Virus Undead Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
Flocks of wild birds darken the sky – some birds fall dead, while others attack innocent people.
| Alex Attimonelli | Zombie mit Sichel im Kopf |
| Philipp Danne | Robert Hansen |
| Marvin Gronen | Patrick |
| Jesse Inman | Dicker Mann |
| Nikolas Jürgens | Eugen |
| Joost Siedhoff | Professor Bergen |
| Wolfgang Stegemann | Zombie |
| Anna Breuer | Vanessa Lux |
| Birthe Wolter | Marlene |
| Ohmuthi |
3.80 out of 10 (156 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Acting up/down
posted on 03 Aug 2009If you like a movie or not, will be determined by many things. Do you like the genre is one of them. How much do you like the genre, would be the next criterion ... but even if you are an avid fan, I can only advise you to stay away from this.Another user said, that he thinks this is nicely shot for a low budget movie. I only agree on the fact, that this is indeed a low budget movie. And of course the fact, that this was shot in English for financial reasons. Even if you cut the movie some slack, for some nice shots (the DP should get praised for that and not the directors), the negative things are far worse than anything that might be called "good" in this movie ...It's starts from the simple premise of the story (nothing original or remotely interesting to be found here), goes on with an uninspired script and finally explodes with acting, that shouldn't be called "acting". The actors are clearly feeling uncomfortable speaking in English, but they should've seen that coming and cast others! And then there are quite a few other small things that add up to the very bad picture of this flick ...
if you're not American, don't try to sound like one!
posted on 31 May 2009where to start, i actually liked several aspects of this film. the effects weren't half bad and the nudity, although brief, was very sweet on the eyes...the story didn't really hang together in my eyes, it was an attempt to involve a lot of different aspects and i sort of missed the whole point of the film. the story was quite lacking in imagination, the acting was quite bad - a bunch of Germans trying to sound extremely American by simply using the f**k word in almost every sentence does NOT take away the heavy German accent, OK guys? - and several scenes really called for a LOT more reaction from these stone faced actors.Sure it's a horror film and I'm not expecting DeNiro to step in, but come on, at least PRETEND to be actors, OK? 4/10, that's all.. Nice cinematography though...
Revolutionary? No. But definitely not awful either.
posted on 03 May 2009This movie has received quite a bashing so far on this site, but I actually found it surprisingly good. OK, it isn't redefining the Zombie-Genre but there are some nice ideas and some unusual characters in this one. I also liked the setting - somewhere in the German East, I think. Most of the time the problem with this kind of movie is that you don't really care who dies and who doesn't because the characters are so lame but I didn't think so here. I read in one comment that the Zombies are slow and that this is a problem. Maybe this person is forgetting that lightning-fast undead people haven't been around for such a long time, not before 28 Days later if I recall correctly. And actually I never thought this to be such a spectacular idea. Anyway: I agree about not putting it on the same level as the mentioned film or Dawn of the Dead. But it's definitely worth having a beer and some chips and spending 90 minutes on it. Beats the Resident Evil Series if you ask me...;-)Oh and by the way...I saw the thing in Dortmund on the Fantasy Film Fest and there was no booing there...
Disappointing
posted on 18 Feb 2009I just watched Virus Undead and I have to admit I'm disappointed.First off, I was stunned that somebody on this production had the really stupid idea to have German actors speak English. While the guys certainly aren't bad with the language, some of them still have a pretty strong German accent, making the whole ordeal somewhat of a joke to me.On top of that, the movie tries way too hard to have your typical US hillbilly scenery and character clichés, which are already a vast exaggeration when set in the middle of nowhere in the US, but just don't work at all in a town in the middle of Germany. You have the default unfriendly "town sheriff", complete with sunglasses and donuts, the commonly known town ruffian, including tons of tattoos, a goatee, leather clothing and a pea-sized brain and they even have a "restaurant" in the middle of the woods making sausage out of any dead animal they can find. Those two things made me wonder why the writers were too afraid to actually try something fresh and simply go with the "set in Germany" thing and pull through with it. Instead, they chose to take the generic "hillbilly town" cliché and move it over here. Kind of idiotic. Just like the hillbilly town in horror flicks is a big exaggeration of clichés about American towns in the middle of nowhere, an exaggeration of clichés about small German towns would have been far more entertaining and would have worked a lot better. Basically, this movie tries very hard to be an American B-movie set in Germany played by German actors, which was what I found very disappointing.The story covers the basics of "virus causing zombies", but doesn't go any further than a rough outline and the characters are walking clichés with some odd moments here and there. I agree with NeilCassidy, though, that the movie at least looks professional.Overall it has some mildly entertaining moments and is well done on the technical side of things, but to me the story and setting were pretty much atrocious. I've seen a lot worse films, but this one stands out for almost intentionally ruining any potential it might have had.
COMPLETE Waste of time........
posted on 29 Jan 2009What can I say...not much. Bad acting I mean very awful. I didn't know zombies can open doors, climb ladders, eat donuts & use cell phones. Not even scary, I don't recommend this. I would rather watch Dawn of the Dead or 28 Weeks Later 10 times in a row than to watch this again. Do yourself a favor and don't watch this. Everything in this movie is just plain stupid, the story, the actors everything! I only watched it cause I saw the comment " Worth Watching " so I gave it a shot, but from my experience this is so not worth watching, spend your time watching something thats gonna be fun and not disappointing. All I can say is wow, not even a 10 year old would find this scary.Hope I saved everyone there time to not watch this movie. Find something better. If there was 0/10 I would rate it that.
Worth watching.
posted on 03 Jan 2009I agree with most of the things "NeilCassidy" wrote above; compared to most other Horror Movies of German origin, this one seems like a fresh breeze. Obviously, its focus was more on the question "how do certain characters behave under siege", rather than on sheer gory splatter. Compared to Uwe Boll's pathetic efforts (who obviously has a vastly bigger budget and seems to manage to hire very well-known actors on the cheap), I felt much better entertained. There's plenty of passion for detail (remember the cuckoo clock scene?) that I feel is completely missing in Boll's movies. Now, if the writer would please do without those clichè villains in future scripts, I'd be quite thankful.
"There used to be a wine cellar here but I don't know if it's still here."
posted on 15 Oct 2008Germany is rightly credited with making outstanding cars and world wars but is not known for making top quality horror flicks. This trend continues with Virus Undead.The plot isn't too complicated, a mad scientist dies and his heir and two friends go to take care of the estate. It's not long before they meet an evil biker / hot dog salesman who has it in for the young scientist. The acting isn't just wooden, it's hewn from the primeval trees of the Black Forest. Not one single character is in any way believable but the 'ich bin ein dude' character really got most of the laughs early on. Fair enough they are speaking English and it's not their first language but hey, did I force them to do that? No I didn't, so I feel OK about having a cheap laugh at their expense on that especially as the accents change several times.The plot is stupid and badly executed but the real laughs come from the wobbling head effect when people become zombies. I noticed another reviewer praising the attention to detail and if you are also stunned by the sight of blood on a cockoo clock then knock yourself out with this movie. Yes it's true that the CGI helicopters and birds look quite good but is that really worth watching a movie for? I think the fact that you can see they are clearly pasted on over the film detracts somewhat, especially in the scene where birds are pecking at some guys eyes about half an inch away and he doesn't flinch.There's some laughs to be had at the sheer cack-handed execution of this film but not a lot. If you're a zombie fan then it might be worth a watch, it has its moments but a three out of ten still feels a bit generous despite this being a low budget effort.
Surprisingly good, low budget, zombie flick.
posted on 05 Sep 2008It's not Jet-Li + Undead, which seems to have disappointed some folks, but it *is* a decent zombie film that even manages to outshine some of its big budget contemporaries where plot consistency and character depth are concerned (Resident Evil, I'm looking at you).The acting isn't brilliant, but it's far above that exhibited in real trash like Street Zombies, while not being all that much worse than the acting exhibited in some legitimate Hollywood blockbusters (again, I'm going to pick on Resident Evil). So, to recap — not Shakespeare, but not wooden studio extras either.The plot is admittedly shallow, but no more so than many dozens of other zombie films — a virus gets out, infects a lot of innocent people, zombies rise up, and chaos ensues. It's pretty formulaic. That said, it's also very consistent, which a lot of other zombie movies using that same basic plot are *not*.Virus Undead doesn't try to dazzle you with clever plot twists or drop in five or six espionage/conspiracy/romance sub-plots. The first half of the film is a little slow, but it's because it takes time to build up the characters and present a little backstory (something that I wish more zombie films did).Finally, the special effects are pretty darn good, all things considered. There isn't a lot of on-screen gore, but the zombies are convincingly creepy, the virus-infected birds menacing, and the few on-screen injuries better than a lot of what passed for F/X in the 1980s.All things considered, this film isn't a bad way to burn a little bit of free time.
awful - the baddest Movie ever...
posted on 30 Aug 2008I watched the movie at the FantasyFilmFestival in Berlin and I can't really recommend it. It was the only movie i've seen there, where people started booing after its showing.I was hoping to see a good Zombie Splatter movie, because it was compared with 28 weeks later and Dawn of the Dead, but Virus Undead can't nearly compete with them.I hoped all the time,that the action begins, but slow moving zombies who are dying such by body-shoots or punches are not really terrifying :)Also the SpecialFX where'n really convincing and they tried to keep it cheap by not showing any bloody close ups... Even the lighting and color grading was't the best at all and got a lack of continuity.The both directors where really proud of it and called it "Dirty little Movie", but everything it was just little.I don't hope to see movies like this again.
Well worth seeing
posted on 05 Aug 2009Considering the fact that most German horror movies of recent years came from amateurs with their video cameras and varying degrees of talent and that there hasn't been any real tradition of this kind of genre films for decades in this country, VIRUS UNDEAD certainly seems like a welcome breath of fresh air.Not only was it actually filmed on 35mm, the whole workmanship on display here is miles above what you'd expect from a little low budget horror movie from Germany: The credit-sequence is extremely stylish, the digital special effects of helicopters and birds are surprisingly well done, there's some rather spectacular stunt work to be seen - in short: VIRUS UNDEAD looks professional.More important, the movie's not only very well made on a purely technical level, it displays a very good eye from its two directors as well. There are some quite impressive shots and sequences to be seen here, especially in the second half of the movie, when the main characters are besieged in an old mansion. This was actually the part of VIRUS UNDEAD I enjoyed the most, because the skilled use of that beautiful location made for some chilling moments that reminded me of the haunting atmosphere of European horror classics from decades past.So is this a flawless movie? No, of course not. I was a bit annoyed by the use of the English language, which sounded quite unnatural to me most of the time and seemed in harsh contrast to the obviously German locations. I got used to it as the movie went on though, and I understand it had to be filmed in English to get the financing done. I wasn't very fond of the main characters either who just didn't seem likable to me. The guy who turns psycho in the end did a good job though and was pretty convincing.So while VIRUS UNDEAD is certainly far from perfect I definitely can't agree with the comment from another user that this was "the baddest Movie ever". It may not be 'the gooddest Movie ever' (ahem), but there's much to enjoy here.