resurrection game – another review risen from the grave

quotes from the movie:

“Bite you? In what way?”

“Don’t listen to her! She showers in the nude! In the NUDE!”

“Hey! I’m all I have!”

“Woman, listen to the fruitcake for a minute!”

“I was – Now I’m done. Now get me down!”

“Aim for the brain!”

Recently, the Couch of Screams interviewed Amy Lynn Best in regard to her work with Happy Cloud Pictures on the movie Resurrection Game. We also interviewed Mike Watt, who pioneered this little film (rummaging through my hard drive for THAT!).

Still in the pipeline, and completely lacking the social graces, Resurrection Game arrived on our porch in the form of a battered-looking videotape in dire need of watching.

Well, we threw the little bugger into our machine, and listened with a mix of glee and wonderment as the chuckly puppet known as Necro Phil eagerly warned us about the feature we would soon be watching. He almost sounded apologetic.

But we’re rough cuts here at the Couch ourselves, so we were not put off by this shaky attempt to put us off of our viewing pleasure. We were not moved one iota away from our grim path of fearsome determination. If anything, it only served to intrigue us more.

Not only that, we were also sent a comic book version of the infamous ‘basement scene’, and for that we were extremely grateful for. Especially as we’re slight comic book fans anyways.

Now, we should probably point out that, as Necro Phil said, the film is still in the editing stage. It’s still getting its sound effects, its colouring fixies (he had the correct terminology, but I’m a hack, not a puppet, so I know even less), and its other assorted bells, whistles, and dynamite stuff.

On the other hand, we had a raw and decidedly grimy looking film which looks as if we’ve just hit a mainline, and that mainline’s name is Texas Tea. Oil, that is.

You see, if I may be so bold, I might point out that Resurrection Game is a fun rollercoaster of blood, guts, zombie-killin’s and one of the best outfits this side of the universe, courtesy of Miss Best’s eager attempt to slip into something delightfully leatherish.

So, insane with anticipation, we ordered in some Thai Curry (I went for a cheeky red curry and some satay tofu for side dish on a sneaky bed of rice – mmmmm), and hauled out a bag of licorice we bought today at our city’s big Royal Show (a kind of fair), and settled in to be amused by the zany antics of a bunch of blokes with a handheld camera and some unfunny relatives shonkily dressed in Salvation Army throw-outs while tossing some brighter than bright red paint at each other in a spooky attempt to imitate the goremaster stylings of Fulci.

Unfortunately, we were disappointed. Because this one’s good.

Very good.

———-

Well, Necro Phil did a lot for me. The way he read out the credits, listing everyone’s names and such, and making the odd comment or two, well that just chuckled me up to start with. My vote’s for including this as the closing credits of the final cut. Mike, if you read this, it’s vital to the continuation of the species that you do so.

Then the movie began. It began with a modest little intro, setting up the scene for some background conspiracy theory plot, and weaving in the zombie threat quite nicely. Moving into the opening credits, we are treated to a trick used often in such movies, in that we get a whole lot of snippets of media outtakes, from Necro Phil’s appearing on his own show, to the stylish newspaper cutouts, and then the bit I was waiting for – Stuntbabe.

Yep, our own Jasi Lanier, getting grim and nasty with zombies as they invade her shot. She’s a reporter, you see, and the zombies keep messing up her shot. She goes all medieval on their butts, and it’s a pure delight to watch our favourite stuntgal karate-smashin’ ‘em up! Yay!

Getting into the film, you know you’re onto a pure winner especially when we’ve passed the hero’s introduction and come to a N.O.E recruitment advertisement. Hilarity! Go, Debbie Rochon!

Finally, the other moment we were all waiting for – Amy Lynn Best bursting onto the screen as Sister Mary Bliss, in her scene as a marriage guidance counselor. And, who’s that playing the wifey hung by the ceiling during Sister Mary’s unique, and completely shivery if you’re a pervy man like myself, and highly educational scene of marriage guidance?

Someone else who had us giggling was the strange choice of having Weird Al Yankovic wearing the costume and wig from his Eat It videoclip as the demented and absolutely the funniest exterminator alive, MacForman. No, seriously, people, he’s played by the the funkiest funkster of dunce, Bill Homan, who does a truly inspired performance which crosses Groucho Marx with Hannibal Lecter and brings up one of the funniest zombie-killin’ leather-wearin’ maniacs this side of Winnie the Pooh, and if you don’t think Winnie’s scary, then you really should talk to Tigger a bit more.

The action sequences in this film look a treat. Though some of them are obviously incomplete speed-soundwise, they look hellishly good indeed. The gushing blood and bone in the Basement Scene is to kill for. You’re really gonna love that scene for it’s good old zombie-murderin’ fun and games. The final action sequences in the film, too, are very sweet. There’s even a swordfight for those who dig that kind of fun. I know we do, and it’s not often you get a swordfight in a zombie flick.

Amy’s fight scenes are way-wicked. Hell, any fight scenes with chicks in skintight leather are cool, but Amy kicks ass like no other. Her kicks and spins and throat-slicey skills kept us wowing, and the fight she has with the man who won’t die (who keeps coming back like a cat with a hat), is one of our favourite fight scenes in the film. It’s only a pity that the last scene in which Bill spends his time having so much fun with a sword, was a pretty much no-show for poor Sister Bliss who spent the time in a puddle of her own blood. She was way too cool for that.

The plot to this one will definitely keep you going with it. Sure, conspiracy theories may seem cheesy, but this one doesn’t overly use it, and doesn’t make the mistake of trying to make you go “oooooh,” about the whole thing. It more or less just shrugs it off and goes with the fun and thrills of zombie-killing instead. Which is, I believe, the cheeky charm of the movie, in the end.

Yep, for a rough cut, this film looked crazy. It looked not at all like the kind of film you never expect to see again. Instead, this has all the makings of a truly remarkable little zombie flick which will no doubt inspire many more films of its kind. Mixing Night of the Living Dead with Terminator, Resurrection Game will keep you highly entertained.

If we had to find something bad to say, we’d only be able to say that the zombies could’ve been more threatening (although there was an awesome scene where the zombies “wake” from their shuffling in the basement to go like the borg at an optic fibre camera thingy – that was well worth the “woah, these guys are badass!”), and more destructive. Sister Mary could also have worn a nun hat – once at least, and she could have done with some more screentime. She and MacForman were too cool to waste on being background characters.

Finally, we had to say we loved the clone guy – he was nice and violently creepy. We loved the marriage counseling technique – go hard! We loved Stuntbabe. We loved Weird Al/Groucho Homan, and Amy Best’s costume definitely wins the Couch award for Costume of the year…

We also thought we heard the Groovie Ghoulies in there somewhere. Brainrobbers from Outer Space if we’re not mistaken. Nice choice. Please, keep that soundtrack. It works!

All in all, an awesome flick. Keep your peepers peeled, people. This one’s gonna scream!

the official site for resurrection game can be found here.

Tags: b-grade, couch of doom, fulci, movie reviews, review, zombies