Having inherited a mountain of debt with her parents' family farm, Rene Chaplin (Felicity Mason) decides to sell up and, with the money netted from her win of "Miss Catch of the Day" at the local Berkeley fishing pageant, decides to quit the sticks for the city. On the day she is set to leave – hitching a ride with the sleazy property agent (Steve Greig, CUT) – the town is hit by a series of meteors that have the side effect of transforming any one they contact into flesh-eating zombies. Rene takes shelter in a farmhouse belonging to local loony Marion (Mungo McKay, INSPECTOR GADGET 2) who has been stocking up with guns and supplies ever since his cries of alien invaders and zombie fish went unheeded by the locals. They are soon joined by pregnant Sallyanne (Lisa Cunningham) – still miffed at Rene for stealing her crown – and her cropduster pilot boyfriend Wayne (Rob Jenkins, PREDESTINATION), along with control freak constable Harrison (Dirk Hunter, RAIN FALL) and officer Molly (Emma Randall, AUSTRALIENS) in a fight for who is in charge and whether they are under alien attack or of its "just zombies." The onslaught forces the six to flee the farm but a sinister kind of acid rain and lights that suddenly beam people and animals up into the sky suggest they have more to fear than just getting eaten.
Coming just before the early 2000s onslaught of independent zombie movies – of which maestro George Romero's DIARY OF THE DEAD and SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD were emblematic of rather than extraordinary exceptions – UNDEAD's zaniness feels more like an attempt to outdo Peter Jackson's DEAD ALIVE and BAD TASTE in one go as the everything-but-the-kitchen sink directorial debut of TV commercial and short subject filmmaking siblings Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig (whose most recent Hollywood breakout pics were the unfortunate JIGSAW and WINCHESTER). Broadly-played from the start with splattery gore and awful (though impressive on the budget) CGI, the film's confused story stumbles along with the antics of the louder actors overshadowing any attempts at character development, and the set-pieces fewer and farther between as the film moves towards its climax in which the outsiders to Berkeley seem as enthusiastic to meet aliens as the soon-to-be-obliterated crowds of INDEPENDENCE DAY. In its broad strokes, it has the ingredients of a cult film, and it achieved that status domestically and internationally – stateside with Lionsgate competing with Dimension Films' many zombie-related releases (including an anniversary DVD of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) – but for audiences of a certain age it may resemble a more ambitious and slickly-made take on the many zombie epics essayed or attempted by friends upon the releases of cinematic MiniDV cameras like the Canon XL-1 or the Panasonic DVX100.
Shot in Super 16mm and blown-up to 35mm, UNDEAD was released stateside by Lionsgate on DVD in a stacked special edition and much of the same extras appearing in various combinations internationally. Umbrella's Blu-ray was preceded by a barebones Dutch edition from a 1080i50 master followed by a German edition that also utilized the 1080i master but was packed with extras. Madman Entertainment gave Australia a 1080p edition with the two DVD comment and a full slate of extras, as well as a choice of two versions: the original cut (103:59) and the Lionsgate version (96:24) which made pacing trims.
Working from a new 4K restoration supervised by the Spierig brothers, Umbrella's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen Blu-ray only features the shorter cut (96:24), so presumably that was the cut they approved or the only one they had on film to restore. The film's grading does not seem too revisionist, although the shadow detail under the blue filters applied to the day for night scenes may be better delineated than the previous master, and the deeper blacks may lend better shading to the CGI additions, but it will always be an inconsistent-looking film. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 tracks are rich with directional effects and the surrounds seem more ambitious than other films of this budget with plenty of omnipresent rainfall, spinning blades, gunfire, and explosions. The English HoH subtitles, while free of errors, do fail to convey the manic intensity of some of the dialogue delivery even when in all caps.
The older editions featured two commentary tracks – the first with the Spierig brothers, cinematographer Andrew Strahorn, and special make-up effects artist Steven Boyle, and the second with actors McKay, Hunter, and Randall – while Umbrella has jettisoned those in favor of a new track by the Spierigs and Strahorn. It is unfortunate that neither of the older commentaries were ported over – Lionsgate was able to fit them to the shorter cut for the US DVD edition – since the new track finds the trio lamenting on the fewer opportunities for risk and on-the-go thinking of their debut feature while also noting the amount of rehearsal and planning that had to go into making the film's 2:1 shooting ratio since the film stock was the most expensive component of the production on which the trio felt on an even keel with the mostly-inexperienced actors and other crew members who were especially willing to give the production their all once the brothers had quickly edited together some of the rushes to screen for everyone.
The rest of the extras are ported over from the earlier editions. "On the Set of UNDEAD" (47:22) is an overview of the shoot with little commentary, focusing on the rehearsals, location shooting for some of the bigger scenes, stuntwork, and effects. What is most interesting are the looks at where the sets give way to greenscreen as well as the DIY greenscreen shots captured on location (one wonders whether it was done to save on trying to recreate the location lighting, rain, and wind in a studio or out of just trying to shoot as much material on each shooting day as possible.
"The Making of UNDEAD" (37:28) is a more traditional EPK piece with the Spierig brother discussing their early shorts, their love of horror films, other inspirations from westerns to John Woo, and the importance of enthusiasm over experience in mounting a feature project on a small budget. The cast chip in occasionally, with Mason providing more backstory for her character than apparent in the finished film and McKay disussing his stunt work, while production designer Matthew Putland (GOLDSTONE) recalls running out of his department budget on the first day and depending on free and recycled resources to create eleven interior sets that had to convey character, and effects artist Boyle recalls initially planning for an hour and a half for each zombie make-up only to realize that was impractical when they were shooting multiple scenes with different zombies each day. "Home Made Dolly Construction" (2:09) and "UNDEAD Camera and Make-up Tests" (1:45) are self-explanatory.
Before UNDEAD, the Spierigs produced a trio of short films starting with "Attack of the Undead" (37:25) which plays up the fifties sci-fi throwback angle with black and white photography but the bargain basement production values apparent in the opening give way to various practical and visual effects that are poorer than the ones in the feature but quite ambitious indie and low budget short films from the nineties. The disc also includes a stills gallery (11:37) and the film's theatrical trailer (2:31). Included in this limited edition package is a 17-track CD soundtrack that appears to reproduce the contents of the American 2005 La-La-Land Records disc.
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