Eaters: Rise of the Dead is a Grim and Gothic Look at the Zombie Apocalypse
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Eaters: Rise of the Dead is over the top in terms of dialogue, characters and setting and works a bit like live-action Anime.
Written by The Horror Czar, Don Sumner
July 7, 2011
Movie Trailer
Image Gallery
Release: June 13, 2011 (U.K. DVD)
Directed by: Luca Boni and Marco Ristori
Starring:
Rosella Elmi as Alexis
Guglielmo Favilla as Alen
Elisa Ferretti as Cristina
Riccardo Floris as Rudi
Fabiano Lioi as Fuhrer
Alex Lucchesi as Igor
Claudio Marmugi as Gyno
Igor (Alex Lucchesi) and Alen (Guglielmo Favilla) and soldiers in a world ravaged by zombie outbreak. Their benefactor, Gyno (Claudio Marmugi), is a scientist intent on studying the zombified remains of the lurking feasters in search of a cure, and because he controls the food and shelter he is able to direct the soldiers on missions to collect more and more zombie specimens to poke, prod and test.
Igor seems to comply with the wishes of the crazy scientist out of boredom and the desire to drink beer and kill things. Alen, on the other hand, has another motive; his lovely wife Cristina (Ellisa Ferretti) is one of a small number of “partially infected” – she is not quite herself, but did not die and become a zombie. Instead she exists in some sort of limbo and Gyno is certain that she is the key to an eventual cure. Alen will travel to the ends of the earth to help Gyno find a cure and return his lovely Cristina to her.
The soldier boys are sent on a long journey to collect additional experiment samples, and encounter a host of crazy characters along the way, including group of neo-Nazis led by a midget called “The Fuhrer”. Meanwhile Gyno continues to work on plans of his own, some known and others unknown.
Eaters: Rise of the Dead is the English title of this German film, called simply “Eaters” in its original festival releases. The subtitles are clear and easy to read, however, for English-speaking audiences and seem to bog down viewing a bit less than some other foreign language features.
The story is common, with a twist. The “zombie apocalypse begun by a viral outbreak, and now the world is in a shambles” has been done before, and will certainly be done again. The intrigue surrounding the surviving characters is the differentiator and what is found in Eaters: Rise of the Dead works just fine. Not earth shattering in it’s originality on the face, but certainly credible. Regarding originality though, it is not every film that highlights a midget zombie followed by a group of neo-Nazis who punish transgressions by staging hand to hand combat between the wrong-doer and a small gaggle of zombies. Good originally points for that strain in particular.
There are two very notable elements of Eaters: Rise of the Dead
that really set it apart. The first is the cinematography, relying
heavily on CGI backgrounds to create a surreal post-apocalyptic
environment. Although the result is sometimes a bit cartoonish and
grand, the effects are very well done and the film has the dark and
oppressive feeling that disaster has struck, leaving the world slowly
dying. Mad Max comes to
mind, another film which captured the
tone and feeling of a world that is no longer as we know it today,
though that one without the benefits of technological enhancement we
now use so liberally.
The second stand-out involves the characters themselves, both in action and in dialogue. The characters are big, sometimes huge, with grand gestures and emotional reactions which seem at first to be too outlandish to actually be possible in normal human interaction. The supporting characters demonstration these qualities most aggressively, often displaying exaggerated facial expressions, maniacal laughter, even crossing their eyes as they play “shoot the zombie in the head” behind the junkyard.
The combination of the setting and the characters should be completely distracting and move Eaters: Rise of the Dead into the realm of ridiculous farce… but they don’t. Instead the effect is of live-action Anime, or something very close to it. The Anime variety of Asian animation is often full of violent gore and outrageous visuals, and has become a genre in itself undoubtedly full of rules and techniques that are used often. Even without familiarity with this particular animation style the similarities between Anime and Eaters: Rise of the Dead is apparent. This is an interesting effect that becomes highly entertaining, once the strangeness wears off.
Eaters: Rise of the Dead is “presented by” Uwe Boll, possibly the most hated man in horror due to a string of horrific films which insulted the intelligence of horror fans throughout the United States, and around the world. The “legend” of Mr. Boll reached a climax when he challenged a crew of movie critics who had written badly about him to a boxing match, presumably as a publicity stunt. Unfortunately for those critics who attended, Boll didn’t have a stunt in mind, but a beating… and he has many successful years in a boxing ring under his belt. Boll was able to cause some pain with this stunt, but not repair his reputation. Boll’s contribution to Eaters: Rise of the Dead appears to be in name only, however, as he is credited with simply a “Special Thanks”.
Eaters: Rise of the Dead is a good and entertaining film that will be appreciated by Horror Freaks who do not mind subtitles. While this one will not end up on the classics shelf, the Anime-type methods and feel make for an interesting take on the end of the world.
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