Studio: XYZ Films
Director: Kiah Roache-Turner
Writer: Kiah & Tristan Roache-Turner
Producer: Tristan Roache-Turner, Blake Northfield
Stars: Luke McKenzie, Shantae Barnes-Cowan, Jake Ryan, Bianca Brady, Tasia Zalar, Jay Gallagher, Nick Boshier
Review Score:
Summary:
Amidst an undead apocalypse, a rogue soldier teams up with two pairs of siblings to take on a mad doctor and a military colonel orchestrating a gruesome conspiracy.
Review:
I didn’t remember 2014 zombie action movie “Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead” all that well prior to watching its 2021 follow-up, “Wyrmwood: Apocalypse.” But the detailed synopsis I wrote for my “Road of the Dead” review (review here) seven years earlier brought me back up to speed on the basics governing this two-film universe.
An undead apocalypse transforms Australia into a Mad Max wasteland. Macho men buffed out like “Gears of War” gunners blast, drive, and scheme their way across a savage landscape where zombies supplant gasoline as fuel and currency. Bad guys include evil military men and mad scientists. Good guys include scrappy survivors like siblings Barry and Brooke, the latter of whom becomes a hybrid human-zombie capable of telepathically commanding undead hordes to do her bidding.
Regardless of whether or not you’ve seen the first film, what’s in the preceding paragraph is more or less all that’s essential for anyone to know going into this one. “Wyrmwood: Apocalypse” catches up with Barry and Brooke as they redirect their ongoing fight toward “The Colonel” and his “Surgeon General,” who are conducting awful experiments on unwilling human captives, supposedly to find a cure for the zombie virus. Along the way, the brother and sister team up with another pair of siblings as well as a mercenary on a mission to uncover the truth behind a sinister conspiracy.
What my “Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead” review really reminded me of though, is that sometimes, a popcorn movie’s appeal can be summarized succinctly, without all the pomp and circumstance of critiquing acting, dialogue, directing, etc. At just an economic 680 words, my “Road of the Dead” coverage is up there as one of the shortest reviews I’ve ever written. It basically boils down to simply saying, “Look, this is a wild love-it-or-leave-it midnighter that makes no bones about its unapologetic desire to be a jagged-edge epic of gritty intensity, gnarly gruesomeness, and imaginative insanity.”
The same holds true for its successor. I probably could have written my “Wyrmwood: Apocalypse” review after watching only ten minutes of the movie because my initial impressions held true for the full hour and a half runtime. Like its predecessor, “Wyrmwood: Apocalypse” runs on blood and bullets, fire and noise, and comic book carnage cranked up on an amplifier whose starting volume already operates at 11. It is high-energy hullaballoo made more hectic by frantic editing, spinning drone shots, and monster-mashing montages chock full of freaks, fights, and cyborg hulks. As something some might describe as “guilty pleasure” entertainment, I enjoyed “Wyrmwood: Apocalypse” even more than “Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead” because I knew exactly what to expect and was not disappointed.
Sure, I could go through the usual motions of saying the sets look good, actors are appropriately grim and grimy without being boringly bleak about it, and a devil-may-care approach offers slick takes on the usual “Walking Dead” tropes. All that really needs to be said though is that with the vaguely campy buoyancy of “Re-Animator” and the brawl-for-all attitude of “The Road Warrior,” “Wyrmwood: Apocalypse” very quickly becomes the kind of boffo, badass B-flick for which the term “midnight movie crowd-pleaser” was invented.
My mind wasn’t in a particularly great headspace when I sat down to watch “Wyrmwood: Apocalypse.” I wasn’t even sure I could concentrate well enough to press Play. But “Apocalypse” immediately beamed my brain into a futuristic fright fantasy that completely commandeered my attention. That’s successful escapism as far as I’m concerned, and precisely what the doctor ordered, even if it’s only a momentary remedy rather than a complete cure for what ails you.
Partnering with his brother and co-writer Tristan, director Kiah Roache-Turner exhibits the same sort of vim, vigor, and verve as early Sam Raimi, but with a moderately better budget. If there’s a third installment of “Wyrmwood,” and I think there should be, I’d expect it to accordingly take an “Army of Darkness” route by being more theatrical, and possibly picked up by an established Hollywood studio. “Apocalypse” is evidence that Roache-Turner has nothing left to prove as an anarchic stylist of flashy cinematic splatter. Someone pick him up for a higher profile project already.
Review Score: 80
At least the movie only runs 70 minutes, though I suppose that extra 10 technically disqualifies it from being a literal amateur hour.