Raiders Of The Damned (2005) A review from Zombiefans!

SYNOPSIS

Their bodies are rotting corpses, but their minds are still hideously alive! In the final days of World War III, an unleashed biochemical weapon rendered Earth a post-apocalyptic wasteland overrun by cannibalistic zombies. When a helicopter carrying a group of scientists - humanity’s last hope for survival - crashes in zombie central, a military ops team led by Dr. Lewis (Richard Grieco, If Looks Could Kill, TV’s 21 Jump Street) is dispatched to rescue them. Now it’s up to the only soldiers still alive to fight the bloodthirsty zombies for control of the planet - or die trying!

Overview:
World War III has recently come to an end but that doesn’t mean the survivors are safe. During the war a biological weapon was used called Agent 9-X. This agent then mutated as it combined with the nuclear fallout. This combination creates a new problem. Those infected die with the exception of their brains. Thus turning them into cannibalistic zombies.

What is left of the government has attempted to contain them behind giant walls, but will these walls be able to contain them? A former military colonel that is now a zombie plans on leading an attack, breaching the walls that contain them.

The Story:
The movie opens with a helicopter flying over the containment wall that keeps the post-apocalyptic zombies at bay. The helicopter is testing a new chemical used to combat the zombies called Omega-3. On this flight the head scientist, Dr. Wells speaks to the camera and says that, “For the first time they are not running, but exhibiting some sort of strange group behavior.”. As they pass overhead and spray the new chemical we see that it eats the rotting flesh of the zombies to the bone. As they prepare for a second pass we see Colonel Crow, a zombified military colonel, organizing his zombie men. On the helicopters second pass it is brought down by the zombies using bows, arrows, and stones. Now the lead scientist is stuck behind enemy lines. Being help captive by Colonel Crow, we learn that he had once been sent in with his men to acquire zombies to bring back for scientific experiments but obviously did not make it back.

The quirky Lewis is left in charge and has to decide what will be done. As he plays with his little fuzzy mouse cat toy, he decides that a team must be sent in after them. His choice for heading up this team is Captain Dewey Crenshaw who has been imprisoned in their compound for war crimes. He assembles his team of current military personnel and prisoners then prepares to go into the quarantined area. As they prepare to depart the women on the team are told of something to look out for. It is possible that the zombies may try to reproduce as Agent 9-X does in fact keep the male sperm in a dormant state. Lewis alludes to the fact that in earlier days the zombies may have experimented with reproduction with a live female subject.

The Rating:
I need to be honest. I was worried at first with this film, but I kept in mind that this is not a high budget film and a first time director. Putting those things aside this is quite an enjoyable film! At first I didn’t like the zombies in this film. The only difference from regular people is that they have no heartbeat and are decaying. They even talk just like everyone else, but after a bit the idea started to grow on me. Zombies that are trying to find a way to prevent their bodies from decaying is a new twist on the whole zombie theme.

Overall, I really did enjoy this! I thoroughly enjoyed Richard Grieco playing an A-D-D weirdo scientist guy, and there was some really good acting by some of the other characters as well. This is a movie that would be a good one to watch with a group of friends on a Friday or Saturday night. I say add this to your Zombie/PA collection. It will give you a few laughs and does have a really good story to go along with it.

Director: Milko Davis
Writer: Mike Ezell (writer)
Genre: Horror
Tagline: The Day The World Ended, They Thought The Fight Was Over. They Were Wrong.
MPAA: Rated R for violence and some language.
Runtime: USA:90 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color
Certification: UK:18 | USA:R
Filming Locations: Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Company: IDX Studios

Cast:
Richard Grieco … Lewis
Laura Zoe Quist … Lt. Gena Kane
Gary Sirchia … Capt. Dewey
Thomas Martwick … Colonel Crow
Russell Reed … Treadway
Laurie Clemens … Roxanne Trejo
J.C. Austin … Flex
Vic Alejandro … Bradley
Elijah Murphy … Dr. Wells
Amanda Scheutzow … Stephanie

RAW REVIEW

A review from Zombiefans!

Romero’s ‘Day of the Dead + Sigourney Weaver’s ‘Aliens’ = Raiders of the Damned

1) ACTING: The acting was pretty average. If Richard Grieco isn’t on drugs, then he needs to be. His performance was terrible. I hope he ran to the bank to cash his paycheck before the producers demanded it back. The other actors did the best they could with what they had to work with; especially making cliched characters seem fresh.

2) PRODUCTION: The soundtrack was average. It seemed like canned action music (or is that “muzak?”). Many plot threads go unanswered. The sub-par CGI is really noticeable. The script is overflowing with “used too many times” cliches. The more elaborate zombie make up was really not used well, as the viewer can see seem lines and parts of faces that just don’t move, even though the actor is talking. The script had a number of boring parts which makes the viewer look for something else to do. I really think that if the director had a decent budget, this movie would not have been as bad as it is. Minimal blood and gore.

3) THE ZOMBIES: Many a variety here. We see walking skeletons, to rotting zombies to mummified corpses. Some of the zombies in this movie are just like normal everyday people. They walk, they talk, they shoot guns and give orders, they have sex. Yeah. You read that right. Zombie porn. (Insert your own joke here).

4) THE CAUSE: Nuclear-mutated synthetic virus.

5) NUDITY: None.

Sigh…another low budget disappoint hits the video stores. While I do get the impression that the director wanted to make an action packed zombie filled adventure, he obviously did not have what he needed, whether it be skills, money, whatever, to do so. And sadly, that leaves us, the zombie aficionado, out in the lurch. For every excellent zombie movie we get, there are dozens others that we will watch that will disappoint. This is one of the latter.

RATING: 1 out of 5

MORE REVIEWS

This really is a very bad film!!!! 1/10
Author: Dave Williams from United Kingdom

Aired in the UK on 19th March 2006 on the Horror channel, i was expecting a enjoyable zombie flick. I’m a big fan of these types of film so a small amount of bad acting and a bad script wouldn’t have bothered me. But this film was TERRIBLE!!! It was almost a remake of George A.s Day of the dead. Within about three minutes of watching this film i could tell it was going to be bad. But i thought i would give it the benefit of the doubt hoping it would get better. It got worse! A lot worse. I’ve got to be honest i think I’m going to give these low budget, horror flicks, only ever gonna be shown on Horror channel films a miss from now on because there not even remotely enjoyable. I cant understand how there even shown on T.V. But don’t take my word for it. You may even enjoy it. I doubt it though.

One new element in the zombie genre 2/5

I viewed this with a fellow zombie afficienado. We tend to watch any zombie movie that comes out, not expecting much. This movie lived up to our low expectations. It had bad camera work, overly dramatic plotlines, and so-so acting. Richard Greico is very briefly in the movie and plays an unbalanced scientist quite well. About the only unique element to this movie was the scene where the zombie colonel takes a bride. Who knew they could “sport zombie wood” as one character puts it. Ick! The ending is abrupt and kind of confusing until you listen to the director’s commentary, which clarifies what their intent was. It almost works, but it would have been better if they’d added a few more minutes, or even just one or two quick shots, to show what they are trying to infer is definitely what happened. All in all, this movie is no worse that most of the low-budget zombie movies out there; it is actually better than some (example: Zombie Planet). Zombie fans will probably like this at least enough to watch it once.

Radioactive Zombies! 5/5

I don’t know why this film gets such bad reviews. It’s a low budget zombie movie and people who rent zombie movies should know what they’re in for! It’s your stock “post apocalyptic” plot line with your “NOW, they have just 48 hours to save man kind!” development. For a low budget indie film, it’s a lot of fun. The acting is OK, tongue in cheek at times and the music is actually pretty good. The end was a little confusing, but it was late when I watched it. Listen to the director’s commentary to fully understand it. Good effort!

TRAILER

Here’s a short newsie bit covering the new Sci-Fi classic, Raiders of the Damned, due out May 15th. Go see this movie! And if you ever get to Boulder, Colorado, stop by MAC cosmetics on 29th St. and give a shout to Thomas Medina, lead makeup artist for the film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxZjQo_YELE