Extinction: The G.M.O. Chronicles (2011) User Reviews

Not bad!

[sarevok72 · 5/10 · 11 April 2012]

I have seen a lot of zombie flicks and this is definitely one of the better ones in the lot.

Make no mistake, this doesn't mean it is great, but after suffering a lot of awful nonsense they film usually nowadays, -especially now the genre is a lot more popular- it actually is OK. Of course, the protagonist is quite annoying and has a bit of a superman feel with him which is wrong in such a movie. The other characters too, just do not feel very real and you end up skipping a few scenes. Also the movie is a bit slow developing especially until towards the first 30 minutes. And the worst part is: all the cast speak English but with a thick German accent (with the exception of a few guys who are in fact American). Honestly, I find it very difficult to see why they had filmed it in English instead of German which would have been better in terms of acting.

However, the movie have a lot of great scenery and a promising atmosphere once you've achieved to overcome all the issues in acting and somewhat funny accent. It also has a different -but not original (anyone heard "left4dead"?) take on zombies and it helps build up some tension which is otherwise a very dull film.

All in all, it surely is not a good movie but still better than a lot in the same genre and deserves five out of ten.

Worth a watch

[dadatuuexx · 6/10 · 10 January 2012]

This film was worth a view,for zombie film lovers.it has good acting,and a good story line.it starts off as a lot of these type of films do,and follows the same plot as most-the world is affected by a virus ,that leaves about 90 % of the world dead,and looking for a warm meal...some un-affected people make a stand ,and try to find a safe place to survive.my only real problem i had with the movie was some of the camera work(i HATE "shakey-cam" effect)-other than that ,its worth a view!-some good make-up s.p.f.x.,and some cool shots make it cool.i,m a sucker for any zombie movie,thats NOT a comedy. the locations are great,and a lot of cool places were used to set up some good scene,s.i was lucky enough to see a screener of this film last year,while it was still in post production.it has a gritty sort of look,and its not like the basic Hollywood type of film,with a real happy ending.the end of the world will not be shiny,or happy,and i like movies that don't show things working out like that,because we all know ,thats NOT how things really are.

Things may be slower than they appear...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 5 November 2012]

"Extinction: The G.M.O. Chronicles" isn't exactly a bad movie, but neither is it a really great movie. For a zombie movie, it had an unfortunate tendency of dragging out in long, slow moments, which really weighed heavily on the movie.

Story-wise, then "Extinction: The G.M.O. Chronicles" is fairly average. A small group of survivors come together in the face of a worldwide threat of extinction as the dead return to life to eat the flesh of the living.

It is the visuals and the cinematography that keeps the movie interesting, but it just barely does so. There are times where the movie just drags on forever and ever without really getting anywhere, and you start to get bored and frustrated with the lack of pace in the movie.

The characters in the movie were somewhat one dimensional and you never really got to get properly acquainted with the characters, as they either had too little time to expand or they were just given poor dialogue and script to work with. And as such, then the characters in the movie came off as generic and uninspiring as a whole.

I watch a lot of zombie movies, and most of them are not brandishing million dollar budgets. "Extinction: The G.M.O. Chronicles" is actually a good production, but it is just suffering from a poorly executed story and one dimensional characters.

And also for a German produced movie, why were everyone there speaking English? Sure they had that thick, telltale German accent, but still, it would have had a more meaningful punch to the story if they had spoken in German, the nations native language. And there are actually some better German zombie movies available on the market - if you don't mind non-English language movies.

"Extinction: The G.M.O. Chronicles" had potential, but unfortunately it had things working against it which eventually managed to pull it under water and make the movie less enjoyable. I've seen worse low budget zombie movies, but this movie just ended up being uninspiring, less than interesting and too slow.

The best thing about it is the poster

[IJKMan · 2/10 · 16 December 2011]

The best thing was the poster – should the be the OMG Chronicles, not G.M.O.

There is much you can learn from movies. From this one, you can primarily lean how to make a truly dreadful train wreck of a film. There is so much wrong with it, I do not know where to begin, but I will give it a go:

Acting: When the lead man first appeared I thought the acting was pretty bad, but he shines in comparison with some of the rest of the cast. To be honest, it is not the actors fault. If you take a load of native German TV soap-opera stars and force them to speak "film" English (which is evidently not their mother tongue) you are asking for trouble. And this is what you got - inflection, subtlety and expression go out window as the cast concentrates on pronunciation. At the point where one of the actors died, I was actually delighted as it meant I did not have to watch him anymore (this was probably the biggest emotional kick the film gave me).

Script: Again, written by non-native English speakers and this comes shining through. Looking for milk in a supermarket comments like "get the high-temperature milk" caused titters in the audience. In one scene every line seems to include the protagonist's name. The banal dialog just kept on coming - just listen to the crap the priest spews in the trailer and remember – and that is supposed to be the highlight of the film.

General dross: OK, so you have been trapped in a police cell for 16 days. When the doors open, you are sitting quietly with designer 2 day stubble and inform your rescuers you survived "by drinking water from the bowl and eating toilet paper". The stubble thing really annoyed me, some of the cast were perfectly shaved every day, others had designer stubble, with no running water or electricity you have to question how this feat was achieved. Also watch out of the reaction of the "girls" around the door frame when the new sofa arrives, the film suddenly transforms to a toothpaste commercial.

Props: The "show" opens with the lead actor recording a video diary on an Apple Mac. I want know where is bought is battery. Considering the film supposedly happens over months, this Mac kept on going, unlike most of the audience. The nuclear power-plant explosion is also a classic, with debris thrown across the road, but carefully choreographed so that none of the "abandoned" cars were in any danger of getting scratched. Considering the cars were supposedly left months ago, they looked suspiciously clean as if the crew had just parked them. The genetically mutated enemy bought some comic relief, I suspect they used some leftover costumes from the Planet of the Apes.

A terrible film. But then why the two stars? Well I have to admit it is so bad you have to see it to the end just to see what happens and if it can get any worse. (It can). It is like a train wreck, you have to keep watching despite the horror of the movie - the extra star is for that.

I saw its premiere at the Hof Film Fest in August 2011, it has taken ages to be released, I imagine because it is so bad. Assume it will go straight to DVD - buy it, laugh at with a few mates and then never watch it again.

zombies with parkour skills

[quasar-08909 · 7 November 2016]

not a terrible movie by any means, but it does have its flaws and plot holes. you really expect me to believe that a person can survive for 16 days by just eating toilet paper? highly unlikely, i doubt it has much nutritional value, if any.

the movie starts out well enough, but soon devolves into nonsense with several different types of zombie, and towards the latter half of the movie, the zombies suddenly develop parkour skills and start wearing hoodies!!!

there is also a lot of sexual tension between the main male and female leads that never leads anywhere, leading me to wonder why they bothered including it

Better than you'd expect...

[natashabowiepinky · 5/10 · 25 January 2014]

Despite the set-up being almost an exact copy of The Walking Dead ( whether this is an coincidence I don't know) I sort of enjoyed this little trip down Zombie Apocalypse lane. The emphasis on the characters rather than the gore was much appreciated, and you're never quite sure who's going to survive till the end... which is good.

I can't quite give it the proverbial thumbs up though, as the zombies are largely laughable creations without an ounce of scare factor... particularly the ones which jump around like Mexican beans near the end. There is also one tough cadaver who appears out of nowhere and seems to be immune to bullets... Explanation, please? None was forthcoming.

And those similarities with a certain brilliant TV show are too numerous to list... They call the undead 'walkers'... One of the main guys is good with a crossbow... they hide out in a secure fenced facility... and the time it takes for you to be infected after bitten is almost the same.

Finally, it was nice for all these German actors to speak English from start to finish in their OWN country so we could understand them. Explanati... Nah, forget it. 5/10

Attack of the boring hoody zombies

[phantasmda · 1/10 · 11 July 2012]

I don't know what to say about this atrocity of a film. It's basically one guy in the midst of a zombie apocalypse who then stumbles into survivors. One just happens to be a born leader, another a nurse, another one a C.I.A agent, and one's a scientist yada yada yaa. We then get loads of dull boring dialogue and wouldn't you know it, The group are trimmed down just enough so that all of the survivors end up paired off with each other (Yawn) Add to this some very basic make up effects, poor acting and a pace that your average garden snail would leave in a cloud of dust and you have Extinction. One nice twist is that the zombies do mutate in this film and evolve, which I thought was a nice idea. However, when it's as poorly executed as this the nice idea is killed off. I mean, I can accept the fact that the zombies mutate into black faced devil type creatures but I can't for one minute buy the fact that their clothes evolve into jogging pants and hoodies at the same time. Dreadful film!

Bad movie but you may have fun

[eliasvil42 · 2/10 · 31 December 2012]

This is the kind of movie you will enjoy with a couple of B movie lover friends; many laughs are guaranteed. The film itself it is really bad and if you are not ready to make fun of it I would advise to stay away.

The acting is horrible, maybe because almost all the actors are German but the movie was filmed in English, I found that a bit irritating and some vocabulary kind of odd ("high temperature milk"???) It is not all the actors' fault, we have to give some credit to the scriptwriters, they manage to make dialogs so simple and foreseeable that a 6 days old retarded turtle would understand and expect. It is worth to mention that at least they succeeded introducing all expected elements: a hero who does not want to be a hero, an annoying guy who you want him to die, a love story, a secret, a family disappointment, crazy cult.. you name it.

Is that all? Not by far. This must be one of the apocalyptic movies where all the characters have their nice clean clothes and fresh and neat looks, not to mention that all the vehicles passed through the car wash before they are put in front the of camera.

2 starts because you can enjoy many drinks with your friends talking about it.

*** Spoiler***

I must mention my favorite two scenes, the ones I laughed at the most:

1. When the American guy gets shot. In a zombie land a stranger breaks into your house and shoots one of your people, what is the normal reaction? According to the movie is asking "who are you?" and suffer quietly. The shot guy does not complain or cry of pain and his daughter does not go insane; every one is very civilized except the annoying husband (who you know will eventually die and cannot wait for it to happen). By the way, where the hell got he shot? Because it is amazing how he recovers with a couple of tablets.

2. When they open the cell in the police station. This whole scene is priceless. We have a prisoner left alone for 16 days who does not know what is going on. There are many questions about this scenario because the cell has a window (you can see the light coming in) and the door, even though is solid (are all police station cells in Germany for solitary confinement) I guess is not sound proof. So, the ready-to-go- to-anti-IMF-demonstration guy did not hear a thing of the zombie rampage outside? But let's leave that and move to the actual scene: the door opens and there is guy sitting in a bunk like waiting to leave, his first observation is that his saviors are not policemen and after 16 days without eating (and a 3 days beard) he calmly ask for a cigarette. It turns out he survived by eating toilet paper which brings to obvious points: toilet paper is edible and nutritious enough not to loose your body mass and that cell was used as the toilet paper storage for the whole police station.

You can comment about those two scenes for hours and, good news, there are so many others (hey a brought fresh hunted deer but the blonde finally got a bit of paint and made three lines in a wall after trying for days with different materials, let's celebrate her achievement!!!!).

*** Spoiler***

wtf are you guys talking about? Seriously ?

[aroarathebloody · 1/10 · 5 December 2011]

First of all it got a 4.9 on this site, which I'm not a judge of ratings, I happen to like some low budget flix that didn't get a good rating but come on, you guy are trying to promote this p.o.s. in the first few mins of the movie he's chopping a zombie in the back with a paper cutter blade from school and when it looked at the shirt it had some blood stains on it and no cut or tears in it's shirt, oh and btw no white blood as this movie seemed to go, and later on there was a lot of white blood ooooo and their skin is green like Frankenstein. The main character is a nerdy french guy who is talentless and over all it is a complete waste of time, DO NOT WATCH THIS!one of the worst zombie movies of all time.

A No B.S. Zombie flick that takes on a few new areas & Entertains

[Thrill_KillZ · 7/10 · 3 December 2011]

In a time when It seems like every time you turn around there is a new Zombie flick, It's hard to get excited for one even though I love the genre. This breaks the mold and really takes on a few things from other movies that worked and combined them into this one. This is a good ass kicking film that doesn't bore the viewer with dull things like going out to get supplies for 15 minutes or boring drama between the actors. It has a great pace and keeps everything believable for nearly 90 minutes then there is a few parts that are iffy, but the acting is great-the action is great and the film set is absolutely perfect. One thing that made the film great was the constant mutation of the dead and the great speed and ape like attacks of some other ones, you just never new what to expect! It gave me a near 28 Days Later feel throughout and that is cool, check it out it's worth the time..

Black and white minstrel, free-running zombies!!?? Yeah that's what I said!

[chuckm76 · 2/10 · 8 October 2012]

This isn't a great movie, I thought there was a bit of promise very early on but I was very wrong. There are occasionally some neat seedlings of ideas but they seem to be passed over and instead the main protagonists do idiotic things to endanger themselves and others.

As to the title of this review, I nearly spat out my cereal when I first saw them, just hilarious, oh and very pointless. This film would've been much better if it didn't try to break away from zombie convention, the addition of the other breeds is so badly thought out, explained and executed that I really can't see the point. I've seen high rated reviews of this film on IMDb, those people should seek serious medical help straight away.

Drama,Zombies,Guns O my!!

[Truthdealer2121 · 10/10 · 2 December 2011]

I'm a avid Zombie enthusiast,always on the look out for a new zombie flick to get my kicks. In a sea of B horror movies, with poor screen writing and even worse acting, this movie was a real breath of fresh air. I usually watch movies depending on views and rating all of which this movie lacked, yet I was in the mood to give it a try. It has a interesting plot with pretty good acting compared to most zombie movies on the market. Also all of the zombie blasting, head-shot galore really helped the drama and dialogue to run smooth.This may not become a cult classic, or franchise but it was diffidently worth the 1.45mins. So if your looking for some Zombie killing action, the buck stops here! Enjoy and I hope my sole reviews makes enough of a good impression on you to give it a watch!

"SHOOT HIM IN THE HEAD!"

Journey Motif with Zombies

[tanweth · 7/10 · 22 December 2011]

With the exception of a lack of gritty "realism" .. aka .. filthy clothing .. straggly beards .. showers .. toilets .. food .. this was a typical journey story. The search for a safe haven from the mutating zombies. Not that many movies give you that gritty dirty body-odor feel in a survival situation. I don't miss it either. Fact of the matter is that most movies brought to that level of realism is a turn off for most viewers. (By golly .. did anyone see them packing toilet paper with them and want to see them use the toilet as well?) The acting was good to excellent. The dialogue was realistic .. for the most part. The soundtrack did just what it was supposed to do .. enhance the scene without being obtrusive.

The two scenes that irritated me the most .. the prisoner living in a cell for 16 days and acting nonchalant about everything given the fact his only water was in the toilet (earlier it was shown that running water was not available) .. and the father's confessional about his NSA life along with his daughter's reaction to overhearing it. Although it was a good touch when the prisoner got sick right after eating .. obviously due to his lack of food during his abandonment in the cell.

The final scene that irritated me was a gimmick scene for the threat of nuclear radiation sickness. Very poor bit about the nuclear power plant melting down. Nuclear reactors have (in the free world anyway) a lot of safety features built into them. The probability of a Chernobyl type of release of nuclear materials is rather slim .. not impossible .. just pretty slim.

The most interesting idea here was the various types of zombies. The walkers .. the runners .. the climbers .. the screamers .. gave a new dimension to the zombie genre. Although the idea of a plant type virus mutating such that it infects humans (notice that animals didn't seem to be affected?) and causes them to mutate as well is pretty far fetched.

In the final analysis .. if you like some action .. you like interpersonal relationships .. a bit of a new idea in having various types of zombies roaming the countryside .. all with a penchant for living human flesh (what self-respecting zombie wouldn't be a brainless flesh eater?) .. then you won't go far wrong watching this one.

Surprisingly Good - NOT a zombie movie

[laurel-wilson-887-900612 · 6/10 · 3 January 2014]

Extinction is a stylish European movie with more in common with Resident Evil than Night of the Living Dead. If you watch this expecting a "zombie" movie, apparently you'll be disappointed, swear, & spew garbage about the actors' accents. :) This is actually a witty, stylish flick about an apocalyptic event that causes humans to mutate into zombie-like creatures. If you're a zombie addict, you'll see bits of 28 Days Later, Diary of the Dead, and the above-mentioned Resident Evil - along with the countless retreads. The acting is surprisingly good. The accent thing is a non-controversy. The people are from different areas of the world. They speak English with accents. The End.

The plot evolves nicely. I was reminded of The Walking Dead at times, as the survivors try to make a home in an abandoned military base. The weakest aspect is the infected. Makeup is terrible and while the creatures are clearly not classic zombies, they seem to have gotten different direction on how to act. Some shamble, the majority run like hell, and for some (admittedly laughable) reason, the favored way to kill them seems to be to slice them on the back repeatedly. Regardless, I think zombie-philes and folks who like B-movie horror will eat this up...it's on Netflix right now. Give it a try & tell me what you think.

Ich bin ein parkour zombie

[sebpopcorn · 8 June 2013]

This movie initially seems like it's going to be great but as it rolls on it becomes increasingly obvious that it isn't going to go anywhere and indeed it really doesn't. There's very little sense of danger except in the odd scene and as the survivors aren't scared why would the viewer be? In terms of characters every last one of them in underdeveloped even by horror movie standards. It's impossible to care about them because the loss or gain of a survivor has no impact at all on anyone regardless of their prior relationship. Talking of dud characters the second you see a Muslim woman in a EU film you know, without doubt, that she is going to be a doctor. They're all terrible, especially the whining husband who you know is only acting that way to justify his inevitable chomping he's got coming.

Giving your first movie a silly title with chronicle in it implies they think this is going to turn into a profitable little series. I really don't think so though, there is no pace, virtually no story and abysmal characters. The inclusion of parkour zombies wasn't exactly a bonus either. Parkour, if you're not aware, is the hobby of being 13 and filming yourself jumping off supermarket walls.

This isn't unwatchable, just very disappointing when it's over and you find there is no actual story, characters or frights.

Amazing

[joelparkes59-95-510630 · 10/10 · 31 August 2014]

Without a doubt one of the best zombie movies ever made. That a film like this is ignored during Oscar season just shows you how rigged the whole movie business is. I think the baby is amazing and so is the make up. Not enough dogs or cats playing prominent roles, however. I would have liked to see the plant zombie idea played out more but that it was even explored is pretty awesome. There wasn't enough development of the creepy priest tangent but it was still pretty awesome that it was even talked about. The zombies that could jump over fences were awesome, too. I thought that they could have used more clowns as well. Why didn't they? Are they, like, afraid of clowns or something? Are film makers afraid of using clowns in zombie movies, I mean besides Zombieland?

Good Zombie Action

[NickBOKC · 7/10 · 12 February 2021]

This film isn't perfect, e.g., the shaky camera and dark lighting in some scenes; however, it doesn't deserve a below average rating. I was captivated by it from start to finish. This movie will entertain you, especially if you're a zombie flick fan.

Breaks no new ground but better than many

[amesmonde · 5 March 2015]

A loan man survives a zombie-like outbreak and finds the perfect hiding place, a military compound.

Extinction successfully borrows and merges from the best trying to appease all walks of zombie fans, there's slow walking, fasting running, hibernating, green and red blooded infected.

It's dark, gloomy with the solid cinematography, a muted colour palette and style reminiscent of 28 Days/Weeks Later and Mutants to name a few. Thanks to a minimalist script the acting for the most part is pretty naturalistic. The mix of different foreign English accents gives it a worldwide edge.

The story works with the initial military base set up where Tom Keller sets up home, what follows is an exposition flashback then flash forward back to the present. There's voice over narration by actor Daniel Buder who plays Keller who also makes diary logs to a web-cam throughout. Tobias Kay is particularly notable as laid back Max Fischer and the supporting cast including Luise Bähr's Sattler and sharp shooting Lee Rychter as Luke who are all effective enough.

With some good effects and a complementary score it then takes a different direction when Keller finds other survivors, brings them back to the base and they then try to get to a bunker. There's not as much tension as it could have but it blows away most modest budget zombie films. Director Niki Drozdowski offers a well made zombie drama with some good action setups and periodic fighting scenes on the doom and gloom atmospheric backdrop.

It's a solid serious entry to the genre and although it breaks no new ground and can be a little sluggish its one of better zombie films doing the rounds.

Apocalyptic times

[gpeltz · 7/10 · 27 September 2015]

Extinction, the GMO Chronicles (2012) Directed by Niki Drozdowski who also co wrote it with Ralf Betz Is a dandy zombie apocalypse styled movie. Spoiler Alert. The plot borrows in form and format from such movies as 28 Days Later (2002) and The Road (2009) A small group of survivors led by Tom played by Daniel Buder, hook up, and seek safer grounds. This is a large cast production, lots of character developments, only on occasions does it tend to get portentous. The roles are well taken, but conflict seems minimal, The clever device here is that as the movie progresses, the zombies mutate and develop new tricks. Of note on the plus side, the cinematography is often stunning and atmospheric. Part of the visual allure, was the unfamiliar Westphalia countryside.

On the other side of the coin, it tended to move slow, No problem for me, but not for the Abrams thrill seekers. The conflicts did tend to get melodramatic, and the cure to any problem is to have a character killed off. and they do come and go. How does that song go, "That in the end, the only thing they knew how to do, was to keep on keeping on"or of a different author, "The road goes ever on and on.." Good production values as noted, a serviceable score, well staged with a tip of the hat sequence borrowed from Children of Men (2006) Not very high on the horror factor, and most gore was kept minimal. Interesting use of a monochromatic pallet very much re enforced the mood. Was best when it was unexpected, like with the screamers, needs more "Silent Hill" (2006)moments and less of the soaps. Seven and a Half "Foreign zombies" Stars out of Ten.