Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead (2014)

Elevator Pitch: In a world where a the majority of the population have been turned into zombies due to a meteoric event, Barry is warned by his sister to get out of the city which he does with his wife and daughter, although both turn into zombies and he has to kill them with a nail gun. Meanwhile his sister, Brooke, is captured by some paramilitaries and strung up with some zombies in a blood spattered temporary laboratory, to be experimented on by a mad scientist in protective clothing. Barry sets off across country to rescue her, aided and assailed by other non-zombies. Brooke meanwhile finds that she has been given unusual powers.

Content: No sex or nudity, or drugs or drinking. However a great deal of spatter, as zombies are shot mainly with handguns and a shot gun. The most effective way of dispatching them is by shooting them in the head – drastic with the shotgun. The crude laboratory in which Brooke is held is particularly unpleasant, the zombies moan and shake and the mad scientist uses pointy objects to inject them and to remove fluids. The paramilitaries are clad in full body armour including helmets and gas masks making them particularly threatening. The zombies used to fuel the truck (don’t ask) are particularly gruesome.

A View: An unusual and intentionally gruesome riff on the zombie genre, with some innovative attributes assigned to them. It was well thought of by the limited number of critics who reviewed it garnering 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. If I was being picky, it seemed to me that almost all normal activities had been discarded, in favour of defence against the undead. Typically no-one seemed to require food, which in most movies of this type creates an important plot point. I can’t say I quite liked it, but enthusiasts of the genre will want to add it to their collection – preferably for nothing.

Additional Info: The film was said to have been crowd funded and was made over a four year period the cast and crew only working at weekends.