THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

Returning to the Zombie-infested wasteland of Australia, established with 2014’s Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead, we now find soldier Rhys hunting down survivors to deliver to the Surgeon General. He does this hoping that, one day, a cure will be found but is he aiding the survival of humanity or hastening their downfall? What is the mysterious Surgeon General actually doing to the people Rhys finds?

MY VERDICT:

Wyrmwood: Apocalypse is definitely 'more of the same' when it comes to comparison with the original – it is good, quality Zombie fun in Australia but, without that initial 'wow' originality of the first film, it feels much less 'high-octane'. For a start, the story (as much as there is one) is shallow and confusing; the film opens right in the middle of a fight, seemingly just expecting you to glibly accept the new characters who are thrust on you. Also, the mad-scientist evil dude who collects the human survivors does not actually seem to do anything with those survivors other than eventually kill them to make very small amounts of serum to keep himself alive - presumably no one thought to question him on his progress towards a cure in the time since the outbreak started. The good news is that there is plenty of the silly, fast-action, practical effects heavy violence to distract from the story problems. I really love how the film makers have kept, and expanded upon the whole 'Zombies as fuel' concept from the first movie - seeing as how normal petrol is not flammable in this world anymore. Lastly, I’ve got to mention "Franken-Zombie" - the name given to the heavily augmented Zombie seen towards the end of the film. He truly is fantastic and it is clear just how much work has gone on behind-the-scenes, creating this vile combination of reanimated corpse and crude technology. So, while not a big step forward or standalone entry-point to the franchise, I do recommend Wyrmwood: Apocalypse for anyone who enjoyed Road of the Dead.