quietearth [Celluloid 09.30.09] post apocalyptic zombies movie review horror comedy adventure



Year: 2009
Directors: Yorgos Noussias
Writers: Yorgos Noussias & Claudio Bolivar & Christos Houliaras & Petros Nousias
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Review by: Joseph Proimakis
Rating: 6 out of 10

[Editor's note: Special thanks to Joseph Proimakis of Movies for the Masses for the following review]

Starting off with an impressive opening sequence, Evil in the Time of Heroes will catch Greek speakers off guard by employing Ancient Greek dialogue, but then again, the film’s greatest catch, is the premise that the Evil that spread over modern day Athens three days ago (or 5 years ago, in the viewers’ timeline, when the original film wowed local audiences and critics alike) had its roots in ancient times and made its first appearance 2,800 years ago.


Hopes of well-tanned hunks prancing around in sandals, capes and underwear chopping undead heads off of undead bodies, are quickly put to rest, though, as the ancient-time version of the story proves to be an under-used subplot, that only comes to surface in time to remind you that there’s a better story there, than the modern-day one spreading on-screen.

Survivors of the first movie, meet up with another gang, bunkered up and trying to survive the plague, while plot and exposition take a sideline from there, as the triplet of film-makers has fun with the all sorts of new toys their much bigger budget has brought along.

The poorly developed story could have used a couple more weeks of editing and trimming and highlighting its stronger moments, while a duel on a terrace makes it painfully clear that not much time was spent on sound mixing, but that’s what happens when you step up and try to play with the big boys, setting block-buster time limitations on your neck.

The film-making trio, however, bounteously hands out squirts and bangs, and cuts and slashes, guts and blood by the gallon and all else expected of a zombie-flick, as well as gags, jokes and humorous moments of various sorts, from the random genre joke the outright toilet-humor shtick, while their ballsy attitude and moments of breathtaking directorial inspirations (Billy Zane’s zombie-mashing centerpiece scene being one of them), underline the fact that there’s a better movie inside the one making it to screen, and it wouldn’t take much more to bring it out, than the man with the editing equipment and a little more time to use it.

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