Movie: Zombie 108
By: Maniac E
Date: December 17, 2012
Where we have had numerous of Japanese and Chinese zombie horror movies, Zombie 108 is the first one from Thailand! With only a budget of $250.000 what can we expect from it? Well one thing is for sure and that is that the movie is hectic to say the least.
The flimsy premise sees the Japanese nuclear disaster mutating a flu virus into something more deadly, unleashing the usual undead apocalypse on the world. This includes Taipei, where the government has been trying to prevent the spread of the zombie plague by creating a quarantine zone and sending in SWAT teams to evacuate civilians and wipe out the ghouls. Unfortunately, one of these police squads crosses the path of a violent mafia gang, and the two are soon at each other's throats, until being forced to join forces to survive. Meanwhile, a bizarre perverted murderer (played by director Chien himself) uses the chaos as a cover for snatching more female victims, who he keeps chained up in his basement for his own sick pleasures. A young mother called Linda (model Yvonne Yao) has the misfortune to fall into his clutches while trying to escape the city with her daughter, and ends up in one of his cages awaiting a dreadful fate.
The first time I saw the trailer I was suckered into the movie straight away. Zombie 108 ended up my wanted to see list in my top 5 and so with a lot of hope I put in the dvd. Right from the start the you are being thrown into the middle of it all and police forces and gangsters battle out their difference. We have an overweight drug running mafia boss who runs a strip club while indulging himself in cocaine and lots of fine young ladies. We have the 2 American foreigners who I thought might be there for comic relief but soon are zombified themselves. We have another fellow who is putting his face together with piece of flesh while he rapes a collection of women he keeps tied up in the backroom.
Okay, now that is a lot subplots in one movie to comprehend as viewer. I like that they tried going to these subplots but in the end it is just working. The mash up they are aiming for is just not working magic on the screen. It all is way too far-fetched and in the third act it just crumbles down even further. The script is just really badly written there nothing holding up except for a few jokes although they tend to go to the slapstick kind of humor with a lot of jokes.
Of course there is gore in the movie at one point one of the American drug runners sticks two fingers in her mouth and pulls off her jawbone, unleashing a spectacular waterfall of blood and rotting flesh all over his face. The special effects are neatly done and the zombies do look quite convincing, it makes up a bit for the very bad thin story that the movie contains. Occasional gore and a few moments of extreme nuttiness can't disguise the fact that it's all been done before.
Zombie 108 has some decent things but in the end falls short in most area's hopefully they will only learn from this experience and make a better second zombie movie. Zombie 108 requires little to no cognitive ability to follow, it's full of naked women being menaced and it's got some blood and guts in it. Keep in mind just sit back and watch.
Zombie 108
Joe Chien
Taiwan
Morris Rong, Yvonne Yao and Sona Eyambe
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