I'm not going to go into a lot of plot details...chances are if you're reading this you've either already seen it or your decision to see it isn't going to be based on a few dozen words about plot. Basically it's a mad scientist plus zombies plus killer animals (vultures, in this case) with conventions placed accordingly.
Firstly I'm not sure why "Re-Animator" is popping up in so many reviews...this film is nothing like Re-Animator either in story or style. Well, maybe perhaps a little bit in the story department but in both cases it is but the logical end to mad scientist meets zombies. And for those of you likening this to "another B-movie" please get your understanding of a B-movie straight. The fact is most horror is B-movie crap, and if you're a fan of the genre it's likely that you've seen more B-movie horror than actual Hollywood horror. Evil Dead, Romero's first 3 movies, most franchises, all fall solidly within B-movie territory. Stuff like "The Rage" falls squarely into C- or Z-grade status, depending on how many levels you want to keep separating it into.
Now the reason I say all that is because for a B-movie this is absolutely terrible. For the plethora of Z-grade horror with slick box art that has flooded the shelves for the past few years, it is at least acceptable. The plot is at least coherent (despite some glaring plausibility errors), the script manages to mostly flow seamlessly, and the acting, while bad, is at least not unwatchably bad. The gore is abundant and often, and about 80 to 85% of it is done well, more than making up for the crappy CGI. If you're used to this sort of Z-grade stuff most of this won't detract. Things like lighting and sound, video quality, editing, and direction are all fairly competent. The one thing that really drags this movie down is the pacing. Certain scenes are far too long and/or unnecessary.
Mostly I find the plot tolerable. However there are some strange inconsistencies within the parameters set by the film itself. How does "Uncle Ben" magically end up behind his nephew? Did I miss something about teleporting zombie things...? Also, a deadly killer bird I can get behind, but these things have this sort of psychotic malice that I find a little out there. The vultures are also almost impossible to kill which I think is another drawback; why use animals at all if they're just going to be assigned human malevolence as well as a sort of indestructability? If the enemy was going to have these qualities, I'd rather the zombies themselves be the antagonists. I find that the scientists inbetween status and ability to master the other "zombies" underdeveloped; I find this relationship to be convenient for the film and not something that really gels with what these creatures are supposed to be.
One thing that ultra low-budget horror is good for is pushing a taboo here and there. In the case of the The Rage we have 2; the killing of children and an utterly tasteless "zombie defecation," the latter of which was totally unnecessary. There's a ton of gore here and it kicks in from the start and continues fairly steadily. Obviously the bulk of the shoe string budget went to the creation of entrails and body parts, and I'm OK with that; most of it looks really good and genuinely disgusting. The film stumbles a bit with it's CGI, another hallmark of Z-grade film. Explosions look totally stupid, fake birds fly around with the finesse of an 8 year old with Photoshop, and in a couple of instances the CGI spewing of blood looks as awful as always, only even worse here because the scenes are brightly lit. The vulture puppets, while slightly comical, were a bit gruesome and evil looking, and although the weird choppy/fuzzy edit montage thing is beat to death in The Rage in does serve to enhance some of the puppet-on-human action that would look utterly terrible otherwise.
The pacing of this film is quite poor and the single most difficult obstacle when actually trying to watch this. The beginning is done well although I did grow a little weary of going back and forth between the scientist and the guy begging for his life. It just kind of went on and on. The party/rave scene was blessedly short, as usually this type of scene wears on and on in horror movies. There's a bit too much of running from the vultures, and it really drags during the sequence in the corn field where it would seem the same 5 or 6 shots are edited together over and over. The ending is more gratuitous than most, with multiple sort of mini-climaxes, however this also gets tiring as we do little more than watch the 2 leads run from one room to another only to encounter some LAST last ditch effort from the dwarf zombie.
If it's movies like Final Destination and Scream that rock your world, hell even if Evil Dead II or Dead Alive are your favorite movies ever, then this probably won't be your cup of tea. However, if you've been suckered by slick box art before yet still keep coming back for more, then you might dig this. I would say it'd be a decent intro for those interested in Z-grade horror, but then again that's implying that it's territory worth introducing oneself to.
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