Gangs of the Dead (aka Last Rites)

I had read a little about Gangs of the Dead last year and was pretty excited for it. I thought it sounded very action oriented and I was happy to see a zombie genre film that wasn’t white washed or set in the country. So when it showed up in the discount bin at the used movie store I picked it right on up for $9. Does it deliver? Rachel (her comments in red) and I find out.

STAT SHEET

SUB-SUB-GENRE: Urban
BEST ZOMBIE: Homeless hoody zombie from the film poster (green space puke, good stuff)

IS IT SCARY?: No

PAIRED COCKTAIL: a 45 of King Cobra in a brown bag will do you just fine

Right off the bat I was impressed by the make up on the hobos. As the camera looks upon them while an apocalyptic street preacher rants from a soapbox we see them looking very diseased and infected. These homeless are already zombie-like, inferring that the transition to living dead might actually be a step up for these poor souls. However we never get to explore this idea as the hobos are promptly smashed by a green comet and resurrected.

Then we rush to the main gangster characters on their way to an arms deal. I was really impressed by all the performances from the thugs; they gave the film a real edge. They weren’t acting like gang bangers; they are gang bangers. These characters could have easily be picked up from this film and dropped into Training Day (in fact you’ll recognize lead Noel Gugliemi from Training Day), Higher Learning, or even Boyz N the Hood. The cast is rounded out by Reggie Banister who fans will know from the Wishmaster series; and James C. Burns from a mobile Prison Break spin off doing his Richard Dean Anderson impression.

First we meet newcomer Ethan Ednee as Mac T and Ryan King as Snake Dog (really? Did these guys grow up in the hood in Grand Theft Auto?). Mac T is waxing philosophical on the status of his soul. He’s found the original zombie, Jesus, and wants to give up clockin’ for the straight life, after this last score of course. This scene evokes Samuel L. Jackson’s character Jules from Pulp Fiction. Enjoy this moment between these two characters, because it’s the last thing even close to character development we’ll get out of Gangs. The exchange between these two characters had an amateurish tone to me I blame the writing, possibly an inadvertent example of just how difficult it is to write dialogue that appears effortless. For all those people who accuse Tarantino of being a hack its moments like these, with earnest attempts from both actors that you have to appreciate the artistry of rapid-fire-humorous dialogue.

As strong as the male actors were, the female leads were let downs. This wasn’t the fault of the actresses; they just got lame characters. Characters so lame that they are capable of activating dormant feminist indignation. With only three women in this film each character falls prey to a different misogynist humilation. One appears to either be mentally retarded or have the mind of a child, she actually cries for her mommy, another gets two lines into a sentence before she’s called a dumb bitch and told to shut up or simply “bitch slapped” and the third is hardly used as a character at all. For the first two acts there is no place for women in this movie they’re either dumb, abused or ignored completely. Ultimately, a sadly missed opportunity in a genre that is no stranger to a woman kicking some ass and being a surprisingly powerful character—even the 11th hour twist involving one of the women characters falls painfully short of empowering. Latasha, played by Dayana Jamine, goes crazy after the opening slaughter, pulling a Barbara from Night of the Living Dead, and regresses into childhood. It didn’t work for me in Night, and it didn’t work for me here (however, in Night’s case I think I didn’t enjoy it because I saw the Savini remake first and loved the ballsy Barbara from that film).

In Gangs, two rival gangs, one African American, the other Hispanic, meet in a warehouse with the arms dealer Mitchell (Reggie Banister) who is playing both ends against the middle. The cops are spying on them and right as Dean Ander… James Burns gives the order to arrest; the zombies attack the cops. A few surviving cops end up in the warehouse with the gangs and all three try to work together to weather the storm. And then not much happens. There’s so much time given to the groups trying to backstab each other the zombies get put in the back ground. The action that is there is very poor; especially compared to the high standard their opening action sequence set. The Latinos find some foam 2x4s that they use for some cheesy zombie bashing. Even in the scenes where the actors were just holding the boards, you could tell they were using the foam ones instead of the real thing. There wasn’t much of a sound effect to go with the 2x4s either, just a wussy little thump instead of sickening crunch. Plus there was no gore in this part. I expected these gangsters would be capable of really fucking these zombies up, but I ended up being reminded of the pre-Bonnie & Clyde era of film violence where the characters clutch their chest and fall to the ground after getting shot. The action gets pumped up a little at the end, but the film had already lost my attention.

Sub par computer generated graphics are something I’m slowly getting used to in low budget horror films. When used right it can really add a lot to the films. I remember when I saw my first head shot done with CG, or gun shot done in After Effects I was really impressed. But then it seemed everyone was trying to fit these things into films that didn’t need them. I was expecting a lot from the CG in this film since director Duane Stinnett resume includes graphic work on computer games like True Crime, Starcraft, and Diablo. The comet that opened the film was passable, but all the explosions and flame added with CG looked flat and took me out of the moment. The real thing is always the way to go with special effects, and CG should be used to augment the real footage. Don’t “Do it in post.”

All this being said, I still liked this film. Gangs of the Dead strikes out to escape the cookie cutter formula, and they succeed in respects to setting and acting. Plus this film is great looking, very high quality video. However, the good gore at the beginning and end just point out the lull in the middle, and like the novel Xombies, there is not enough zombie action in the 2nd act.

2 out of 5 on the decomposition scale

© D.L. Noah 2007