lemon_magic
Hmmm, I saw the director actually respond to comments on the discussion boards, and I'm sure he's not a bad person, so I will keep this "civil".Part of my problem with this was that I was hoping from the title to see "El Santo/Luchadore/Mexican Wrestler" style silliness, but what I got was straight horror with a few comedic elements, done on the cheap.There were still elements of a good story in here...although I can't help but wonder why, if the guy had so much money and power, "Angus" didn't just hire a hit-man/sniper to kill "Shane" for revenge. Selling your soul to the devil so you can raise the dead and kill a whole bunch of innocent people along with your target seems to be the long way around. The story is all over the place, the pacing is off, most of the wrestlers are oddly unimpressive once removed from the usual "RAW" type staged events, the soundtrack is irritating generic Death Metal, most of the scenes seem disconnected from each other to the point of incoherence (cast members seem to wander off and appear in various parts of the prison with no transition). And the artistic choices (depiction of the blood and guts, lighting, costumes, zombie makeup, fight choreography, etc) range from cheesy to disgusting to laughable. It's possible that the film makers just had problems adjusting to telling a movie-length story, as opposed to the episodic 10 minute "soap opera in spandex" stuff they usually do. Or even how to choreograph a movie fight vs one for a TV show. Or they were hamstrung by a tight budget. It's not totally worthless. There are some good individual shots and set-ups here and there. Piper manages to salvage most of the scenes he is in, and the script gives him some decent lines to deliver now and then. No one here can really act, but now and then a cast member will let some actual personality escape in front of the camera, and you are reminded these are actual human beings trying to hit their marks and deliver their lines convincingly. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan is always a hoot to watch. And the bagpipe music that accompanies the ending credits is a lot of fun. This is not the worst movie I've ever seen, or even seen lately. Compared to "Birdemic"or "Project Of Evil", this is like "Blade Runner". But you can give this one a miss unless you want to see every last bit of footage ever made with your Pro Wrestling favorites.
jfgibson73
I thought this movie had a good setup: a wrestler kills a man in the ring and his brother raises a zombie army to get revenge. The fact that they hired actual wrestlers was the big reason to see the movie, and the few little moments that showed their lives behind the performance were the most interesting for me. So the vengeful brother pays for the wrestlers to show up at an abandoned prison under the guise that they will be putting on a show. As I watched the bus ride to the prison, and Roddy Piper was looking out the window with a weary expression, I felt like this might actually kind of be what it's like to be on the road. Also, the bickering and petty conversations at the restaurant felt like it might not be that far off from the truth. However, the moment they get into the jail, it just becomes a bunch of chasing. There were a couple moments when some of the guys got to show off how their training could work in an actual fight, with the best example being Matt Hardy. He took on some zombies on the cell bars that perfectly mimicked a cage match. The other thing that stood out for me was how unlikable Shane was willing to be. I was kind of hoping they would take on the zombies in some sort of tournament, as the chasing around got really repetitive.
ironhorse_iv
Being a fan of both zombies movies and pro-wrestling. I was pretty interested in, seeing this movie try to combine them. Sadly, while the movie concept is over the top fun. The movie didn't delivered. First off, the pro-wrestlers acting. Directed by Cody Knotts, the film feature a lot of pro-wrestlers playing over the top, version of themselves, but most of them are pretty already run-down has-beens. It really sucks to watch, action scenes, that some of these wrestlers can't perform, well, due to being barely able to move due to being overweight, on drugs, or too injured. Due to this reason, most of the action scenes, are just too similar to each other. It got tiresome and dragged on for too long. I got tired of grab and pound brawls. I like how the opening of the movie shows a lot of botch moves from some really skinny and overweight wrestlers. Honestly, the mat work display here, need some more mat work. Nobody looks like a pro-wrestler, here. Another problem is most of the wrestlers feature here are just unlikeable characters. This give us, little reason to care about them or to root for, to survive. Honestly, I have never been a fan of Shane Douglas, even during his days in ECW. I never thought, he was that talented. So, seeing him as the main character in the film was a death-blow for me. It didn't help that Shane Douglas was made into the biggest jerk in the movie by betraying friends and treating women, badly. The story opens with Shane Douglas supposedly accidentally killing a wrestler in the ring, during an Indy show. The dead wrestler's brother, Angus (Ashton Amherst) believes that Shane commit murder on purpose, because Shane found out that Angus's brother was sleeping with Shane's ex-girlfriend. To make sure, Shane get killed, he creates a zombie army to hunt him and his friends down at an abandoned prison— that he booked as a wrestling show. The only character that really try to act is Roddy Piper. You truly see the best, out of him, toward the end with Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Shane Douglas. He has the most emotional and in-depth scenes. There is a reason why Roddy Piper is in the WWE Hall of Fame, and known as a legend. Then, there is a reason why, Shane Douglas is now, well-known as working at Olive Garden than a wrestler. It's because Piper is a better wrestler. Talking about wrestlers, Adrienne Fischer, who plays the primary heroine, (Sarah Schuman) really comes out of nowhere, and you really thought, there was more than meet the eye with her since she's not a pro-wrestler. Sadly, she's just there, because Reby Sky & Taya Parker can't do, action scenes. It really felt out of the blue. One person, I was deeply disappointed, is the short cameo of Kurt Angle. Honestly, he was the only one that made the action scenes worth a damn. He should had been in the movie, longer. The movie is truly low-budget, and you can see it in the lousy make up and blood effects. It always look like somebody was throwing red jam around on mirrors and walls. Even the same zombies extras get killed more than once in this film. Audio problems are a problem throughout the film. I like how crowd cheers are pump in the audio, when the footage show little to no fan-fare. Honestly, these high school gyms have barely anybody there. If they are there, there is no way, they're cheering that loud! The lighting is so grimy and dark. In some scenes, it's really hard to see, what's going on. The camera shots are somewhat shaky, or pan too fast, making it hard to watch, but despite its imperfections, most of the camera shots are watchable. The movie does have some inconsistencies with the dialogue, too. The dialogue was somewhat dumb and crude. There were some interesting inside jokes that only a true-pro wrestling fan might get. A good example of this is the Coconut scene or the JR Ross nod. Don't look for any sense of logic in this movie. The movie, never explain how the zombies came to be, or why the bad guy need to set up a wrestling show, just to killed Shane. It's just mindless entertainment. The music is a hit & a miss. It wasn't bad music. It was pretty good music to rock out. Movie soundtrack features music by Dead in 5, Reverent Skye, Ken Hampton, and 2011 Italian Golden Globe winning composer Marco Werba, just sound too generic for me. The whole movie, almost plays as an 80 minutes, music video with all the fight montages. Overall: I would definitely recommend the film to fellow wrestling or zombie genre fans. Still, I wouldn't say, it's the best movie. It's mediocre, at best. Pure B-Movie, schlock.
