Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Movie Review: "Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead" (2014)

Director: Kiah Roache-Turner
Year: 2014
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 38 minutes

A meteor shower causes a zombie outbreak. Now, a man has to try and get through hoards of newly created zombie in order to rescue his sister, who has been abducted by soldiers for their weird experiments.

"Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead" is the first feature film from director Kiah Roche-Turner, who also wrote the screenplay along with his brother Tristan. It stars Jay Gallagher as a handyman named Barry who, after a meteor shower, is suddenly caught in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. He hopes to get to his sister Brooke, played by Bianca Bradley, amidst the chaos, but, unbeknownst to him she been kidnapped by masked soldiers for some weird experimentation. Joining Barry on his dangerous road trip to find his sister is Benny, played by Leon Burchill, and Frank, played by Keith Agius. The group suits up in makeshift armor and battles their way down the zombie-infested streets of Australia.

There are a lot of zombie movies out there and more seem to pop up every month. Each individual film has to find a way to set itself apart from the hundreds of other pictures dealing with the same subject. It is in its differences that "Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead" is set on a different, better path. It offers a bit of a twist on the genre by adding an extra feature to the zombies which allows them to be used in interesting ways. Roche-Turner has also created a "Mad Max" style to this universe with reinforced trucks and slapped together protective gear and masks.

This is a low budget flick, but the filmmaker is able to put together a bitchin' looking movie due to excellent makeup work and practical effects. There are some really cool looking zombies and a lot of blood and gore here. The story is as simple as any zombie story. It shares the same outbreak origin as the original "Night of the Living Dead." People trying to get from one place to another have to survive the trip, which is a huge feat in itself. Add kidnappings by armed and dangerous soldiers and crazy experiments into the mix, and you've got a little bit of a twist on this tried and true horror movie formula.

We had a lot of fun with this outrageous, blood-splattered movie. From time to time, it has good tension and excitement, which winds up being a whole lot of fun. We are glad it was because we didn't know anything about it going in and only picked it because of the poster and dope looking still-shot for the movie on Netflix. This time, judging a film by its cover paid off for us. "Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead" may lack originality, but it's certainly a fun time to watch. It's an ultra-violent, over-the-top, micro-budgeted zombie-infested Ozploitation you shouldn't miss.


My Rating: 6.5/10
BigJ's Rating: 7.5/10
IMDB's Rating: 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 79%
Do we recommend this movie: Sure, why not?

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