review: ZOMBEAK

Smear Pictures  //  Official site On the darkest night of the year, when Satan is allowed free reign to walk the earth, a motley crew of Satanists kidnap a sharp tongued southern waitress to be a given up as the Dark One's bride and mortal host of the antichrist. But when her rowdy redneck friends botch up the ritual in a violent rescue attempt, all power of hell is inadvertently transferred into the most unlikely of hosts: a sacrificed chicken! Now, the Satanists and Rednecks battle one another as an evil most fowl threatens to swallow their souls and transform them into a demonic army of the walking dead! Who will survive the terror of Zombeak!? This film had long been on my watch list, having somehow stumbled across its official web site when it was just starting production, and I followed it through to completion and post-production via the director's blog on the site. Once I read that it was completed, I sent an email off to see if they might be willing to provide the mighty DVDschlock.com with a screener copy... which they happily obliged! Well, despite my eagerness to check this one out, I had no idea what I was in store for when I popped the DVD into my player and sat back, popcorn in hand, to behold the spectacle that is "Zombeak!" First and foremost, this is absolutely a b-movie of the finest calibre - a true low-budget, do-it-yourself type of film made purely for the fun & passion of indie filmmaking. This is exactly the type of film that DVDschlock.com was launched to profile - we'll take Hollywood blockbusters all the time, but our heart is with these type of guerilla filmmaking efforts, and we applaud the cast & crew of "Zombeak" for delivering a truly original, ridiculously entertaining effort! As detailed below, the production value of the film was surprisingly high, with quality cinematography, special effects and set design. The acting was admittedly a mixed bag, with everyone giving their all and some standing out as being truly on top of their game (esp. actress Tracy Yarkoni, who took our breath away, truth be told.) And let us not forget the title character, the mighty chicken, who unleashes a fury literally & figuratively straight from hell! While the climactic scene was a bit much for me to take (too tender a heart, I suppose), I was conversely quite impressed that an uber-indie flick such as this could manage to so affect me. All in all, this is a great effort, and most importantly, it's very entertaining, and you can't say that about many big-budget flicks these days, let alone a homegrown one such as "Zombeak." Evil most fowl, and fantastic. Video Presented in a letterboxed 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio, I was quite impressed by the picture quality of this film. Despite it's low-budget nature, it was very well shot, with each scene being framed with accomplished cinematography and very well lit (even in the dimly-lit sequences.) Audio The sound mix was fairly solid throughout, with only a few bits of dialogue being overwhelmed by the sound effects. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe the dialogue was recorded seperately, after the actual filming was complete. For the most part, it syncs up well, but at times the tone of the actor doesn't quite match up with what's going on in the scene at the time... I'm not griping, however - more power to the filmmaker for adding an extra layer of complexity to his post-production work! Extras none included on this screener/preview DVD Closing Thoughts Entertaining, ambitious, balls-out b-movie excellence!!