Tuesday, September 29, 2015

A Plague so Pleasant (2015) Two takes

Hitting DVD today A PLAGUE SO PLEASANT is a mixed bag zombie film. Its a film I can applaud more for trying something different as opposed to it actually succeeding at doing it.

The film opens with our hero talking to his landlord. His landlord wants to date our guy's sister. He's okay with that but he has to get to work. Walking past a bunch of zombies he tells of the one time zombie apocalypse that lasted 12 hours until someone realized that if you don't attack them they won't attack the living. A law was passed to prevent anyone harming a zombie and restarting the war- but our hero hates not being able to kill zombies so he does and starts things up again.

There are ideas floating around in this film and some nice dry humor that make this kind of worth a look for zombie fans who have suffered through mountains of shitty films. I mean that last part sincerely there are hundreds of shit zombie films out there brought on by the laziness of filmmakers who do something that's cheap and easy to get them noticed instead of doing something good. Its a result of WALKING DEAD being so popular that a certain portion of the population clambers for more and more zombie films. The fact that most of the ideas and plot threads make almost no sense doesn't stop people from loving the undead. I hate the genre for the most part and dread any new addition. On the other hand I'm happy when something that shakes things up comes along.

A PLAGUE SO PLEASANT almost is that new thing.  As I said the film has some good ideas- such as the need not to kill the undead and the questions of what happens if you love a zombie that make this a breath of fresh air in the genre. There are somethings that could actually drive a film for more than this films 75 minutes.

Unfortunately this films micro-budget works against the film. The film periodically lapses into looking like a home movie the result of budget limitations or a poor performance by one of the living actors. Had they been able to get a better actor for some of the smaller parts or shot it so it didn't feel like we were seeing the director's home movie this would have played better.

I don't hate the film, I just wish it had more of a budget so I could really decide if its worth bothering with

If you're a hardcore zombie fan give it ago- all others proceed with caution.
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I  don't normally do this  but I watched the screener for this film with my brother who is a big horror and zombie film fan. He HATED the film. When the film was done and we both were both in our own homes we ended up exchanging emails about the film.

Since his take is decidedly  much stronger than mine- and because some of what he wrote to me is funny, I'm including his take as a counter point to my own. It should be noted that I'm only posting his side of the conversation.

I hope that didn't infect your  computer.

Some one is trying way too hard to be popular by attempting to be clever.
Trying to go for high contrast B&W fail.
Sound, fail
Acting, Fail.

The main character is always mumbling.
He's mumbling something I can only guess is supposed to be deep and philosophical.

If this was in a flaming bag on the porch I wouldn't put it out.

I feel dumber having watched this. I may just spend the weekend banging my head against the wall it would be more productive than watching this film.

Maybe I am missing something. Maybe this director is the next Ingmar Bergman and I am wrong.
And maybe, with any hope, the aliens will come and give me an anal probe the erase my memory although if they try to scan my memories this may be responsible for annihilating an entire race we don't yet know about or damage their evolution.

Are there any Far Out Space Nuts marathons on to help me forget and raise my IQ?

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