FistfulofBrains

Fistful of Brains (2008)

This is the follow up movie from director Christine Parker and like her earlier effort, Forever Dead, it is a low budget zombie movie. But it is even a more ambitious attempt at a low budget zombie flick because it is also a western! Yes as if trying to get a zombie movie right isn’t hard enough they toss in the added difficulty of making it a period piece. So how well did they do?

There are a couple of story lines here in the movie. First you have a sheriff that is a bit too trigger-happy and that doesn’t like being messed with. The sheriff has a lovely daughter (Lily) and a stepson (Jack) that seems to annoy him. Later on we find out that they aren’t actually related because the daughter was the result of a dalliance with the local school marm turned saloon girl. This of course allows them to get it on guilt free later in the movie! The second story has to do with an huckster that shows up in town offering an elixir that will cure what ails you, including death. We later find out he has something to do with the strange creatures in the nearby woods that like to munch on the livestock. There is some bit about him being the brother of some supernatural spirit and that because of him giving the elixir to the town it is now going to be attacked by zombies. I was sort of confused as to what was going on, but as long as I get to see cowboys vs. zombies I really didn’t care.

But then I didn’t get to see as much zombie violence as I had hoped. The movie spends a lot of time setting up the storylines and not enough time with the zombie mayhem. Now when the zombies show up we do get to see some fun and things get really silly, but in an awesome way. There is a particular scene where the new preacher in town, who really likes his horse (another random and funny bit), drinks too much of the elixir. This turns him into a zombie and he attacks the saloon girl with hilarious results! I’m not going to ruing the gag, but I was laughing my butt off. I really found the last 30 or 40 minutes of the movie very entertaining, as things get sort of madcap with characters running around. Everything before that is kind of uneven and there are a couple slow spots. Before the zombies show up the movie has a tendency to be very “talky”. This is further complicated by a couple weak performances and the awkward delivery of dialogue from a few of the cast. To be fair I just didn’t like Lily or Jack characters or their entire storyline. The fact that the actor and actress portraying them just didn’t have any screen chemistry didn’t help matters. That said I did dig the performance of Edward Warner in the dual role of Lazarus/Dead Eye who is very smooth in his role and delivers some great lines. I also thought the Pastor John and Deputy Dan characters were portrayed really well by Wayne Bates and William Drake respectively. Then again I always seem to enjoy the quirky funny roles/actors in these sorts of movies. So take that for what it is worth. I just found the movie way more fun when the comic relief was on screen.

As you can obviously tell I didn’t dig the story in Fistful of Brains as much as I thought I was going to. I still think that the story in Parker’s earlier effort, the previously mentioned Forever Dead, is more fun and definitely a better paced story. But where Fistful of Brains really impressed me is in the technical improvements over her earlier movie. There are a ton of nighttime shots in this movie and they are outdoors, but I’ll be damned if all the lighting issues that I mentioned in the Forever Dead review haven’t been cleaned up and fixed in this movie! Sure there are a few grainy shots in the movie, but that can be chalked up to the cameras and is sort of unavoidable in low budget filmmaking. Even in those scenes you can actually see what is going on. Also there are a few odd camera angles, but they are used to good effect here and not overused to the point of being distracting. The coolest thing about reviewing independent movies is watching a director and in this case her crew put the pieces together from movie to movie and get better. I think that from a technical standpoint Parker has put some of those pieces together and has become a better filmmaker in this second feature. Toss another batch of well done special effects (as was the case with Forever Dead) and the fact that they managed to make a decent low budget movie with a western setting (never and easy undertaking) for some low budget zombie fun.

Bottom line is that it can be real easy as a reviewer to sit back and tear apart a low budget movie for where it fails. This is especially true for a zombie movie. Just surf the internet for a while and see what I mean. Now that doesn’t mean that we here at Gutmunchers give anyone a free pass. I’m sure that the stars of this movie aren’t going to be pleased with me saying they had no chemistry on screen. I consider myself to be a very honest guy and I always tell the independent filmmakers that they are going to get a fair review from me, good or bad. While I’m not overwhelmed with the plot or the acting in Fistful of Brains I’m really impressed with how well it was made and the fact that they tackled a zombie western and did a good job getting it to the screen. After watching this and Forever Dead I’m excited to see what director Parker and the Adrenalin Group Productions has up next. I also recommend that anyone interested in low budget filmmaking, supporting low budget filmmakers, and cool little zombie movies give Fistful of Brains a chance. It isn’t a perfect movie but has it’s moments and is worth checking out. For more information on where to pick this one up head over to their MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/adrenalin_productions

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer