MovieChat Forums > The Stink of Flesh (2005) Discussion > Plot Holes...yeah, I tried to make sense...

Plot Holes...yeah, I tried to make sense of it

posted 17 years ago by Literary_Wanderer
6 replies | jump to latest

Now this movie is way out there. The semi-retarded sister with a stunted sister attached to her side, hyper-zombies, a guy in a big woolen hat in the middle of New Mexico in what seems to be summer, and two guys fighting for the screwing rights to an overweight, oversexed woman while surrounded by scores of gray/blue zombies. Yeah, it's all in there. Still, I dug the vibe and tried to get with the flick. Still, there are some bad plot holes in this movie even when I try to suspend disbelief. One can only have so much of an imagination:

1) Nathan and his wife are swingers and don't mind swapping. So why did Nathan off the one girl's husband? And how did the girl turn? An interesting subplot never investigated.

2) Why did Nathan tie up Matool when he was simply bringing him back to help him out and have him screw his wife? If he did it because he thought Matool may have been a threat then why bother bringing him back?

3) Sweating zombies? Aren't they supposed to be dead? So why the hell are they sweating?!?!?

4) Nathan points out the threat of Matool getting infected by bare knuckle boxing with the zombies because he could cut his knuckles and their blood/fluid could get in the wounds and infect him. Yet Matool doesn't fret blowing the zombies' brains out or nailing them with his hammer up close and splashing gore all in his face and possibly his mouth/eyes.

5) Why did the three soldiers abandon their transport? Why didn't they try to radio for help rather than decide to simply hide out?

6) Where the hell did Dexy get meat from to cook breakfast with? There is no livestock apparently for miles around. The stores were very likely depleted long ago and I doubt they still had a running refrigerator (it would drain the power too much).

7) Nathan's warning about rain...in scrubland. Yeah, I bet they have to worry about rain a lot in semi-desert conditions.

8) What was the point of introducing "hyper zombies"? They didn't really seem to move much faster, didn't seem any more powerful than the ones at the beginning of the film, and serve no point later in the movie.

9) The red head claimed her brother and her had run out of gas days before so why were they still hanging around the truck?

10) What was up with the fighting zombie at the beginning of the movie? It tried to go toe to toe with Matool. What the hell?

11) Zombie crap? Now are they dead or not? Never heard of the dead crapping. If they did they'd have to be alive because that is a biological function so then they would be digesting food so then they couldn't be rotting since they gaining nutrition. Just plain weird.

12) Back to the question about fluids infecting people and making them zombies. If a person can be infected by a bite or possibly some zombie fluid in one's wounds, then how did Nathan screw the zombie and not get infected? And don't say he used a condom. It's pretty obvious he didn't pull anything out but his little self. In fact, I doubt it was the first time he did it. Why else keep her around?

13) How was that truck so clean when they were rationing water and stuck in the middle of the desert? Is there that much turtle wax around at the end of the world?

14) Why didn't Nathan go into town to try and scrounge up supplies for the wounded soldier? Seems pretty odd he didn't expect the guy to get an infection from HIS ENTIRE LEFT SIDE BEING CHEWED ON! You'd think a little hydrogen peroxide is the least he could do. After all, they did somehow find meat for breakfast.

15) They point out the zombies are infected. The soldiers talk about a virus and Nathan mentions the possibility of infection through fluids. So then why did the husband come back to life after Nathan shot him in the chest? It was obvious he hadn't been bitten or shown signs of infection. In fact, Nathan acted completely comfortable around him before he pulled his pistol.

I know, I paid way too much attention to this movie. I could have written down numerous other problems I saw in it. But hey, I'm a writer. I am obsessed with filling in virtually every plothole I can find. Sadly these guys are making movies while I am still struggling for attention. God, why is life so ironic?

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[–] drxcreatures 17 years ago

You shouldn't let it get to you.

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[–] threeamfilms-1 17 years ago

The reason these guys are making movies is that they got off their asses and made a movie instead of sitting around talking about the attention they deserve.

"You're going to need more than one lesson. And you're going to get more than one lesson."

[–] thetheeyecreature 16 years ago

It's a case of a decent premise, some good characters, but a messy screenplay. All those holes could have been fixed pretty easily.

The one about the strangled girl and her husband (shot in the heart) becoming zombies isn't necessarily a plot hole, though; just depends on the type of fictional zombie in the movie. In George Romero's movies, anybody who dies for any reason (except massive brain damage) rises as a zombie; presumably they used the same model for "The Stink of Flesh".

The bizarre conjoined twin thingy on the crazy sister is just stupid, though; seems to belong in a different movie.

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[–] jwmthurgood 15 years ago

Some answers:

1) He strangles her in the bath
3) Meat can give an appearence of sweating in humid/hot weather
6) She says about it being canned
7) It was an excuse to get Matool alone and voice his concerns
10) It was a Hyper-Zombie, you have to show how bad-ass they are
11) Hyper-Zombies poop
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[–] Komodo_Gold 14 years ago

I thought the movie was interesting for the most part, although some of those parts did bug me a little. It's mostly nitpicking, but you have to do that from time to time :D

I wonder where they got gas to run the truck and the generator. Nathan mentions at one point filling it up. Trucks aren't known to be the most fuel-efficient vehicles, and they seemed to be in a remote area, so he must've been burning a lot of gas to get around. On top of that, gas goes bad pretty quickly (this bothered me too in I Am Legend with Will Smith's character getting gas sitting at a gas station after 3 years, and it's really ridiculous in Battlefield Earth, where they find working Harriers after 1,000 years). It would've been more plausible if they were running off geo-thermal/solar energy.

How come the zombie lady in the shed didn't attack the boy when he frees her? I doubt she was so grateful that she was free that she allowed him to escape. More likely she would've took hold of him as soon as one of her arms were free and made a tasty snack out of him. It would've also been more suspenseful to wonder where the boy was, and why the shed is unlocked, and having her and the boy jump out at him afterwards.

The ending was kind of lame. It was kind of funny watching the two guys fight while zombies were surrounding them (and really funny that the zombies took forever to reach them), but it didn't really build up to anything. Now I don't always expect a clear-cut happy ending from zombie movies, but a little more closure would've been nice. Instead they just show the two guys running off into the wild blue yonder. I guess we're supposed to imagine that they survived, but again, it wasn't executed too well.

What I would've done with the ending was having Dexy and the boy getting in the truck (and have her mention a spare key in case anyone wonders how she got a key), and the two guys continuing to fight as they try to make their way towards the truck. She overhears their arguments over the rights of getting her, which disgusts her and she drives off as one of them manages to make it to the truck...before getting yanked off by the other guy. They then continue chasing after the truck as zombies chase them from behind.

She then mentions not wanting to sound like a door prize for either guy (yes, I know, she was letting them bang her earlier, but I'm sure she doesn't want to sound like a sex toy either in a situation like this).

Yes, it's not the greatest alternate ending, but at least it would've been more fitting for this type of movie.

[–] kcg98 14 years ago

1) Nathan and his wife are swingers and don't mind swapping. So why did Nathan off the one girl's husband? And how did the girl turn? An interesting subplot never investigated.

A) Nathan did talk about being insanely jealous about it sometimes. That happened to be one of those times. He strangled the girl in the bathtub after that. I assumed that he didn’t really sleep with other women, as his wife constantly talked about how many men he used to let her sleep with, but never once said anything about the other women he slept with. I assumed that he did it for her benefit, then after a while stopped. He wasn’t interested in the girl, he only wanted his wife.

2) Why did Nathan tie up Matool when he was simply bringing him back to help him out and have him screw his wife? If he did it because he thought Matool may have been a threat then why bother bringing him back?

A) Matool is feisty, and it would have been too much of a chance in telling him about the free room and board, and free woman, considering that matool probably wouldn’t have believed it for a second.

3) Sweating zombies? Aren't they supposed to be dead? So why the hell are they sweating?!?!?

A) Not sure.

4) Nathan points out the threat of Matool getting infected by bare knuckle boxing with the zombies because he could cut his knuckles and their blood/fluid could get in the wounds and infect him. Yet Matool doesn't fret blowing the zombies' brains out or nailing them with his hammer up close and splashing gore all in his face and possibly his mouth/eyes.

A) Yeah, this bugged me big time.

5) Why did the three soldiers abandon their transport? Why didn't they try to radio for help rather than decide to simply hide out?

A) This too. There are quite a few plot holes.

6) Where the hell did Dexy get meat from to cook breakfast with? There is no livestock apparently for miles around. The stores were very likely depleted long ago and I doubt they still had a running refrigerator (it would drain the power too much).

A) I assumed it was spam. Had that look to it.

7) Nathan's warning about rain...in scrubland. Yeah, I bet they have to worry about rain a lot in semi-desert conditions.

A) This was an excuse and Matool understood it to be so.

8) What was the point of introducing "hyper zombies"? They didn't really seem to move much faster, didn't seem any more powerful than the ones at the beginning of the film, and serve no point later in the movie.

A) I think it was done to add something new to the movie. Try and have the threat of these zombies. I really did expect the one soldier to turn into one and outsmart them, but the young boy outsmarted them all. So, yes, they could have (and should have) done more with that point.

9) The red head claimed her brother and her had run out of gas days before so why were they still hanging around the truck?

A) She said it had been hours, and Matool questioned that because he said he heard their car only an hour before hand. The understanding is that she was under duress, and therefore felt that they had been at the car for hours when, in actuality, they hadn’t.

10) What was up with the fighting zombie at the beginning of the movie? It tried to go toe to toe with Matool. What the hell?

A) Zombies are driven by their need to eat, not their ability to understand when to fall back.

11) Zombie crap? Now are they dead or not? Never heard of the dead crapping. If they did they'd have to be alive because that is a biological function so then they would be digesting food so then they couldn't be rotting since they gaining nutrition. Just plain weird.

A) Yeah, very weird.

12) Back to the question about fluids infecting people and making them zombies. If a person can be infected by a bite or possibly some zombie fluid in one's wounds, then how did Nathan screw the zombie and not get infected? And don't say he used a condom. It's pretty obvious he didn't pull anything out but his little self. In fact, I doubt it was the first time he did it. Why else keep her around?

A) A little lesson… men’s members rarely tear during the act of… well, the act. This is why men seldom contract AIDS from women. It can happen, but not every time, so this isn’t a plot hole per se… you think it wasn’t his first time, but I believe it was.

13) How was that truck so clean when they were rationing water and stuck in the middle of the desert? Is there that much turtle wax around at the end of the world?

Continuity error…

14) Why didn't Nathan go into town to try and scrounge up supplies for the wounded soldier? Seems pretty odd he didn't expect the guy to get an infection from HIS ENTIRE LEFT SIDE BEING CHEWED ON! You'd think a little hydrogen peroxide is the least he could do. After all, they did somehow find meat for breakfast.

A) Hydrogen peroxide shouldn’t be used on deep wounds. With how deep the wounds looked, I’m pretty sure it would have done more harm than good. As for Nathan going for supplies, they all knew what would eventually happen, and what is the point on wasting gas and time if they would have to kill him in the end anyway.

15) They point out the zombies are infected. The soldiers talk about a virus and Nathan mentions the possibility of infection through fluids. So then why did the husband come back to life after Nathan shot him in the chest? It was obvious he hadn't been bitten or shown signs of infection. In fact, Nathan acted completely comfortable around him before he pulled his pistol.

A) I am under the impression that this virus is in the air, so the moment you die you’re zombie-fied. I’ve seen this is plenty of zombie films.