Bullet Points: Wyrmwood: Apocalypse
If you are going to make a bat-shit crazy movie with zombie-driven cars and people getting their guts ripped from their bodies then I want director Kiah Roache-Turner in charge of the chaos!
Put on your best blood-splattered hazmat suit and lace up your ass-kicking boots cause I have a review of the brand new goretastic flick from the Land Down Under. Wyrmwood: Apocalypse is now available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital from 101 Films.
Synopsis: In a zombie-infested Australian wasteland, soldier Rhys (Luke McKenzie) has dedicated his life to tracking and capturing survivors for the Surgeon General in hopes of finding a cure.
- Return of the Mack: You can’t go wrong with opening your film with a blood-soaked zombie queen ripping people to shreds. Bianca Bradey and Jay Gallagher reprise their roles as Brooke and Barry, siblings who somehow survived the events of the first film but not without some issues. Brooke is now fighting to control the virus inside her and must drink vials of blood to keep from losing total control. As you might guess, it leads to a few thrilling scenes and more than one hangry outburst.
- New Blood: Along with Brooke and Barry are sisters Maxi (Shantae Barnes-Cowan) and Grace (Tasia Zalar). The two are taken up with the other siblings but find themselves estranged after one of Brooke’s vicious outburts. Grace is the other of the two but ends up spending a majority of the film out of action.
- Following the Science: Whether you’re in the zombie apocalypse or not, listening to the crazed lunatic in the blood-drenched hazmat suit might not be the best of ideas. One could say that it’s this so called “Surgeon” (along with The Colonel) that is making it so damned difficult to stay alive out there.
- I’m a Survivor: Returning to Wyrmwood: Apocalypse from the original film is Luke McKenzie. While his character was totally and utterly annihilated in the first movie he comes back in the form of his twin brother who has vengeance on his mind. He’s by far the coolest new character in the film for me as we get to see a bit of his day-to-day activities. He’s something of a diy-er but with zombies fueling those objects around the house that need a little extra oomph. It’s his mission and his work with the Colonel that keeps them with a constant flow of test subjects for their experiments.
- Evil F*cks: Most zombie movies don’t have you rooting for the zombies by the end but Wyrmwood isn’t exactly MOST other zombie movies. We are slowly learning that the military and the scientists responsible for solving this crisis aren’t doing much of anything to cure or to stop it. What this does do, however, is give us a pretty steady supply of people to watch getting eaten and ripped to pieces. Director Kiah Roache-Turner might not be a big name in the horror/action community but he damn-well should be.
- Rad cars and steel bars: Fighting back against overwhelming odds while still trying to protect yourself from becoming zombie food isn’t easy. It takes a level of discipline and an ingenuity to survive in almost any situation that you might find. Our heroes claw, scratch, and bite their way through more than one pickle and it is satisfying that many of their escapes and triumphs are real crowd pleasers.
The Verdict: Wyrmwood: Apocalypse is a film that I have been waiting on for some time. It seems like I reviewed the original Wyrmwood a decade ago and this second installment has taken more than one form since then. While it’s great to finally have this sequel to watch, it’s better that we get to see a continuation of the story and the characters from the original. It brings back Brooke and Barry while also introducing the two new sisters who have great moments of their own. If I could drop one critique on the film it would be that the villains for this film aren’t much different from those in the first. I’m hoping for another installment in this series and I would love for our heroes to work their way up the bad guy chain of command a bit and get to someone more important. Until then, though, I’ll be more than happy to watch another stellar picture from our friends in Australia.
