Fantastic Fest 2009

The simple logline would be:  Bart dies in Iraq, but then he knocks on his best friend Joey's door having joined those that we know as the Undead.   And that would sound like a lame movie.  It would seem to indicate that it was a buddy comedy about being Undead.   There are those aspects to THE REVENANT, but it is more about figuring out what you are and how you would survive if you "came back".   If you discovered you needed human blood to keep from rotting.   If you discovered that bullets and conventional weaponry no longer affected you.   If...   well there's a lot to discover - and at each stage of discovery, Kerry Prior's movie sucks you further and further in.

 

This is a film in the great tradition of films like NEAR DARK & INNOCENT BLOOD - where they take the premise of being a supernatural being, but apply it to a situation that we know.   But there's nobody around to teach these guys the rules.   They have to discover what is going on, and sometimes they are severely behind the learning curve.

 

Once they decide to start killing live humans for Bart's preservation...  things really start kicking in high gear and folks...  it gets gory, funny, gross and out-fucking-rageous!!!  Every 10 minutes this film begins getting cooler than the prior 10, all the way till the end.  This is exactly the sort of small bit of awesome that makes me excited about Fantastic Fest.  Do not miss it! (Harry Knowles)