The Vanguard Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
This gore-laden horror film imagines a terrifying future in which overpopulation and war have left the world a crozzled hull, beset by ragtag bands of human wreckage struggling for survival. If that weren't bleak enough, there's a cannibalistic twist to this dystopian scenario—zombies. THE VANGUARD follows a solitary man, pursued by both the living and the dead, as he fights to stay alive.
| Jack Bailey | Lead Biosyn |
| Ray Bullock Jr. | Max |
| Terry Cole | Tracker #4 |
| Rob Cooper | Biosyn #2 |
| Bahi Ghubril | Hareem Jabbar |
| Shiv Grewal | Tracker/Jamal |
| Christopher Hatherall | Biosyn |
| Martin Hobbs | Tracker #3 |
| Farhan Khan | Tracker #2 |
| Steve Weston | Zac |
| Simon Whyman | Biosyn #4 |
| Karen Admiraal | Linda |
| Emma Choy | Rachael |
| Matthew Hope |
3.70 out of 10 (380 votes)
Visitor Reviews
A Unique Vision of the Zombie Eschatology
posted on 18 Jun 2009Eventually, the zombie apocalypse will come. If you've seen enough horror movies, you've seen a few variations of this theme. "The Vanguard" is another where zombies have taken over through an infection and only a lucky few have the antibodies to survive. It's sort of "28 Days Later" meets "Last Man on Earth"... but in the woods.I watched this one with my friend Seth, who didn't really like it all that much. I liked it more. I'm not saying it's a great film, but it's not worthless either... much better than some of the crud Anchor Bay has been pumping out ("Five Across the Eyes", "Bryan Loves You"). For what appears to be a low budget, the director (Matthew Hope, also the writer) made a great use of the actors and the special effects were done in a way that wasn't insulting to the audience. I prefer classic techniques, but the computer effects here were tolerable.Some of it may be cheesy. The beginning features a bicycle ride that gives the impression that the film may be silly. Don't let that fool you. Also, the protagonist (Ray Bullock Jr.) may go a bit overboard with the hatchets. But you have to make sure the zombies are really dead. Beyond that, I thought the film was visually stunning, especially the lead actor's appearance -- the beard kept me glued to the screen, and the rain poncho fit well.Now, is this the best zombie film? No. Best post-apocalyptic film? Probably not. But it's a worthy addition to the various subgenres. I think the director and lead actor need to be commended for this one and I hope they both continue in the world of horror or movies in general. I see great potential in them both.
yeah, it grew on me
posted on 31 May 2009I actually wound up liking this movie and if i had known it was a zombie movie i'd never have bothered. The scene when Max is rambling down a woodland path on a chopper bicycle nearly made me turn it off but i stuck with it on account of being intrigued, I like max's dystopian dialogue with himself, questions he poses with no answer, nothing was ever explicitly stated and I think that was the best thing about this movie, you decide and I could find a way to make sense of it, there were enough clues. For me max's mother was key, in the flashbacks i got the sense that under the pressure of the corporation she hatched her own master plan - her son. in a world where only the elite or the useful were deemed worthy of survival the mother, who took her own life after creating the virus, loaded it with a bomb, she didn't kill mankind but turned them into savages creating an enemy, she left max not only the antidote and immunity but also a private army to fight back with. natures revenge for the tyranny of what the powerful man had become. I found the script good, the characters unpredictable and real, the premise excellent and overall i think this was a refreshing and original take on a done to death theme. Clearly it doesn't appeal to everyone perhaps by virtue of the fact that it isn't really a horror or gore fest and the plot certainly isn't handed over on a plate. its an intelligent piece of work and you will have to dig down into your own brain for the missing pieces, i found it provoked my thought and would recommend it as a more a work of art rather than a horror flick
awful, awful, awful film
posted on 25 May 2009OK, I was looking through the DVD's in my local supermarket and 'The Vanguard' caught my eye. So I pick it up, turn it over and read the sleeve. Think to myself: hey, this sounds like it might be a good film.... oh my god!!! I could not be more wrong. In my opinion this film is the biggest pile of steaming boring dull dull dull crap I have ever seen, and I've seen some real crap films. It appears to be a very low budget film, and even though there's nothing wrong with that, it just adds to the cheap mind numbing feel of this movie. If I could, I wouldn't of even rated this movie with the score of 1 - it really is that awful. By all means, make your own mind up, but I seriously advise all to avoid this dross at all costs....you have been warned x
Absolute Cheese only salvaged by a decent story line
posted on 11 May 2009I never heard of this movie until I took the risk of buying this title from the movie store. The movie wound up operating well within it's tiny budget. This movie would have gotten a higher rating if it was backed up by better special effects. This movie had me shaking my head when in the beginning the main character was rolling down the forest IN HIS BMX bike. (How cool is that, right?) And then...I hear zombie noises that sound like fake synthesizer music. I am thinking to myself, wow. The zombies were bloodless and looked like they were dressing up for a party rather than their decaying deathly looking predecessors that were far more scary. They looked like they pretending to maul each to death out of laughter. Oh well, enough of the bad stuff on this movie. On with the good things about this movie. Camera work wasn't as subpar with the special effects. The footage and the editing was clean. Listening to each character tell their story and the character development was actually intriguing. Overall, this is just another DVD on my shelf that gonna collect some dust for a while. 4/10
Great Movie Stop Complaining
posted on 03 May 2009This movie was different but not in a bad way. Usual zombie fans might not like it because this movie has a story outside of the zombies. Like all the good zombie films the zombies are merely background while the characters themselves bring the story to life giving it edge and grittiness.For being a low budget movie it did a great job of being one of those awesome movies where you get lost in the story it is so intriguing. Fact is it was over and I still found myself wanting more from the sheer brilliance of this masterpiece.Movies like this this are in the horror genre that I love do not come along often enough. Its films such as these that set a new standard for the industry to follow. SO study hard NYU students you have a tough act to follow!
If I could only rate this movie with a CERO ( 0 )
posted on 29 Apr 2009Because of this guy below I wasted a good 15 minutes:Author: malvolio-5 I saw a preview of this and it is without a doubt one of the most spectacularly invigorating and exciting movies I've had the pleasure of seeing in years! It has cult classic written all over it! It's an unashamedly violent, rough, gory, terrifying thrill-ride. With bold, exciting direction and some of the scariest most menacingly dynamic "zombies" ever committed to celluloid, this makes 28 Days Later and I Am Legend look like The Teletubbies. The lead protagonist, Max, sets a new template for proper, masculine heroes that have been sorely lacking from Hollywood movies since the '70s, and I guarantee his "look" is set to become truly iconic. Do yourself a favor and seek this movie out! It simply kicks ass!. One word can be enough to describe this movie AWFUL, I wasted 15 minutes watching this, thanks to malvolio-5 who rated it as a "Cult Classic" and other stuff that I made myself forget. After I woke up and took the DVD out of the player I tossed it in the trash, don't waste your time or money on this movie.
Not very effective - stalker video game rip off
posted on 14 Mar 2009A well known genre convention is running through the woods however surely any narrative cannot maintain flight through the woods without actually building tension in any way what so ever and still think it is going to be effective in engaging the viewer. This film as stated by others attempts an art-house take on the subject ,however the effectiveness of this is undermined by low production values and visual repetition.A small and interesting looking cast cannot save this film or my Friday night in front of the little screen they simply created a visual and auditory track to co exist with my shallow snoring and the odd little fart as I rolled over and went to sleep, and found my self having to re watch it in the morning just to make sure it did in fact lack anything much to hold my attention.
This movie sucks!
posted on 26 Feb 2009I agree that I wish we could give a ZERO! This is not even remotely scary or "horror". It didn't make me "think". It doesn't make you contemplate an apocalyptic future. It doesn't do anything except make you wonder when it is actually going to get good and make it worth your time. Biggest waste of 90 minutes ever!!! The acting is awful. The character of Max is not worthy of caring about. The whole "savior" coming to help him is only a brief blip in the last few minutes and then it doesn't explain why he doesn't trust this person he's been waiting for. The scenes with Max's mother are pointless. It doesn't actually add anything to the movie. Please don't waste your time.
I actually really enjoyed this movie
posted on 12 Feb 2009I don't know why everyone was so harsh on this movie. I'm a zombie freak. every time i find a new zombie movie i have to buy it. so trust me i've seen a lot of bad zombie movies(almost all horror fest for example). this movie starts off very campy and corny. it made me laugh a bit. but as the movie goes on it really turns to a nice "zombie" flick. i wouldn't consider the biosyns(what they call the living dead in the movie) zombies. they run around like monkeys, and you can kill them by just chopping off a limb or two. but some things i really liked about the movie was the zombies actually fought each other. very rarely do i over see that in a zombie movie and i loved it. i loved the role of the army in this movie, why the virus was created and how it backfired. i just really liked the movie. it was a really fresh look at the zombie genre and i can't wait for the second one. hopefully this will green light him for a bigger budget.
On Par with The Signal in low-budget sci-fi horror
posted on 04 Feb 2009It's easy to write off films when the genre becomes too popular and overused. Fortunately, zombie films seem to spring forth lots of great ideas from writers and directors, and has again in Vanguard.In a way, it's derivative of Resident Evil, but it adds more complexity into the zombies, so both zombie fans and those feeling zombie boredom creeping up will be happy.The only thing wrong with this film is that it needed more money so that the opening could have been done better, better settings, some better actors could have been used in important or additional roles, and the writer could have hired someone to direct or at least another set of eyes to fix a few gaps in the flow of the film and story integration.Even compared with big-budget sci-fi horror, this is an impressive film. Both the acting and visual FX are much better than typical horror. It doesn't depend on excessive darkness and fade outs to hide the inability of the film crew to make it believable.
missed chance
posted on 17 Jan 2009I've seen The Vanguard at the BIFFF in Brussels. A got drawn by the Poster 'refreshing, will leave you craving for more' Yeah Right. This film is extremely low budget (there's nothing wrong with low budget films if they're well made, but this one obviously is not) and has the look and feel of a student's project. The idea is OK, but the horror in this is totally absent. THere's no gore either. The one scene where blood splatters out of a guy's chest, it's so fake it's not even funny. The plot is full of holes and doesn't work up to a climax. There's only a flat line. The zombies are unconvincing and confused: do they attack you always, or just when they feel like it? The playground is a field and a couple of hundred square meters of wood. The characters only run around in the wood and go nowhere (just like the plot). This film is a total waste of your precious and expensive time. If you want to see zombies, go see Romero's latest: Diary of the Dead, at least that one is well executed.
The End of the World as we don't Want to Know it!
posted on 25 Oct 2008I really, really, REALLY wanted to like this brand new and ambitious Sci-Fi/horror hybrid, especially because it blends some of my favorite genre themes (life after the apocalypse, scientific experiments gone wrong…) with a free-spirited and low-budget approach of the film-making business. This genre certainly isn't dead and buried yet, and young directors are able to prove it as long as they just got a couple of great inventive story ideas and the talent to create an atmosphere of damnation without financial means. Matthew Hope, writer and director of "The Vanguard", surely has a vague idea of all these fundamental requirements, but not yet enough capacities to deliver a memorable movie. "The Vanguard" sadly ends up being a mishmash of semi-processed topics and improperly explained sub plots. Hope's screenplay is full of contradictions that invoke confusing and a total disbelief regarding all the post-apocalyptic events depicted on screen. Supposedly the entire planet became nearly uninhabitable after WWIII, yet everything takes place in peaceful forests and flourishing meadows. The world also supposedly suffers from overpopulation, yet everything looks forsaken. Monkey-type zombies supposedly threaten the last remaining survivors, yet they're as good as blind and can easily be defeated by a simply smash on the head. How are you supposed to take the apocalypse seriously when one of the last men on earth drives a bicycle resembling a Harley Davidson, lives in a wooden cage in the forest and battles his zombie opponents with two mini-axes? Max, the silent hero, combines forces with a military guinea pig and a female scientist, but only to aimlessly drift through the woods for the rest of the film. Max' blood is the antidote to cure the infected zombies (referred at as "Biosyns"), but nobody seems to be interested in saving humanity anymore. "The Vanguard" is a seriously frustrating film and comes across as unfinished in practically all departments. The atmosphere of chaos and despair – essential for apocalyptic films – is never truly noticeable, the entire budget for make-up art went to just a few scenes (while the rest of the film is rather tame and bloodless) and the script solves none of the mysteries it created. The majorities of shortcoming can be blamed on a lack of budget, but still there was more than enough potential to accomplish something better than this.
Much better then the IMDb ratings
posted on 11 Oct 2008Once you read the other comments on this film you quickly figure out that people seem to either love or hate this movie. Which I believe would probably classify this movie as a success in the directors eyes with that alone.First this is not really a zombie movie (or infected for the purists) in the normal sense of the genre (they are only a minor part of the story) so if that's what you're looking for you may want to keep looking.This was a refreshingly new and fairly unique storyline for a movie within the zombie/infected genre. Typically a movie in this category can only keep your interest with gore or suspense, however with this film it was the story itself that keeps you watching.If you're hoping for a big budget 28 Days/weeks later, or George Romero type of movie with tonnes of Gore and a refined script.... then you may want to re-watch those.But if you enjoy a low budget movie with a decent script where all people involved with the project genuinely tried their best to make it work I would definitely recommend this.
An absolute cult classic.
posted on 29 Sep 2008I saw a preview of this and it is without a doubt one of the most spectacularly invigorating and exciting movies I've had the pleasure of seeing in years! It has cult classic written all over it! It's an un-ashamedly violent, rough, gory, terrifying thrill-ride. With bold, exciting direction and some of the scariest most menacingly dynamic "zombies" ever committed to celluloid, this makes 28 Days Later and I Am Legend look like The Teletubbies. The lead protagonist, Max, sets a new template for proper, masculine heroes that have been sorely lacking from Hollywood movies since the '70s, and I guarantee his "look" is set to become truly iconic. Do yourself a favour and seek this movie out! It simply kicks ass!
Perfection of crappiness
posted on 11 Sep 2008In the course of a year I watch app. 600-700 movies - and compared to most movies "The Vanguard" sucks big time. I really struggled to find a reason for why this movie was even made. I really wish all movie directors would spend more time thinking about what they want to say with their movies - instead of just collecting 90 minutes of worthless film and call it a movie.There's no plot - and the settings/scenery are unconvincing and the actors should really consider a career change, maybe somewhere in the fastfood or cleaning business - as they have no talent for anything, as this foul crap of a movie clearly shows.
Really not a bad try for an indie. You could do much worse.
posted on 10 Aug 2008I'm not going to beat around the bush - The Vanguard reeks of amateur student film-making. I'm not talking about the low quality of the stock, the lighting, the acting, or anything like that. Those things are all evident but not important. No, I'm talking about the self-important yet somehow meaningless voice narration, the tribal drums soundtrack, and the failed attempt to shoehorn in a political agenda... you know, the very things that student filmmakers live and breathe for.It's sad, because it it wasn't for those weakness, this would be an exceptional zombie movie. It has a fresh take on zombie lore, some great action scenes, and some very engaging and sympathetic characters.Matthew Hope - if you happen to read this - here's my tuppence for your future career... hang up the student pretentiousness and focus on what you're clearly better at - action and characterisation - and you will go far indeed.
A great character lost in a confused film
posted on 21 Jul 2008I really wanted to like this film- zombies and post-apocalyptic scenarios are precisely what I want to see on screen. It started out well. I liked Max- even his hand axes and chopper bike. The initial combat scenes were well put together, Max has a forceful and direct fighting style and Ray Bullock Jr delivers a tremendous physical performance. He could have carried the whole thing on his own. In fact, this could have been a terrific film even with its limited budget.However, as the film progressed the plot meandered and lost focus. It seemed to me that the writer was more concerned about making a political point (something along the lines of the evil Corporation inventing the threat of jihadist violence to keep the people at home distracted) than in actually creating a coherent story. Essentially it boils down to this- the evil Corp. wants to cull humanity but the scientists tasked with doing so have a change of heart and instead deliver a drug which turns people into savage, mindlessly killing zombies.I still haven't figured out how that is supposed to make sense.To add to the mix we have a rogue soldier who wants Max for his own mysterious goal, an escaping scientist who is trying to reach the resistance, an Arab figure sent to find Max from halfway around the world for some reason and the usual "evolving zombies" stuff. None of it ever comes to fruition after a lengthy journey. It's as if they just forgot about all of the plot lines they'd created. It's frustrating that all of it is dumped- it seems like an utter waste of the entire middle section of the film. Instead of an actual ending to the story the film concludes by having the zombies and the lead acting completely out of character.And that makes even less sense than the "we don't want to kill people so we'll change them into mass-murdering zombies instead".It's a real shame because the Max character deserves a much better film than this one.
Mediocre Horror movie
posted on 04 May 2008The movie had the tired premise of a world gone mad because of a viral agent, a la Resident Evil/28 * later. The low budget gave the film a visceral feel that was ultimately letdown by the mediocrity of the rest of it, ie. poor effects, rambling plot, poor cinematography.Honestly, I'm not even sure what the movie was trying to convey other than that people came, they saw, they fought a little, then most died. I suppose it sets up a back story for a sequel or something. The movie is filled with inconsistencies and plot holes that defy imagination. At the end, they revealed a plot twist that made it somewhat interesting, but again, turned the previous two hours into a 'why' session. Why doesn't it make sense? Why did I just waste 2 hours on this pile of crap? Why does anyone think this movie is good in any sense of the word? Why do some think it's in anyway original? Resident Evil did the same exact thing, but better.The acting was alright and the story did have some interesting premises, in that a corporation wanted to cull the Earth's population because of the sudden decrease in oil, ensuring the survival of the 'elite'. It has some hints of behavioral conditioning that it never really explored beyond a few lines of dialogue between the characters, which might have made things more coherent.Overall, this movie is simply a mediocre attempt at Resident Evil with a male protagonist but it ultimately fails because of the lack of a cohesive plot. They never really explored any of the issues at hand and tried to develop the main character, but ultimately failed by leaving too many unanswered questions.
A Great Fresh Take on an Otherwise Tired Genre
posted on 02 May 2008Well if there is one genre done to death (no pun intended) it is the zombie movie. We have the holy war still waging between fast and slow zombies. We have zombies that talk, act like normal people, shuffle, learn how to do various things (whatever the plot needs), evolve, and some attempts to make them cute. Besides the vampire there is no other great cliché movie. Having said this, every once in a while you see a film take the genre in a way you didn't imagine. The Vanguard is one of those very rare and dying breed. This film takes place in the UK and is after the world has ended. Civilization is represented by the evil Corporation (we never learn it's name) and the barbarians are represented by the Biosyns. They like the zombies in 28 Days Later are fueled by rage but unlike 28 Days they are evolving. The main character is Max and his story takes you on a very strange but also incredibly enjoyable ride with an ending that you probably won't see coming but will be impressed with none the less. A worthy addition to my horror collection and well worth you time to check it out.
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Well worth a watch and to be on the shelf
posted on 05 Aug 2009These days I believe that everyone wants the same boring story with all sorts of cool special effects and to be wowed. This movie brings such an intensity to its genre and is a very special film. Sometimes, it is important for people to experiment and try something new and when you see this movie it is for sure something new. Now at times it can be slow but all in all the movie is terrific and it should be viewed by all those who have a taste in movies that are not part of the normal mainstream. So take a chance I think you will be presently surprised and if not then maybe you are just not into the independent horror/scifi/independent film. That's okay, see this movie with an open mind and leave and don't think hey compared to this and this it wasn't all that great. This is an original doesn't need to be compared just enjoyed and appreciated.