Zombeak Comes So Close to Culty Greatness and Yet Falls Short
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In Zombeak a great premise and over-the-top tone are hurt by issues with dubbing, sound quality, and lighting. I still recommend this quirky and fun little indie, though!
Written by James "Crypticpsych" Lasome
January 31, 2011
Buy on Amazon U.K.
ZombeakMovie Trailer
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Release: June 6, 2006 (US); March 1, 2010 (UK DVD)
Directed by: Sam Drog
Written by: Sam Drog
Starring:
Melissa K. Gilbert as Melissa
Daryl Wilcher as Leviathan
Tracy Yarkoni as Vascara
Adam Morris as Gideon
Barry Bishop as Samual
JimmyLee Smith as Max
One night in Cooters Restaurant's back alley, a waitress named Melissa (Gilbert) is making out with her boyfriend. A long black car pulls up holding four gothy Satanists: Gideon (Morris), Samual (Bishop), Vascara (Yarkoni), and their leader Leviathan (Wilcher). The group proceeds to unleash Samual's alternate violent personality "Lucy" on her boyfriend and kidnap Melissa. Their goal: to use Melissa in a Satanic ritual as this is the once-every-thirteen years night that Satan can rise to claim his bride and impregnate her with the Antichrist. The group are nearly successful but get interrupted by a group come to save Melissa, led by her boyfriend's policeman brother Max (Smith). Unfortunately, when Satan's plans are foiled, he has to find another option… and that chicken they sacrificed looks miiighty inviting.
The biggest issue with independent, low-budget filmmaking is that there's so many things that can go wrong. Sure, anyone can make a movie, but it's tough to make one well. Zombeak is, pardon the pun, an odd bird. It's by no means traditionally "bad". Point of fact, I loved the movie and would gladly watch the goofy little thing again. That being said, Zombeak has such massive technique flaws it's impossible to give it unreserved recommendation. By far, its biggest problem is sound�design. I honestly don't think I've ever seen a film with quite this bad a dubbing issue. It feels like they filmed the movie,
then reread all of the dialogue and matched it up. This would be bad enough, but then there's the fact that the audio quality of the dub varies wildly, particularly at the beginning of the film. While it's true that I sort of got used to it, it was still VERY distracting and hurt what are generally decent performances (particularly Gilbert's).
There's also a smaller issue with lighting that crops up from time to time. For instance, there's a scene where a character is supposed to be talking with another character. While you can clearly hear his voice and the actress apparently sees him, the area where he's coming from is so dark the viewer doesn't see him until the third time the camera cuts there. Also, I'm more than okay with the idea of a Satanic chicken, but I would have loved to be able to see it more clearly in shots. Finally, I got that the chicken was attacking, but there were times when it wasn't really clear what he was doing or what the aftermath was because of the darkness of the shot.
Still, I loved Zombeak and had a great time with it. This film features performances that aren't exactly Oscar worthy but are in keeping with the zany subject matter of the film. In particular, the Satanists hit a good blend of evil and a bit of humor (though Samual and his homemade pentacle shirt were a touch weird). Most of all, I want to see Tracy Yarkoni get more work. Her Vascara is, by far, the most interesting, engaging, well-realized performance in the movie. I get the feeling this is why the character's arc in the film is what it is… the director saw the same thing.
The script for Zombeak is well done considering the subject matter. It's not exactly easy to make a story of devil poultry both believable and funny. The script is filled with great one-liners and decently funny jokes. If the director had tried to take this totally seriously or go too far off the deep-end with his humor, he'd have hurt the overall product. By finding a decent zany balance, he keeps the tone where it needs to be and the film watchable.
Finally, the effects in Zombeak are serviceable and effective. The practical gore effects are pretty nice and definitely seem to have had a degree of work put into them. The chicken creature itself is decent as well. It'd probably never make it in a big-screen movie, but then it doesn't have to. The computer/digital effects are also fairly decent would be at home in a movie with a tiny bit bigger budget. I'm not a fan of the heavy usage of CGI black blood spurting up onto the screen, though. I tend to think they could've mixed something up that would've worked pretty well in its place at least some of the time.
Overall, I definitely recommend taking at a look at Zombeak as a party or midnight movie. It's fun, zany, and well-acted yet never takes itself too seriously or goes off the rails. I only wish the sound design and lighting had been better so I could rate this little film with a lot of heart a little higher. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to hope Zombeak 2 has better audio and see if there's a Tracy Yarkoni fan club.
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