DeadHunter: Sevillian Zombies

Long time regular readers of SGM will know I've long been championing the work of upcoming Spanish indie genre filmmaker Julián Lara. His catalogue of low budget zombie extravaganzas have been somewhat scarcely seen outside of the Spanish festival circuit but at long last the lovely folk at Crypt Keeper in the UK have licensed all of Lara's work and packaged them together in this bumper DVD special edition release…

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 I had the great fortune to check out Julián Lara's work and first up on this special edition DVD collection is Lara's first full length feature 'Deadhunter: Sevillian Zombies' …

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 zombies" 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.

Now it has to be said, producers of this fine DVD release Crypt Keeper could easily have just released 'DeadHunter' onto the market and left matters at that; but credit where it's due and I raise a glass of grateful thankfulness as they have kindly included all of Lara's other undead short features on this lovely package.

Next up on the Spanish living dead menu for our delectation is Lara's excellent latest short opus 'Zombie Xtreme' (subtitled in English for the very first time ever).

The film is set a year after the events of the first 'Deadhunter' movie where we find the zombie busting Deadhunter team of that storyline have now been disbanded and banned from participating in any undead blasting activities. Well restless ex-zombie hunters Julián and Calamator are bored without the excitement of blowing away the undead so when they discover a bizarre real life variation of 'paint ball' gaming but with real zombies (and live ammo) has been set up they just cannot resist having some fun!

Cue blood, guts and laughs a plenty as we get knee deep in brains and grue in yet another Julián Lara splatter gem. With a running time of under half an hour 'Zombie Xtreme' never outstays its welcome, in fact if anything it leaves you wanting for more (and if this is anything to go by then the sooner we can savour 'Deadhunter 2' the better!) What is especially pleasing to note is that with each production Lara's production values and filmmaking qualities get so much better. Not that his earlier work was disappointing but it's just so gratifying to see such a positive curve visible in his talents.

Amusingly, following the success of the hilarious 'dancing handkerchief' cameo in 'Deadhunter' Lara has followed this up in 'Zombie Xtreme' with yet another appearance by a Spanish TV celebrity, this time in the form of celebrity clown Arlekín who here bewilders the undead (including one helluva sexy topless zombie babe) with his singing talents - priceless viewing!

Rounding off this Lara undead DVD festival is his first splatter short, the no budget plotless zombie fun that is 'Evil Night'. I say plotless but we do get a scene setting scenario of two young couples heading out into the woods for a night of camping, drinking and general teen shenanigans. But before the youngsters have any hope of forming any sort of character development a legion of the undead arrive and swiftly tear them to shreds for our gore loving delectation for the remainder (which in fact is the bulk) of the movie. This is indeed what we want…zombies, gore and not much more! No point in making mention of anyones acting skills as they have little opportunity to flex them but needless to say the four lead victims do their job fine but it is the zombies that steal the show with not only some very impressive zombie make ups but there's also plenty of blood spraying about the place and some very meaty flesh eating gore to keep splatter fans happy (and there's even a few well timed visceral chuckles in there also). 20 minutes of bloody fun and the perfect late night mindless beer swilling viewing.

The film itself looks faultless and comes with (for what they're worth considering this is purely plotless gory fun) English subtitles. It should also be pointed out that this is the 'uncut international version' but the disc also includes (if you stay past 'Evil Night's end credits) the full extended Spanish version which runs almost twice as long (at 38 minutes) adding a mass of story and dialogue that was shorn for the gory short version, admittedly it would have been nice to have the option of watching this longer cut with English subtitles also so we can actually enjoy the luckless leads performances.

Also included between both versions of 'Evil Night' you'll find the original promo reel for 'Deadhunter: Sevillian Zombies' and elsewhere on the disc you'll find Troma guru Lloyd Kaufman's praise of Lara's work. Rounding the package off Crypt Keeper have included a trailer reel of some of their other fine releases (including some of their excellent inhouse genre productions such as the horror sleeper gem 'Cadaver Bay).

Remember that gratifying feeling you got when you first watched similar low budget gems like 'Bad Taste' or 'Premutos'? Well with this 'Deadhunter: Sevillian Zombies' undead DVD collection Crypt Keeper revive that feeling and deliver THE essential Julián Lara splatter package. Now if only someone would give Lara the money to make his first big money feature? 'Deadhunter 2: Patera of the Dead' anyone? A cracking DVD package of low budget undead fun and perhaps Crypt Keeper's finest release to date - buy this now!

Review by Alan Simpson