Search
THE DEFILED (2010)
A Review by Smash or Trash Correspondent Judith Furlow
USA
Black & White
100 Minutes
Written & Directed by Julian Grant
Starring: Brian Shaw and Kathleen Lawlor
Distributed through Chemical Burn Entertainment
Synopsis from website. In a post apocalyptic world, science and technology have backfired leaving unfathomable destruction and a permanently diseased planet in its wake. A virus is mutating the human race turning innocent survivors into mindless cannibals. In a savage future world devoid of hope, a man infected with the deadly viral disease must cope with the burden of a new born son, ensuring his survival. Though he is infected, he does not allow his growing desire for human flesh to overcome his responsibility to the newborn. Along the road, traveling from town to town, he saves an unaffected woman from a certain death by facing down her perpetrators. Ultimately she joins him on his odyssey, a journey through hell on earth in search of a safe haven in which they can perhaps start a life together, both becoming committed to doing whatever it takes to make sure the child survives.
“The Defiled” is a zombie flick like no other. Think of it as a family film with a father and his brood trying to make it in a world gone to crap. Dad zombie is living in the woods with his wife, son, and daughter, trying to make it in today’s world, but mom is pregnant. Can’t find food, no problem, there are enough corpses around to satisfy those hunger pangs. Unfortunately, snacking on the irradiated corpses of the dead leads to the untimely death of his family (he went without dinner so that his family could eat, what a great father!). Now, Dad has a bigger problem on his hands, his dead wife was able to give birth to a darling little zombie baby. What’s a guy to do? He takes care of his kid, that’s what! After leaving his home in the woods, Dad saves a beautiful woman from death at the hands of other zombies, and the pair venture off into the world giving us a new definition of teamwork.
“The Defiled” is a very interesting movie. It’s not a zombie film in the traditional sense that the “zombies” aren’t looking for “brains”, and their victims don’t turn into zombies. Also, there is absolutely no dialogue in the film. None. There are sound effects and a great musical score that tied the film together perfectly. This is a beautifully shot, black and white film, with cool, blue tones, creating a stark portrait of a decaying world and dying humanity. The production quality is excellent, using vacant buildings and scenery that pulled me into the film, with talented actors that brought the script to life. The story line is one of the most imaginative that I have seen and I appreciated the writer’s effort for not insulting the viewer’s intelligence.
The attention to detail is evident starting with the creepy DVD artwork and a ominous tagline “We Are All Meat”. Creative efforts were when Dad comes home from scrounging up dinner and makes sure that his family eats first, sits down, tired and weary, taking a swig from a bottle of liquor. Portraying the family as normal as possible, including a sex scene between husband and wife, and the agony the father feels as his loved ones die in his arms. The writers also figured that Dad needs to feed baby by chewing up food and spitting into the mouth of junior, like a baby bird. That was disgusting, but what’s a father to do when he can’t breast feed. The writers actually had me feeling remorse for the family’s unavoidable predicament.
I do have some minor criticisms of the film. I felt the makeup for the zombies was a bit over the top. It was too extreme and I felt it was unnecessary to have such raccoon eyes and pale skin to differentiate the cannibals from the healthy people. The fact that there wasn’t any dialogue wasn’t necessary, either. Someone could have said something. Maybe an “Oh Shit”, or something of that nature. Thirty-seven minutes into the film there is a scene with a wolf, that is I think it’s a wolf, that chases down and attacks someone, but the scene looked very strange and animated, and I’m still not sure what I was supposed to see. Lastly, there is the run time of 100 minutes. This movie would have been perfect at 60 min., and it was slow with too much time spent on the hapless zombie father, baby, and healthy woman walking down deserted streets looking for something.
The “Defiled” is a great, low-budget film, that sucks the viewer in with its eerie visual style, with an ending that blew me away and had me saying “Oh Shit” out loud. Very well done and I highly recommend this film to anyone interested in horror.
My score: 4 1/2 corpses out of 5.
Extras on the DVD include: Commentary, home movie of family members after infection, trailer, and slide show.
Interested in getting this great indie flick? Click the image below: