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Overall Rating : 6.5/10
Directed By : Richard Griffin
Patrick Cohen
Walter Cotter
William DeCoff
Billy Garberina (The Stink of Flesh)
Michael Propster
Rachel Morris
Supplied By : Shock-O-Rama Cinema
Film Reviewed By : Rick Blalock
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| PLOT In a nation dominated by mass media manipulation, rampant consumerism and a brainwashing government, a zombie epidemic known as the Lazarus Virus is bringing the recently deceased back to life. As the dead feed upon the living, Channel 5 TV News feeds its audience a false picture of the danger, death and doom that is close at hand. The station’s lead anchorwoman learns of a government-mandated broadcast blackout of all walking dead news and live footage, so she enlists the help of her trusted cameraman and a demented military guard to spread the word any way they can. With the truth on their side and flesh-hungry monsters gathering in numbers and strength, the trio must warn unsuspecting citizens about the nightmare at their doorsteps…before it’s too late. |
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| THE REVIEW FEEDING THE MASSES, the new release from EI Independent Cinema's "SHOCK-O- RAMA" is a fun film! The story takes place when a town is over taken by a deadly plague that infects many of it's occupants. The local TV stations are so frightened to inform the locals about the dangers of this deadly virus that they have chosen to cease all information of it from their airwaves. In the film we follow the channel 5 News team, like their peers they have blackout all programming, However a group of vigilantes from the station take matter into their own hands to inform the MASSES if you will. In doing this they dodge danger just to stay alive. This film is fun and entertaining to watch, the film is visually stunning and the look of the film goes hand and hand with some well stylized gore. Penned by normally funnyman Trent Haaga, surprisingly comes a script that is quite a serious one, there are some comedic segments but the seriousness of the picture remains in tact. What I find most enjoyable about FEEDING THE MASSES is that it actually gives you the feel as if you are part of the crew that is fending off the miserable blood-suckers! You actually feel sorry for the "do-gooders" as you join in on their confusion of why their employers choose to shelter valuable information when they could actually be saying the world from mass destruction. Coupled with news footage throughout the film are some rather funny infomercials about such things as a group that you can call to re-animate your love ones to a 'zombie proof' party bus. This scenes in particular reminded me of the cut shots that would be shown in between acts in Rob Zombie's 'House of 1000 Corpses'....... Ok maybe not quite but similar. The acting here is quite good i'd say as you almost feel at one with the central cast. It just might be one of the best performances i've seen by an entire cast in an indie(excluding some) in a long time. Billy Garberina, offered the best performance in the film, and he took the lead early on, combining comedic attributes as well as a level of seriousness he really was the star here. I understand he was in a film called THE STINK OF FLESH, which I have not seen as of yet, but after this performance I will soon try to. Without mentioning them all here I will just again say that the cast did one hell of a job in keeping me entertained. FEEDING THE MASSES again, beautifully shot..... after seeing quite a few films, as of late that look as if they are VHS to DVD transfers- it was a nice and welcome change to see a film that was given the right treatment. This film looks as if it is at the highest of production values, serving up a beautiful digital print to it's audience. |
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| GORE
METER 6/10 I loved the gore in the film, very polished yet not too clean. . |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 6/10 Finally another good independent score! The main title track is haunting and creepy and really adds a volume to the plot. I also liked the techno-like tune played in the stripper room scene a lot. |
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| SPECIAL
FEATURES RATING 5/10 We have a featurette about the making of MASSES that shows the goodness of improvising in the world of Indie filmmaking, that is quite funny yet interesting to see the measures that a filmmaker will go to to make the most of his or her surroundings. The special features has 2 short films by Duane Graves and Justin Meek, the filmmaking Duo out of my native Texas. This fact doesn't save them from my criticism however because I am not a real big fan of their work. I had saw their other short film HEADCHEESE on the FREAK DVD release and I thought it was a boring effort. These to are different, I am not a huge fan of Super 8 shot films, so I just can't get into these shorts by Meeks and Graves. THE HYPOSTATIC UNION was ok though while VOLTAGEN was not. Also on the DVD is a look back at SHOCK-O-Rama's inaugural year... this was a quite informative look at EI's first year after venturing into the horror genre. I am truly glad they did. It also explained how EI effectively markets its product on a 'fans are family' basis. I will go on record saying that this is very very true as EI really does care about it's legion of fans and provides everything to make their fans happy. Quite possibly the most friendly group of people in the business. I am glad to be a part of EI independent's media outlet... it is quite rewarding and most humble. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Might be one of EI/Shock-O-Rama's best to date. At some points of the film it felt like the original DAWN OF THE DEAD back in '78... perhaps that might be the film's inspiration -just a little. If you are a fan of any of the coveted 'DEAD' titles you are sure to have a liking for MASSES |
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