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Overall Rating : 6.5/10
Directed By : John Kalangis
Billy Zane (BloodRayne)
Jordan Madley (5ive Girl)
Maggie Castle (Dead Mary)
Shauna MacDonald
Supplied By : Peace Arch Entertainment/Genius Products
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : May. 16, 2007
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| PLOT When a doctor takes his teenage daughter on a road trip through the countryside, their outing turns gruesome and gore-soaked when they are trapped by relentless flesh-hungry zombies. |
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| THE REVIEW In the zombie comedy, THE MAD, an unsuspecting family takes an unplanned pit stop in a small town, and end up having to fight for their lives against hillbilly zombies! When a back-packing trip with a friend is called off, young Amy is forced to settle for a trip through the countryside with her boyfriend, Blake, her Father Jason(whom happens to be a Doctor), and the stepmother she hates with a passion. Jason believes the little family outing will bring his daughter and new girlfriend Monica closer together - but Amy, despises Monica for trying to change her Dad, such as influencing him to wear 80's clothes again, and listen to the music of the bygone decade, Their journey lands them in a country town, at a bed and breakfast, in which they plan to dine and stay for the night. It seems that the town's burgers and meat products are the small town's pride and joy, but lucky for them, when they order a burger, they happen to be all out. They settle for some Game Hen, and the choice would benefit them as it seems that all whom eat the meat served by the restaurant are now turning into flesh eating zombies! The family, along with the restaurant cook, Charlie and his Step-Daughter. Steve, quickly find themselves in the midst of an hilarious battle between flesh eating zombies, and tainted meat patties. Ok, before seeing THE MAD, I didn't know what type of film it was, or better yet, really what it was about. I actually thought I was in for yet another zombie film, that goes for serious, but when the main theme song for the film hit - I just knew it was a comedy. The theme sounded like an old school B-Horror movie joint, which was fine by me - I just hoped it was nothing like SHAUN OF THE DEAD, or anything tired like that. The film actually starts off rather serious, but later it would turn out that THE MAD is one of those films that knows it's a comedy from the beginning, spouting of plenty of jokes and funny dialogue as it goes on. The film's comedy didn't remind me much of SHAUN OF THE DEAD, but the action/comedy scenes, for me, leaned to more of a DEAD AND BREAKFAST feel, and another similarity happens to be it starts out at a Bed and Breakfast(a coincidence maybe). The other part of the plot dealt with tainted meat, in which the local farmer/supplier Sutter has been told the meat coming from his cattle is diseased. But for some reason(maybe by means of the "magic of the movie") the little restaurant still uses the farmer as their supplier. What they don't know is that Sutter, is still mad at the officials for bad mouthing his prized product - so much so, he has been feeding his cattle a steroid to make the disease in which they carry, far worse. The story is so out there, and bizarre, I can't help but like it, it's what be movies are all about The tainted hamburger meat, that reminds me of the film I DRINK YOUR BLOOD later turns the town hicks into flesh hungry hillbilly's that are a lot reminiscent of the plot line of Troma's film REDNECK ZOMBIES - whether THE MAD meant to pay homage to these films or not...it did, and somehow, it works and works well! The acting is nothing spectacular(did you really think it would be in a film like this?). but one has to hand it to Billy Zane here. I haven't Zane in a comedic role, other than ZOOLANDER, as most of his roles are more serious - he really does a great job here, and is the film's most rewarding character. The other characters in the film are very diverse, Monica, the girlfriend whose age is old enough to be a parent, but whose mind tells her to stay young. Blake is the Boyfriend, who is a little whiny in the midst of panic, who always has a craving for sex, Charlie seems to be a trigger happy cook, who loves his Step-Daughter Steve. The two daughters in the film couldn't be any more different, as Steve is the Brave tomboy type, carrying a gun of her own - Amy just wants at first to be away from it all, but later changes her tune. There is a lot of different characters here, but instead of distracting you from the story on screen, they all play a part in keeping you interested in this crazy story as it seems to get more and more comical as each scene passes. When it comes to zombie films, especially direct-to-video ones. I am a bit skeptical - not being a big zombie film fan, I never know if i'll end up liking them or not. With that said, I rarely do like them....but I must admit, when it comes to THE MAD, I really did enjoy myself beginning to end... it just had a steady, "feel-good" flow to it, that felt, somewhat old-school. |
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| GORE
METER 4/10 We have various impalements, a decapitation, an eaten foot, eaten flesh, flying flesh-hungry meat patties, and etc. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 5/10. some of the tunes found in THE MAD, like the main theme song, have an 90's B-Movie sound to them. We also have some banjo music as well as other types,,,it all works pretty well for the film. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM THE MAD is nothing more than an old-school zombie film that doesn't try to be any more than that. I have to admit, that some of the scenes are quite funny, unlike so many film's that think they are, and are sadly not. I think all fans of the zombie genre, and even some who are not, just may like this one - I know I wasn't expecting much, but came away from it very entertained. I recommend! This DVD will be released on May 22, 2007 |
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