:star: :star:
Zombies come out at night and two families must survive until morning.
SYFY. The word is synonymous with one other word: CHEESE. Okay, two words: VERY CHEESEY. Okay, three…Alright, I think you know where I’m heading. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, SYFY was known by a different name: Roger Corman. Corman was an independent filmmaker who made mostly low-budget B movies such as “Little Shop of Horrors” (1960), “The Terror” (1963) and “The Masque of the Red Death” (1964). But what’s really amazing, is that he usually made these full-length features in less than a week, and in the case of “Little Shop of Horrors”, three days. He had very little cash and very little time but he always got his films completed.
Today, SYFY seems to run on the same principle. The budgets for their original movies, are usually right around the $1 million mark and not a penny more and their shooting schedules are also very tight, usually a month or less. This is ingenious. And this is why they are able to make so many films per year. When a movie like “Sharknado” comes along and attains cult classic, almost overnight, it draws attention to itself and people who may never of heard of SYFY or just never checked them out, are drawn in to see what else they have to offer. I’ll be perfectly honest, I’ve never been a big SYFY fan.
Their movies can be entertaining and antiquated but every now and again, I’d like to see them produce something a little more serious in tone. God knows, with a million dollar budget and decent cast, you could make one hell of a good movie. Just ask Robert Rodriguez. He made his first movie, “El Mariachi”, for $7,500. When I sat down to watch “Zombie Night” and saw its cast had Anthony Michael Hall (“The Dead Zone”), Daryl Hannah (“Blade Runner”), Alan Ruck (“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) and Shirley Jones (“The Partridge Family”), I figured maybe I was in luck. With a cast like this, how could it not work?
Well, after watching the movie, I wrote a very humorous review that tore it apart (pun intended) because of the cheese factor but then I remembered that SYFY produces movies like this BECAUSE of the cheese factor. As I watched the movie, the characters did things that simply defy logic and then I remembered “Sharknado” and “Sharktopus.” And all was good. Even as zombies were rising from their graves and Anthony Michael Hall stops and crouches down and shines a flashlight in their faces, obviously wanting to confirm that they were indeed zombies, before taking off at a leisurely pace, I remembered “Sharknado” and “Ghost Shark” and all was good again.
Later on, he meets up with his wife, Birdie, played by Daryl Hannah and along with some characters who we know will be eaten pretty quickly because we never really get to know them, they try to stay alive till morning because, rumor has it, these zombies can’t live in the daylight. So I said out loud, WHAT THE HELL? Then I remembered “Sharknado” and “Piranhaconda” and all was good again. And even when our heroes are being chased by hordes of zombies and they come across an empty car but as they approach it, it spontaneously explodes, for no apparent reason, I said REALLY? And then I remembered “Sharknado” and “2-Headed Shark Attack” and gave up. These movies are supposed to be cheesy and it took me until now, to fully realize that. I guess I have a lot of movies to catch up on.
In stores December 10th
