Zombie Killers: Elephant’s Graveyard is a middle of
the road type of undead horror film in that it is definitely not a bad film,
but at the same time I do not consider it to be a terrific flesh eating ghoul
horror picture either. Written and Directed by B. Harrison Smith, who likens
himself to John Carpenter in that he casts actors he has worked with before for
in his features, Smith’s take on the zombie horror subgenre has a mix of good
ideas that are well executed and other ideas that don’t work at all. The film
is not gore porn, but that is fine since gore is not scary in a movie alone so
much as it is a tool that when used carefully can intensify a scene. I make
note of this mainly for those zombie picture fans, who are seeking banquet
scenes, they may be disappointed because The Walking Dead on basic cable
has more gore than this film save for the makeup effects that are very good.
The tone of the film is uneven on several levels. Some actors, particularly the
already established pros like an almost unrecognizable Billy Zane and Dee
Wallace give okay to good performances depending on the script given, but
others simply come off like student film actors and are not at all convincing.
This type of mismatching is what ultimately spoils some of the elements, which
are well conceived. Since this is a review, I cannot give spoilers, but
generally speaking the explanation for the undead plague is interesting though
it is a bit reminiscent of Max Kalmanowicz’ The Children (1980) with a
similar ecological message. Some of the ideas are never fully explored or seem
so outlandish that if it were true then the odds are everyone would be dead
already and there would be no story to tell because it would have been too
late. Thankfully this is not a found footage feature. The film gets more
entertaining in it’s third act, but the conclusion is flat and feels like a
setup for a sequel. The low budget hurts the film as well with sets that simply
look unbelievable and some middle of the road CGI. As a result Zombie
Killers: Elephant’s Graveyard never lives up to the undead ambitions it
appears to have.
Anchor Bay Entertainment’s Blu-ray Disc presents Zombie
Killers: Elephant’s Graveyard in a widescreen (2.35:1) 1080p high
definition aspect ratio that looks matted to me though I cannot state that is
the case for certain so I give the filmmakers the benefit of the doubt there.
However at times the HD Video simply looks too video like for it’s own good.
The English Dolby True HD 5.1 Surround Soundtrack fairs better with a nice ambient
quality. English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired and Spanish
Languages Subtitles are encoded onto the Blu-ray Disc as options too. Three
short featurettes are included with a Blood, Bath and Beyond
behind-the-scenes set visit (4:32), a look at how the style and production
design were achieved (5:24) and another production short (4:58). The
interactive menus are well rendered and easy to navigate. While not a terrible
film by any means, Zombie Killers: Elephant’s Graveyard simply never
achieves being great. Zombie Killers: Elephant’s Graveyard is available
on Blu-ray Disc and sold separately on DVD now at retailers on and offline
courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment.
© Copyright 2015 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
