The Eschatrilogy: Book of the Dead (2012)

If it's so bad then why did i give it an average score?.... Hmmmmm!. The acting is just terrible and i am pretty sure i have seen more convincing performances on TV adverts. The script makes Eastenders look half way impressive (Impossible feat i know) and as for the special effects. Well, they wouldn't look out of place on Red Dwarf. Still, i had such a laugh watching this film that i can forgive just how awful it is. It's one of them very rare 1 or 10 star rated films depending on your mood kind've like sandsharks. Anyways, i did enjoy it (for all the wrong reasons) and it's full of just about every zombie cliché out there ripped from everything from the original Dead trilogy to 28 days/months later (The stalking zombie was a highlight <3 ). The reason it gets 5 stars is because as i said it's soooooo bad but so funny that it deserves 10 stars, but also so bad that it deserves nil. Much love to the director/writer we need more garbage like this. If for nothing else but to make us realise just how good Romero's original trilogy is. Clearly the reviewers that gave such steller reviews were cast/crew/friends etc. Still, it has to be said that it was a fun hour and half just picking out how bad everything was. As for the score..... Rarely do i notice a score in films, but this stood out like a sore thumb. A film for the true masochist :D

This independent horror flick was shot in various locations around Barnsley and Sheffield on a micro budget, and is proof that low-budget movies are not necessarily bad movies. In fact, this one is pretty good within its constraints – well-written, pacy, atmospheric and lots of fun. In a dictionary, the word 'eschatology' is defined as: "any system of doctrines concerning last, or final, matters such as death, the Judgment, the future state, etc". Here, writer-director Damian Morter deliberately distorts the word to give his portmanteau film a rather intriguing and foreboding title. The three stories are book-ended with a sequence set in the remote hilly woodland of South Yorkshire, where survivor Matthew (Tim McGill Grieveson) spends his days maintaining a makeshift compound and collecting corpses from the areas of civilisation far below. He carries the bodies aboard a wheelbarrow to his barricaded base, where he systematically cremates them. One day, an unexpected stranger, Cal (Damian Morter), stumbles into camp and collapses from exhaustion. Matthew discovers a journal among Cal's belongings which recounts three tales about the zombie apocalypse that has changed the world. Story 1 (Dead Inside) deals with the outbreak of the zombie virus, brought about by the arrival of a malevolent demon. The action focuses on a young family – the father is one of the first to be infected in the holocaust and returns home to stalk (or perhaps protect?) his wife and daughter. As the zombies grow in number it becomes clear there will be no happy ending here. Story 2 (The Dying Breed) moves further into the crisis. The decidedly un-heroic Alex first loses his girlfriend to an attack, then journeys across town to find his mother and sister. En route, he repeatedly refuses to assist other survivors, leaving them to their grisly fate, until he discovers that even his nearest and dearest have fallen victim to the virus. Finally, story 3 (A Father For The Dead) is set later still, with the number of survivors having dwindled to almost none. A psychiatrist is on the run in a car with his young son, who has been bitten and will soon become a zombie but – for now at least – remains human. Their escape takes them to the ruins of a farmhouse where they face an almighty fight against a horde of marauding zombies and equally dangerous paranoid human survivors.There's no denying that several of the performances are semi-professional and somewhat wooden. Fortunately, Morter doesn't let us dwell on this too much, providing enough other stuff to distract our attention. There are some effective visuals and the electronic score creates a suitably unnerving atmosphere. The gore is generally well done, certainly on this budget. There are sufficient moments of gut-munching mayhem and gruesome dismemberment to keep genre addicts happy. The real strength of The Eschatrilogy is that it focuses on ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events. Yes, there's gore and guts and blood and so on, but the film always remembers to come back to the human element to give us something to identify with. Although the twist ending is a little too predictable from the off, and the acting in some segments is less than convincing, the film overall delivers upon its own modest aims. The spirit of George A. Romero pervades throughout the film. Whether or not Romero will ever see The Eschatrilogy no-one but him will know, but if he does I'm sure he'll give it the nod of approval. What better endorsement could any zombie film hope to receive?

It is easy to be cynical about the state of play of the filmmaking industry in Britain with the recent closing of the UK Film Council and the cuts made to arts funding by the government. Low-budget independent productions such as The Eschatrilogy blow these doubts out of the water, however, as they prove that money isn't everything. What is really important is the creative collective drive of passionate filmmakers determined to make something special and passion is something this film has by the bucket load.The film opens with a montage of sole survivor Matthew (Tim Mcgill Grieveson) biding his time in a desolate forest hut. In between transporting zombie roadkill to the forest in a wheelbarrow he attempts to send out radio signals for other potential survivors. This sequence is beautifully shot, edited and acted, giving an indication of the fantastic cinematography right from the get-go. Although it is a lengthy scene to begin the film, we really get a sense of Matthew's loneliness and depravity in a bleak situation and this sets the tone for the three 'nightmare' segments that follow: 'Dead Inside', 'The Dying Breed' and 'A Father For The Dead'.Now I won't spoil either of the stories - it is really something you have to see to believe how well the three sections are tied together by the survivor plot - but I can tell you that you won't have seen anything like this before. Clearly Romero's zombie series was a huge inspiration for The Eschatrilogy; however never once did you witness Romero's zombies show emotion and remorse for the beasts they had become. The overriding theme here is family and, like Romero, director/writer/actor Damian Morter weaves what can be interpreted as a social commentary of the present day. Cal (Morter) travels the land whilst documenting tales of horror in his book to act as a warning for others to support one another no matter what the circumstances. It goes to show that in the midst of economic crisis and war faith can be restored in humanity by supporting family and friends through difficult times.In short: watch this film if you are even marginally interested in British horror. I can assure you that you won't believe it is such a low-budget production with all the talent on display. Safehouse Pictures UK is certainly an independent company to watch out for in the future.

Before we start yes, I am an extra in the film but I'm trying my best to write this without being biased towards it, I'm also a fan of the zombie film genre too so... Having watched many low budget films lately in the zombie genre (and still working my way through them all as well) I went into the premiere of this movie expecting another mindless horde of zombies to rampage through the streets and countryside of the UK hell bent on devouring everyone in a small rag tag bunch of survivors (typically containing an old man, gun toting muscle bound hero and several big breasted women) but not in this movie, the director Damian Morter who also wrote and starred in the film did something a little different, the way the film is set out reminded me of a few older films the one that sticks in my mind the most is cats eye which has three stories that are based around a kind of main plot following a cat. Except obviously there's no cat in this film, the cat is replaced by an undertaker style figure traveling the countryside spreading the curse of the undead to all who cross his path which he chronicles in his book as you would. A young man then comes across a stranger in a forest who has this book and begins to read the tales within, these tales tell of the pain that three separate families suffer as part of this rising of the undead while the main plot surrounding the young man and the stranger unfold... Its different, not your ordinary zombie film, in my opinion its definitely worth a watch if you get a chance to visit a festival its showing at or if you get a chance to buy the DVD when its finally released. The camera work throughout is fantastic and doesn't again in my opinion betray the fact its a low budget film the crew, Damian and Nicola Morter, the make up artists, actors and extras at safehouse pictures have really outdone themselves (yes me included ;) ) bringing this film into being, lots of blood sweat and tears have gone into it. Definitely one to watch out for if your a fan of horror or zombies :)