MovieChat Forums > Last Rites of the Dead (2006) Discussion > Not what I thought it was going to be, b...

Not what I thought it was going to be, but not a bad movie (spoilers?)

posted 14 years ago by midwifekathynew
2 replies | jump to latest

**May or may not contain spoilers in the opinion of some. Saw someone get chewed out in another discussion for posting what someone thought of as a spoiler, and don't want to get chewed out, myself.**

Just saw this on Netflix. I guess the uncut version is called "ZA:Zombies Anonymous". I thought it was going to be more of a "wacky"-type dark comedy. Was imagining some valley girl getting killed and being like "It really sucks to be a zombie, I mean, like, ewww, I'm so gross" all the way through. Though the elements of comedy did work, the film contained so many unsettling scenes that the "feeling" of "comedy" was overshadowed most of the way through.

***This may be the part that contains what some may see as a spoiler.***

The fact that the zombies were wailing, crying, and begging for their lives when the actual villains of the film were doing those horrible things to them was almost too much for me to take. It really, really shook me up. This was certainly something I didn't expect when I decided to watch this film. I knew it was going to be "gross", because its a zombie movie, and was fully expecting the gore, but I had no idea I needed to prepare myself for the terror and agony acted out in the film by the zombies. It gave me the same feeling as the "Hostel" films did, but even worse (with the exception of Heather M-please- don't-make-me-spell-her-last-name's legendary performance during her torture scene). Actually, I think I'd have chosen not to watch this film if I'd known ahead of time that the zombies reactions would be so realistic and upsetting.

Not complaining about the movie, though. The script was great, the actors were almost too good, and the material presented was extremely thought-provoking, and, like I said, the elements of comedy in and of themselves did work. I think that the alternate title (or whatever they call it) of Zombies Anonymous might be a little too misleading. I thought it was going to have the same general "feeling" as "Fido", but, again, it felt more like "Hostel".

Was anyone else shaken up during the course of this film, or have most people become desensitized to such realistic portrayals of terror and agony?

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[–] midwifekathynew 13 years ago

bump

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Fight the "everyday atrocities"!

[–] PunchB 12 years ago

The original title was Last Rites of the Dead. Zombies Anonymous was the title given by the distributor, who also cut 17 minutes from the movie, making it kind of confusing in the last part. The original runtime is about 108 minutes.

I agree with you, except I wouldn't have chosen not to watch the movie. I thought it was great. The makeup and gore effects aren't always up to professional standards, but I thought everything else worked, including the acting.