THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

A group of bounty hunters track a fleeing felon into a vast New England forest. As dangerous as this felon is said to be, he is far from the biggest problem facing the bounty hunters though. Unbeknownst to everybody, a seemingly endless horde of ravenous Zombies lurks within the woods. With no help, no shelter and no end to the carnage, survival seems impossible.

MY VERDICT:

The Trees Have Eyes is a 'so-so' movie that takes a long time to develop; it simply does not show anything that has not been done before and, overall, comes off as a bit needless. It is also massively inconsistent in terms of its average quality. The start of the movie features some atrociously bad acting where the group of bounty hunters (who all look alike thanks to all but one being bald, gruff men) deliver one-liners in an extremely forced fashion - as if reading lines for the first time. Things get marginally better when they head into the woods as some of the characters actually show differing personalities; some getting minor backstories or having relatable traits. However, the movie then plunges below the 'average' line again when the Zombies show up. It is never explained or even hinted at as to why the Zombies are there or where they came from - they just sort of show up, there's not even any build up, the film just shoves some Zombies in because, well, why not? In addition, the bounty hunters don't seem that phased by the appearance of dead people, walking around, eating the living which is extremely odd, breaking the supposed realism of the film. The Zombies themselves are actually quite brilliant; proper old-school slow, groaning shufflers with just the right amount of gore and bloodwork on them, giving the film an excellent Dawn of the Dead vibe. But then, just when the movie is inching out of the quagmire of 'meh', the biggest problem rears its head; the entirety of this initial chaotic section is shot in the 'way too dark' forest making it very difficult to tell what is going on, a fact only added to by the similarity of the actors. However, the film does pick up again as the night passes and the Zombie hordes begin to grow in number. With thousands of Zombies now shuffling around, easily managing to trap the few survivors that are remaining with unnerving frequency, the film comes to a close reminding me heavily of the great George Romero masterworks and that is a truly wonderful accolade for a film - it is just a terrible shame that it took so long to get to this point. Also, the fact that some of the music resonates with the creepy music of John Carpenter's The Thing makes the failure of this movie to be the superbly scary Zombie horror flick it wanted to be, all that more painful.