ZOMBIE FARM

Directed by B. Luciano Barsuglia
Written by B. Luciano Barsuglia
Cinematography by B. Luciano Barsuglia, Richard Chamberlin
Music by Vince Lara
Cast: Bobby Field, Javier Morga, Kimberly Fisher, Danielle De Luca, Joe Estevez

2007/79 mins/Color/Stereo
1.85:1/English/United States/NTSC Region 0

Review from BLB Media DVD

In the small California town of Muerto Verde, a terrorist plot is underway to contaminate the irrigation system with an experimental drug that will turn the victims into the undead who craze warm flesh and blood. As the first of the townsfolk start to turn and begin to tear apart the neighbors limb from limb and feast on whatever entrails they can get their hands on, four partying friends come into town with the purpose of dropping of some eviction paperwork before continuing to a party. But these would-be sex-crazed partygoers learn they've chosen the wrong day to unexpected drop in, and if they don't act fast could be the entree on the menu of the slack-jawed, inbred, unclean undead!

Zombie movies. It doesn't take much to make them (a few friends that can stumble around and some red food coloring), but it does take a lot of creativity and talent to make one stand out from the glut of never ending gutmunchers that pour out every year. Micro-budget director and writer B. Luciano Barsuglia is just one of the latest hoping to tap into the splatstick ether of Jackson and Raimi, and does not even come close to reaching the upper echelons that these two directors command. Barsuglia has a decent rough idea for his zombie "origin" that could have been fleshed out into a quirky comedy, but falls flat on just about every conceivable technical and creative element.

Using what appears to be a low-end DV camera, Barsuglia turns roughly two dozen unconvincing actors and two hundred extras loose on his fictional town with a smug self-referencing script that postures for the camera more than the original SCREAM. Barsuglia's directing and camera work is hardly inspiring, and his editing appears to be done for the most part in-camera, as he hits pause to set up his next shot and then continues to record, with no regards for lighting continuity, or any continuity for that matter.

The guts and gore, which seems to be the sole purpose for making this movie, do have a few near great if unoriginal moments as Barsuglia keeps to classic motifs that have been seen again and again. Handfuls of brain of scarfed down, stomachs are torn open, intestines strung out, and of course the ubiquitous exploding head shots. But even gut munching, which should instantly put a smile on your face, is made flat and dull due to the digital over saturation of Barsuglia's recording format of choice that just makes everything look fake, and that doesn't even begin to touch on the involuntary cringing that occurs when the poorly rendered digital effects are implemented.

However, the films is not completely without merit. The best gross-out of the film comes surprisingly from a pre-zombie barbeque as pig's feet and half of a pig's face is grilled up, while the highlight of the films comes from Eli Roth look-a-like Javier Morga getting his face blown off. Underneath the entire film lies the most professional part of the film, that being Vince Lara's original score that has this toe-tapping hybrid of spaghetti western guitar work and laid back surf strumming going that would be worth hunting down if it were available on CD. And be sure to keep your eyes peeled for Joe "I'm Martin Sheen's brother" Estevez in a brief cameo as a news anchor.

This is backyard cinema at its absolute finest and should be treated as something a bunch of friends made together over the weekend to gross out their friends, laugh about, and then uploaded to YouTube to be forgotten. At best, it could be incorporated into a double feature with REDNECK ZOMBIES along with a case of cheap domestic beer, but even that is stretching it.

ZOMBIE FARM is self-distributed through BLB Media, though anyone wishing to take the plunge on this should be well aware that the official release is a "made to order" DVD-R. The DVD itself includes a widescreen transfer with a very hollow and tinny stereo soundtrack. BLB has tried to give their brave viewers as much as they can fit onto a single layer blank disc, with the feature film accompanied by a filmmaker commentary track and an audience reaction track.

The extras include a mini-documentary entitled The Inbred Undead which features production stills and premiere footage, a deleted scene, a music video, and the original movie trailer. The premiere episode of Cinema Eulogies rounds everything out.

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Review by Ryan Midnight. All Right Reserved. 2008. ©