Listen bloglings,

I’m really, really good at reviewing movies – believe me.  But horror movies tend to be less bright than most films, with zombie movies usually the darkest of all, and this makes it exceedingly difficult to write effective notes on them during the film.  Leaving Mulberry Street – the zombie flick that opened this year’s After Dark Film Festival - on Friday night, I opened my book to find my typically blazing insights locked in a cryptic jumble of short-forms and misspellings on account of the low light.  But guess what?  I’m still going to review this bad mamma-jamma!  I’m just a freak like that.

My notes from the film are below in bold - with explanations that follow:

Damici where from? Good

Now this is telling.  As I recall I was observing that the male lead, Nick Damici, was good, and wondering where I recognize him from (In the Cut, CSI: NY, World Trade Center – that’s called research).  Damici co-wrote the film and put it together on a shoe-string with co-writer/director Jim Mickle.  He plays ex-boxer and all-around man of the people, Clutch, whose apartment building is at the center of the rat-zombie attack.  His daughter Casey, played by the excellent Kim Blair, is an Iraq vet forced to traverse NYC on her way home after the city goes into lock-down.  Pretty cliché little arc there, but zombie movies rarely make you use your brains (classic zombie joke).

Acting and story rating: 8/10.

Zombies acting fanny

You can say that again!  I hate to be a stickler for painfully nerd-oriented details, but the zombies in this flick acted a little funny (or fanny) at times.  For instance, if you were a zombie that was locked in a closet with a glass door, wouldn’t you just smash the glass door and kick everyone’s ass?  And say you were strong enough to rip through the drywall ceiling of said closet, wouldn’t you presumably also be strong enough to smash through the aforementioned glass door?  And can you kill a zombie by punching it in the face?  I don’t think so.  I swear I’m not a virgin.

Zombie believability rating: 4/10.

Bloody? no - 2 much set

Overall I quite enjoyed the film, and respect the filmmakers for getting an extremely slick looking film made for next to nothing.  Small-budget horror movies, however, always work best when they go for the claustrophobia angle, and Mulberry’s biggest misstep was changing sets too often to allow this tension to build.  I was also somewhat disappointed by the lack of completely excessive gore (maybe that’s just me) and what felt like pretty slow pacing through the first half.  Once this movie gets going, it’s a hell of a ride.  It just takes a while to get there.

Pacing, mood and excessive gore rating: 6/10.

The After Dark Film Festival runs through Thursday, and you can find the schedule here.

God save the Monday,
Reg.