EATERS! Finally Out for Release in the USA!!

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Permalink Reply by Komrad Venessa Wicked☭ on March 9, 2012 at 3:38pm

		EATERS     Italy 2010   Run time: 94 minutes   Director: Marco Ristori, Luca Boni   Studio: Extreme Video Snc, Event Film   DVD release: Extreme Video Snc    Review by Claus Reinhold
	The world – devastated by the Great Epidemic – is governed by hordes of living dead. Locked in a fortress that has been turned into a research center and shelter, three men – zombie hunters Igor (Alex Lucchesi) and Alen (Guglielmo Favilla) and the scientist Gyno (Claudio Marmugi) – are trying to find an answer to what has happened to the human race. Gyno experiments his theories on the zombies given to him by Igor and Alen who believe that Gyro is looking for a treatment for the virus in order to save not only the world but also Alexis (Rosella Elmi), Alen's girlfriend, a healthy carrier of the virus. But in reality Gyno is trying to give life to a new race of human-dead. Alen and Igor leave for two days of hunting to find new 'guinea-pigs' for Gyno and during their trip, they meet the most varied characters: a crazy painter, a group of neo-Nazis, and a mysterious girl who is the daughter of the feared man called the Plague-Spreader, supposed craftsman of the epidemic. During their return to the fortress, they soon find out about Gyno’s diverted experiments and what he has done to Alen’s girlfriend Alexis, rendering a final confrontation with Gyno inevitable.   The 1970s and the early 80s Italy produced a high number of zombie movies such as Zombie 2 (Lucio Fulci, 1979),Burial Ground (Le notti del terrore, Andrea Bianchi, 1981), Nightmare City (Incubo sulla città contaminate, Umberto Lenzi, 1980), City of the Living Dead (Paura nella città dei morti viventi, Lucio Fulci, 1980) and Hell of the Living Dead (Virus, Bruno Mattei, 1980) just to name a few. But since then the undead completely disappeared from Italian horror cinema – until now that is, because directors Marco Ristori and Luca Boni has brought the Italian zombies back to life with their new feature film Eaters. Written by Marco Ristori and Germano Tarricone, Eaters is without a doubt heavily influenced by zombie maestro George A. Romero’s classic Day of the Dead (1985). The military-like men and the scientist hiding in order to survive while trying to come up with some sort of solution, is very much reminiscent to the aforementioned Romero movie, but it actually works quite well and makes Eaters a more classical and pure zombie movie, unlike many other recent films in the genre, and it will most probably be especially appealing to fans of Romero's zombie ideology and narrative style. Opening with a great credit sequence showing various newscasts reporting of the great epidemic and ultimately telling us that the pope himself has just committed suicide, leaving a note saying “I do not want to come back”, the tone is set for what is to follow – a somber film about a world devastated by a fatal epidemic. I honestly thought this movie would be much like The Horde (La horde, Yannick Dahan, Benjamin Rocher, 2009) – an action packed fast paced tour de force of the undead. I was glad to find out I was wrong. Not because I don’t like movies like that, but simply because most of the newer zombie films makes far more use of bombastic action, rather than focusing the energy on the story and the human relationships. Eaters does hold its share of action and gore, but if one can see beyond that there’s much more to find. A large part of the film can be characterized as a road movie with Igor and Alen driving around from place to place encountering different people and of course plenty of zombies. The road movie element is a welcome addition and works so well because the driving scenes with Alen and Igor allows the audience to get closer to these two main characters and get to know them through their dialogue and interaction with each other. In addition I must mention the short but priceless scene, with Igor sitting in the passenger seat singing Wham’s “Wake me up before you go go”. Another good element incorporated is the one concerning Alen and his beloved girlfriend Alexis who is being held captive in the research center because she carries the virus. We see Alen watch her on the surveillance monitor, longing for her and remembering their time together before the world was devastated by the Great Epidemic. This does not take up much of the movie, but it is still a strong element and an emotional dilemma that few newer zombie movies contain.   Technically the film is a beaut to behold. Shot in High Definition on the small but highly effective Canon Mark II D5 camera, Eaters looks like big-budget 35mm production with plenty of striking visuals making great use of close-ups, and holding a superb colorgrading. The special F/X make-up also needs to be mentioned as it is simply fantastic and the zombie designs are of the old school kind, once again with a respectful nod to Romero and Savini’s zombies inDay of the Dead.   Even though Eaters is in no way a masterpiece, nor particularly original, I’m still extremely fond of this little Italian zombie shocker, and I can honestly say that it’s one of the best zombie films I have seen in years, as it holds just about everything I love about the genre like desolate landscapes, solitude, despair and the constant feeling of insecurity. But most important it has a well told storyline, great dialogue and the classic Romero element with a handful of people bound together by the desire for survival. It’s not so much about the zombies, but about the human relationships between the survivors. Combine this with the fantastic F/X make-up, great locations, a fitting score and an overall heavy and gloomy atmosphere and you have a film that I believe most true zombie fans will eat right up.

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Permalink Reply by KOMRAD RHINO☭ on March 9, 2012 at 4:44pm

i gotta get another one of these. mom like it so well that i gave her mine. lol.

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Permalink Reply by Komrad Zombie Slayer☭ on May 26, 2013 at 9:39pm

Eaters is on Amazon instant if anyone wants to see it.

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Permalink Reply by KOMRAD RHINO☭ on May 27, 2013 at 12:09am

going there in a few. lol

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Permalink Reply by Vicious Lee on May 27, 2013 at 3:03pm

I am going to buy it on amazon this week! Thank You so much!

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Permalink Reply by Komrad Venessa Wicked☭ on May 27, 2013 at 5:19pm

I have it in my amazon watch list!

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Permalink Reply by KOMRAD RHINO☭ on May 27, 2013 at 8:34pm

i swear that this movie looks bad ass. lol

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Permalink Reply by saint.357 on June 22, 2013 at 4:32pm

so i just finished watching this and I'm sorry to say i wasn't impressed. sure it looked beautiful and the zombies were top quality, walking dead level. (which is now the standard i hold every zombie makeup to) the gore was even good where you can find it. but i don't know maybe it's too European for me. it was really slow and the characters while nicely acted were so stereotypical. the love worn hero, the way to cocky and bad ass best friend. the crazy scientist with delusions of god hood. and the Nazi don't get me started on the Nazi. on the plus side the infertility angel was interesting if not the most original. all and all I'd give it a b- better then average but not a game changer by any means. it just couldn't grab my attention 30 minuets in and i had to take a break, i don't know. one time watch for me and only because i love zombies.

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Permalink Reply by Komrad Venessa Wicked☭ on June 22, 2013 at 4:56pm

Tonight is the night... I am going to rent it on amazon. Since you did not care for Eaters tell me what Zombie movies are your favorites? 

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Permalink Reply by saint.357 on June 22, 2013 at 5:42pm

well obviously the holy trinity is first. can't call yourself a true zombie fan if they aren't at the top of your list. then in no particular order, dance of the dead, Shawn of the dead, brain dead, zombie 2, the dead, the walking dead, all of the evil dead series although you can say their not really zombies, exit humanity, high school of the dead, the reanimator movies, bio dead, boy eats girl, chillerama (sex crazed zombies funny as hell) chud 2 bud the chud, dead snow, Berlin undead, devil's playground, dog house, dylan dog dead of night (funny zombies), fido, go goa gone, the horde, Mulberry Street (rat zombies), Night of the Comet (classic),Quarantine and rec,Resident Evil movies although the new ones aren't my favorites,The Return of the Living Dead (loved all those movies) and I'm sure there's even more i can't remember. eaters is good it has all the right pieces i just don't think it was put together right. maybe it was pace, up it a little bit and it might be really good i don't know.

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Permalink Reply by KOMRAD RHINO☭ on June 22, 2013 at 7:12pm

i didnt think it was a bad movie at all. i rather liked it. sure i had to read it because the one i watched online was the original making of it. but i really liked it. enough to put in my collection. i guess it impressed you as much as japanese zombie films do me. lol. but most over seas films i guess are a more of a taste thing. the reason i liked it was because of the action it displayed and the gore and zombie action. and yes. the gun play. lol. but even though it did have a few drawbacks. i really liked it.

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Permalink Reply by saint.357 on June 22, 2013 at 7:30pm

i never said i didn't like it, and I'm glad i took the time to download it and find subs. it's just you know what it felt like to me. a really good b movie. really god, but at the end of the day it was just missing that spark that turns a b into an a. i don't know i still liked it as a zombie film. i think it just needed to be amped up a little

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