time.
Luckily someone had all of these things readily available in their garage.
The Villain: As with most zombie movies, battling the undead is only one of the problems. They also have to deal with living assholes who are capturing people and experimenting on them with infected blood. Of course this means we have a few scenes with a mad scientist who dances around shoving syringes into people and wearing a replica Ghostbusters photon pack. I could have used a little more info on what exactly was going on with these guys but it’s hard for me to knock a zombie movie for giving me what I want; more dead zombies.
Are there any non-mad scientists?
The Action:Wyrmwood succeeds in this department where World War Z and countless other zombie movies and TV shows fail because it isn’t afraid to give us what we want; more death, more exploding heads, and less crybaby bullshit. Also, no one walks along train tracks for 9 straight hours (get on with it already!). But don’t think that just because there is some serious killing that Wyrmwood lacks originality. They do try to change up the same old zombie stuff from time to time and most of the changes I gladly welcomed. They didn’t spend half of the movie trying to explain why zombies were running around, hell, they mentioned it kind of in passing and I just accepted it and moved on. After seeing Undead several years ago and now Wyrmwood, I’m thinking those Aussies really know their zombie shit!
Now this is what I want out of my zombie films!
Take it Home:
- Director: This is Kiah Roache-Turner’s first full length film.
- Oi! Oi! Oi!: Wyrmwood and the Australian film Undead are in my top ten zombie films of all time.
- Zombie survival rule: Don’t go off and piss on your own.
- Favorite quote: “Barry, you got any stories?” “This morning I shot my wife and daughter with a nail gun. I don’t know how to make that into a story.”
- A real man’s garage: They somehow find the most stocked-up for the apocalypse garage in existence.
Rating: 3.75/5
