Empire UK

132

COLUMN

MOVIE

DUNGEON

Kim

Newman’s

WEREWOLVES WEIRDOS AND

— SHRIEK! — WASPS!

ILLUSTRATION JOHN ROYLE

HIS MONTH’S

sounds-a-lot-more-

entertaining-than-it-

is SyFy mutant-shark

eff ort is 3-Headed

Shark Attack a sequel

to 2-Headed Shark

Attack which raises hopes that the trilogy

will wind up with prequel 1-Headed Shark

Attack. It aff ords a glimpse of Danny Trejo

taking his machete to a (three-headed)

shark but little else of interest. Even lower

down the food chain Zombie Shark off ers

sharks zombies and zombie sharks but is

mainly wasted on boring human drama.

Zombies are also genespliced with

other exploitation staples. Taiwan’s

Zombie Fight Club starts out as a rip-

off of The Raid with cops battling through

a besieged building then skips ahead to

show the survivors gamely cage-fi ghting

the infected. It’s ramshackle schlock but

at least delivers the promised gory action

while fi nding excuses to have scantily

clad starlets fi ghting off fl esh-eaters.

British low-budget horror is thriving

at present. Mark Murphy’s Awaiting is a

Yorkshire-set captivity story in the Misery

vein with a lawyer (Rupert Hill) hauled out

of a car wreck by a cheery farmer (Tony

Curran) who insists he stay and celebrate

Christmas in September with his lonely

teenage daughter (Diana Vickers).

Character actor Curran goes full-on

maniac while the plot springs nasty

surprises in the woodshed before a wildly

violent fi nish. Jeremy Wooding ’s Blood

Moon is unique: a British-made werewolf

Western which lets Shaun Dooley do his

best Duke/Clint snarl as a mystery man

who fl ags down a stagecoach which gets

waylaid by outlaws and werewolves in

a ghost town. Hey Zombie Shark — this

is how you mix and match genres.

Russell Friedenberg ’s Wind Walkers

is another horror Western with a more

serious ecological undertone. Native

American spirits haunt the Florida

Everglades as a hunting party is harrassed

by a mad or possessed friend. It’s

atmospheric and thoughtful with good

low-key character work. Riley Stearns’

Faults is mostly a two-character play-

like piece with a jaded cult deprogrammer

(twitchy character actor Leland Orser)

struggling to talk an oddly unconcern

cultist (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) ou

the sect she has joined and falling un

her infl uence. It is nicely twisted and

makes good use of its limited setting

More sick comedy erupts in a coup

of social-event-gone-wrong films. In

Peter Wellington’s Cottage Country

Tyler Labine’s attempt to propose to M

Akerman is scuppered when a party a

lake descends to axe-murder and bod

dismemberment while Benni Diez’s

Stung has a country house gathering

beset by wasps whose sting causes gi

insects to erupt out of victims. Both h

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DUNGEON PICKS

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1

2

3

“WE GOT A

DEVELOPMENT.

ALL THE

SHARKS’ BITE

VICTIMS ARE

TURNING INTO

ZOMBIES.”

ZOMBIE SHARK