Review of Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead (2014) by Jesse O — 06 Aug 2015

While I think the film's description of being like Mad Max meets Dawn of The Dead is somewhat accurate, whether it was from a reviewer or done for promotional purposes, it's also not entirely accurate per se.

While the DIY costumes the characters wear certainly bring up memories of Mad Max, I think it borrows that and, perhaps, the eccentric characters that populate this world, but that's about it. I think that, at first glance, that's what the film reminds you of, but I thought it was mostly the costuming itself and not even the structure and pacing of the story.

For example, Mad Max 2 had very minimal dialogue, whereas this film doesn't. I don't want to say it's as talky as, say, a David Mamet screenplay, but there's far more dialogue than there would be in Mad Max.

Honestly, Mad Max is really used as something to grab people's attention so they'll give a shot to a film that they wouldn't have bothered to say anyway. With that said, I did like this film quite a bit.

It's not that it revitalizes a dead genre, but it does give a bit of new life and twist to the zombie genre, while also paying tribute to the classic cult films like Dawn of the Dead, Evil Dead, Mad Max, among others.

It's a film that's definitely a labor of love and it's also one that very stylishly made in spite of its relative minuscule budget. The movie adds some twists in that the zombie's blood, during the day, can be used as an alternate to gasoline and how Brooke, after the experiments she's gone through, can now control the zombie horde with her mind.

I think this is a film that embraces the B-movie style and really just runs with it. It doesn't take itself too seriously, but it never becomes a mockery of itself. There's a lot of gore, to be expected, and it looks quite good actually.

Granted, a lot of the blood and gore itself is done using CG, but I think it still looks good. Perhaps the main problem I have with the film is that the narrative itself is a little bland and, pardon the pun, lifeless.

It goes from point A to B to C in a pretty formulaic fashion. The film is full of eccentric characters, but none of them had any depth. Not that you would expect them to, though Brooke is probably the coolest character in the entire film and it would be fun to see a film based just around her and her powers.

The acting itself is fine, not amazing, though the guy who played Benny was actually pretty bad. The rest of the cast was fine and they played their roles well. While this is a film that pays tribute to some classic films, it also manages to stand on its own by adding some new wrinkles to a worn-out subgenre of horror.

It's not what I would call a great film, it's only good, but it's definitely a very enthusiastic type of good. It's definitely worth watching, genre fans will definitely eat this up and I more than welcome a sequel.

Good stuff here, this is an easy recommendation.