Deadhunter: Sevillian Zombies

Spain to me has often been a slow burner when it comes to genre movies, outside of the stunning work of greats like Alex (La Communidad) D'Iglesia and Santiago (Torrente) Segura there's not been much to sing and dance about, more so on the new filmmaker front. That was until last year when I had the great fortune to check out Julián Lara's first short no budget schlocker 'Evil Night'. On the promotional DVDR for 'Evil Night' there was a promo reel for Lara's planned first full length feature 'Deadhunter' which promised yet more of Lara's delightful no brainer zombie fun. So it was with a welcome grin that a year later I sat down to enjoy the finished full length 'Deadhunter: Sevillian Zombies' for the first time!

The film opens with a gaggle of frisky women who are enjoying a private strip show by a leather clad muscle bound beefcake, whilst drooling and hollering the doorbell goes and as expected their late to the scene friend Carmen arrives, only she wants to take more than a bite from said aforementioned hapless male dancer. You see Carmen has been turned into an undead flesh-eating zombie, one of many that are starting to appear all over the city of Sevilla.

Following this amusing set piece opening, we get to the meat of the matter as we are introduced to our heroes the Deadhunters - a laid back bunch of zombie hunters whose job is top try clean up the streets of Sevilla of the lurching undead menace. And so this in fact is all you really need to know about this massively entertaining no budget zombie gem! As the film progresses we get to see the Deadhunters go about their merry blood soaked business blowing away zombies, albeit here in a gut chuckling genre loving manner with some classic very original set pieces.

Some of the key moments for myself watching this wee cracker included a hilarious fight between a one legged crippled pensioner who takes on the (as he amusingly calls them) "motherfucker zambies" to get back what he believes is his long missed leg (the camera work here is priceless). There's the obligatory mall scene (Lara's unbridled love for 'Dawn of the Dead' showing through), a classic hospital zombie carnage scene (with a seriously sexy nurse for eye candy who has the great line "you're a great motherfucker father" when saved by a gun toting priest and a poor guy in a wheelchair trying to wheel away at speed from the attacking zombies) but the moment that had me laughing out loud the most was the downright hysterical scene where (with what seems to be the cameo of a Spanish TV celebrity) this guy does the 'dance of the handkerchief' (everyone join in now!) to evade some pursuing zombies - this scene had me in stitches with it's mix of old school Spanish TV variety show and comedic zombie fun. There's also a cameo by Troma main man (who gets absolutely everywhere these days) Lloyd Kaufman who makes a brief appearance to get killed by a zombie at a festival screening (perhaps apt some might say?!)

Whilst 'Deadhunter:Sevillian Zombies' may not be to everyone tastes due to the fact that it really is virtually bereft of a plot and is (for me anyway welcomingly) undemanding, the more open minded amongst you (myself included) will find Julián Lara has completely ignored budget restrictions and delivered a damn good and vastly entertaining low budget zombie splatter movie! Lara's direction and pacing throughout is bang on moving along at lightning pace with the guts, gore and laughter coming thick and fast.

I'm obviously not the only person who thinks that Lara is a filmmaker of great talent and 'Deadhunter' is of some worthy note as the film has already been receiving much attention in the Spanish festival circuit and at low key screenings, so with this albeit barebones DVDR release we can all see what the fuss is about. Sadly unlike it's 'Evil Night' predecessor (a disc packed with cool bonus features) this release only contains the film itself, but that said this is a promo only review screener version and we can hope that an insightful DVD licensor will have the hindsight to pick this up for a mainstream release at some point?

Remember that gratifying feeling you got when you first watched similar low budget films like 'Bad Taste' or 'Premutos'? Well with 'Deadhunter: Sevillian Zombies' Julián Lara delivers that gutsy laugh out loud gore fun feeling all over again. Now if only someone would give Lara the money to make his first big money feature? 'Deadhunter 2' anyone? Switch off your brain, get the beers in and enjoy!

For more info on 'Deadhunter: Sevillian Zombies' and filmmaker Julián Lara visit the films production website by clicking here.

Review by Alan Simpson