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 FEEDING
THE MASSES (Shock-O-Rama)
Horror. 90 Minutes. Not Rated.
Extreme violence and one pair of boobies that are actually pretty small,
so we’re counting them as a half a pair of boobies.
There is something called The Lazarus Virus and it’s bringing the
recently deceased back to life. Not
in a good way, but in a zombie-gonna-crunch-your-ass kind of way.
The military and the government are conspiring to keep this whole
thing under wraps so, the local stations aren’t allowed to report on the
fact that we are losing the battle against the virus.
Into this picture comes our trio of heroes. Torch (Billy Garberina)
is the dope smoking cameraman who thinks that people should know the
dangers that lurk on the streets. Shelley (Rachel Morris), is a news
anchorwoman who is fed up with the fluff pieces she is forced to report on
while the threat of The Lazarus Virus gets worse by the minute.
And finally we have Roger (Patrick Cohen) as the military escort
that makes sure that the news crew doesn’t get eaten while they do their
jobs. When The Lazarus Virus
goes airborne and starts attacking people with weak immune systems, they
realize that it’s time to inform the people that the danger is more
dangerous than anyone thought. No
matter what.
Feeding
the Masses is an analogy film and tends to take its political agenda a
little too seriously. It takes
the threat of the walking dead instead of the great many things our
government already glosses over on a day to day basis, i.e.
Iraq
, gas prices, etc. While just another shot on video zombie flick, Feeding
the Masses has a few things that stand out.
The performances of the leads are quite professional, with the real
winner being Patrick Cohen, the demented military man.
He comes across as a young Bobby Darin.
You can see a real intensity that he brings to the part and manages
to help elevate the film beyond its meager budget. The zombie makeup is
pretty standard and nothing stands out.
The camerawork is fine and done in a professional manner.
One of my favorite shots in the film depicts two soldiers dragging
a third soldier while being pursued by a horde of zombies.
With the use of CGI, the sky behind them erupts into flame.
Coolest shot I’ve seen in low budget in quite some time.
I didn’t even mind that they were using CGI just because the shot
was so cool. Then there’s the big problem.
I really liked this movie. I
was involved. I never felt the
urge to fast forward to get to other, more interesting parts of the movie.
Then the ending came and the bottom dropped out.
In Feeding the Masses the
three leads are very believable. I
can’t ruin a film by giving away it’s ending, but let me write that
what happens is truly outside of the characters’ believable behavior.
It sucked, bottom line. The
extras include commentary and an excellent documentary that gives insight
into the making of a low budget feature.
The true delights on the disc are the short films, Voltage
and The Hypostatic Union, which
are greatly influenced by David Lynch and are quite a change of pace from
anything you normally see coming out of ei Cinema. - Douglas A. Waltz
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