UNDEAD

 

 

 

 

 
CAST & CREW__________

Director:
Peter & Michael Spierig (feature debut)

Screenwriter(s):
Peter & Michael Spierig (feature debut)

Cinematographer:
Andrew Strahorn (Spudmonkey)

Composer:
Cliff Bradley (debut)

Makeup Effects:
ARC FX

Actors:
Felicity Mason (Rene)
Mungo Mckay (Marion)
Rob Jenkins (Wayne)
Lisa Cunningham (Sallyanne)
Dirk Hunter (Harrison)
Emma Randall (Molly)

SYNOPSIS __________

Peaceful, rustic Berkeley is a charming fishing community where life is sweet and the people friendly. All that is about to change.

After losing her childhood farm to the bank, local beauty Rene decides to leave town and head for the big city. Suddenly, an avalanche of meteorites races through the sky, bombarding the town and bringing an otherworldly infection. Departing is going to be much more difficult than she had planned.

The living dead are awakened and Rene is now caught in a nightmare of zombies hungry for human flesh. She manages to find salvation in a small isolated farm house owned by the town loony, Marion. There she is met with four other desperate survivors. Together they battle their way through a plague of walking dead and discover that there is more transpiring than just an infection.

UNDEAD is a horror film in the vein of 'Night of the Living Dead' and 'The Evil Dead' and features an overflow of gore and visual effects to make any horror fan squirm with delight.

STORY SOURCE: Toronto Film Festival

Berkeley is a quaint little town where you can find good fishing and homemade pies. Life here is like living in a holiday postcard until a meteorite shower rips through a lazy summer day. The onslaught of space rocks brings a deadly plague that twists the happy citizens into zombies with insatiable appetites for human flesh.

Led by Rene, a beauty queen fallen from grace, a group of desperate survivors finds shelter in an old farmhouse owned by Marion, who was cast out of the town for telling weird tales of alien abduction. With an army of rotting corpses surrounding their sanctuary, our survivors count their ammo. When escape is within reach, a discovery sheds light on the epidemic: the infection is only the first step of a greater plan.

Springing from the imaginations of twin brothers Peter and Michael Spierig, Undead is an ambitious low-budget endeavour that succeeds on every level. With the zombie genre, there is no way to avoid certain obvious references and the Spierig brothers bow their heads in respect not only to George Romero, the Zombie King himself, but to the Princes of the domain, Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson – and even to the Court Jester of gunplay, John Woo. Undead is more splat-stick comedy than pure horror, with zombie fish, an insecure cop who spews the most inventive curses ever and re-animated torsos galore.

The groundwork for this tale was laid out in a trilogy of short films the brothers shot while in college in the mid-nineties – Attack of the Undead, Rampage of the Undead and Massacre of the Undead. After cutting their teeth on these and various other shorts, they went ahead with their first feature, producing and directing their tale of horrorific havoc in an equal partnership.

Zombie fans: forget Resident Evil. Replace that experience with Undead, a rollicking horror ride loaded with laughs and grue that threatens to slop out from the screen.

– Colin Geddes

Peter and Michael Spierig were born in Germany and reside in Brisbane, Australia. They started making films at the age of ten after discovering their father’s home movie camera. Both graduated from Queensland College of Art in Australia, Peter with a degree in film, Michael with a degree in graphic design. They have jointly directed dozens of television commercials, numerous music videos and more than fifteen short films, including their Undead Trilogy (94-96), The Garden (97) and the multiple award-winner The Big Picture (00). Undead (02) is their first feature.

 

DETAILS__________

Studio:
Lions Gate Films

Release Date:
July 1, 2005 (USA)
September 4, 2003 (Australia)
December 22, 2003 (DVD / VHS; Australia)

 

RELATED LINKS__________

"making of" video clips:
(scroll all the way down)

undeadmovie.com --- click here

Undead interview with
brothers/ directors,
Peter & Michael Spierig
joblo.com/arrow --- click here

ARC FX Official site (Make-up and Creature Effects):
arcfx.com.au --- click here

Composer, CLIFF BRADLE's Official site:
cliffbradley.com --- CLICK HERE

Cinematographer, ANDREW STRAHORN's Official site:
andystrahorn.com --- CLICK HERE

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