Awaken the Dead (2007)
Review by Mitch Emerson
Awaken the Dead is a low budget horror film that raises the bar more often than not. Taking the standards of zombie films and adding a slight twist makes this one of the best films that I have reviewed for Fatally-Yours.com. A plot that includes conspiracies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Asian Schoolgirls, killer pimps and an assassin turned priest makes Awaken the Dead sound like a comedy or a so-bad-it’s-funny schlock fest. Let me tell you, it is a pretty enjoyable piece of work. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have it’s share of problems but all in all the good outweigh the bad.
Father Christopher (Gary Kohn) awakens one morning to find a note from an old “friend,” Jeremiah(Michael Robert Nyman), telling him to go to his house and wait for him there. Once there he meets Mary (Lindsey Morris), Jeremiah’s daughter. While they are waiting, all hell breaks loose. The dead have awakened and boy, are they hungry. More survivors come to the house (which is fortified and nearly impenetrable. Coincidence? Maybe.) Tempers flare, secrets are revealed and the survivors go on a mission to get to the truth. Who is the guy taking notes who remains untouched by the dead? Why were they told to go to the house before the shit hit the fan? Where are the police or fireman? What secrets do Christopher and Mary both conceal? These are just a few of the questions that are answered in Awaken the Dead.
Let’s talk about the good things first, shall we? The first thing that jumped out at me was the music. After skimming the credits I found that most of the songs sprinkled throughout were done by a band called Edible Clowns And The Gentle Fracture. Kinda reminds me of NIN and works beautifully for the tone of the film. In between songs is a decent score that fills in the gaps quite well most of the time. Director Jeff Brookshire doesn’t overuse the gore either. Sure there are few shots of zombies eating intestines and what not, but it isn’t the focus of the film. This is about the story and the characters. Both of which have some great twists and turns that may be slightly cliché, but are still done differently enough that it’s not a cookie cutter film.
In these low budget horror films you never know what to expect from the cast and I was pleasantly surprised. Gary Kohn has been in just enough movies and TV to seem familiar. He has been on shows like Charmed, Judging Amy and ER and it shows. He is by far the best performer here as a priest trying to atone for past sins. Now the last film I saw where a priest got all violent on some zombies was Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive and that priest was just corny. Kohn’s Christopher, with his sunken eyes and beard stubble shows a man tormented by his past and manages to not look absurd holding dual pistols. Lindsey Morris as Mary comes off as a little whiny at times but for the most part puts in a decent performance as a girl hiding from her past. Nate Witty provides most of the comedy as Stanley, a Jehovah’s Witness who picked the wrong neighborhood to canvass. Unfortunately, some of the jokes fall a little flat but he does get to deliver the best line, calling one zombie a “walking meat puppet”. That garnered a snort from me I must say.
But, with the good comes the bad. Fortunately, the bad was at the very end in the form of Michael Robert Nyman as Jeremiah. Not only is he way over the top but he doesn’t even look old enough to be Mary’s father!
Now there are some issues, but the only one that I would say hurt the film is that it doesn’t follow it’s own rules. Early in the film Stanley says that he hid in a tree all night because zombies can’t climb. Then, a little later Christopher goes out into the back yard and gets attacked by zombies that jump off the roof at him, not to mention that the yard is fenced in and locked up. So how did they get in the yard and on the roof? I will never claim to know all of my grammar, but I know when words are used correctly and there is some glaringly obvious misuse of the English language. One example is Mary says that the house is invincible. Places are impenetrable, not invincible. At another point someone asks, “How did these creatures happen?” Sorry guys, creatures either exist or are created. Shit happens, not creatures.
Those few issues aside, Awaken the Dead is another honorable entry in the zombie niche of horror. It’s one I might actually watch again!
Until the dead really walk the earth, keep reading. Seriously, keep reading my reviews until the dead walk the earth, please?
Awaken the Dead’s Official Site
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