|
A family is on
their way to their cabin when they
decide to take a much needed break at a small bed and
breakfast. Unfortunately, their stay won't be very
pleasant as an infection has just started to spread
among the locals, turning them into flesh-eating
zombies. What could be the cause of all this? And is
there any way to stop it from spreading?
Zomedy's seem to be the hottest topic in the horror
industry at the moment since no one can take a pure
Zombie flick seriously anymore (do I smell an outbreak
of Vampedy coming soon?), and while I love clever
horror comedies, most zomedy's seem to be average at
best (including the recent box-office flop Fido which
I found to be very underwhelming). This is also the
case with The Mad, a zomedy which tries too hard to
be funny and not enough to be witty and clever. The
humour feels very forced and doesn't come naturally
at all, the jokes are quite lame and won't make
anyone laugh out loud, and there's nothing special
about the story either.
Billy Zane plays a widow father who's recently started
dating again. He decides to spend a weekend at his
lodge in the country together with his new girlfriend,
his daughter and her boyfriend. On their way they stop
at a bed and breakfast to get some rest, but what they
don't know is that the local farm is feeding their
kettle with a poisonous liquid, and the special of the
day is fresh hamburgers. Soon enough, an infection
starts spreading at the B&B, turning the visitors into
rabid, flesh-eating zombies (or something similar)
and it's up to the family to stop it before it's too
late. I told you, nothing special about this story.
You kind of get a feeling of what kind of movie this
is just by looking at the opening credits - blood
splatters on the screen, showing us who's been
involved in the production. Very campy indeed. Campy,
that's a great word to describe this movie. Because
while there's nothing special about The Mad, it's
still a fairly enjoyable ride due to its sheer
cheesiness. It's not laugh-out-loud funny, heck it's
not even giggle-a-little funny, but it is easy to
watch as it's just about entertaining enough. I'm
actually certain that it wouldn't have been as decent
had it been a pure zombie movie, so even if the comedy
aspect of the movie didn't necessarily make me laugh,
it did make it more enjoyable to sit through.
There's not a whole lot more to say really. If you
want to see Billy Zane's career go up in flames and
missed Bloodrayne, here's a second chance for you.
The Mad is a cheesy but fairly enjoyable zomedy which
doesn't bring anything new to the table, but will
keep you interested. A good movie to watch on a rainy
night when you're too tired to watch something serious
so catch it on cable, but don't buy the DVD.
We get a fork in the head, a neck bite, a gory body,
a decapitated head and a lot of blood splatter.
The movie opens with some hillbilly banjo music and
some poor 80's-inspired pop music and stays that way
throughout the movie. Not great, but not horrible.
The Mad is too silly for its own good and ends up
being nothing more than a watchable zomedy. It won't
make you laugh, but it will keep you watching until
the end, which is fairly good considering today’s DTV
horror movie standards. Don't go out of your way to
check this one out though, it's a decent movie but
it's not a disaster if you happen to miss it.
|
|
