The Undead Symphony

Darren Smith, Michael Avery and Guests
  • 5.0 (2)
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  • UPDATED SEMIWEEKLY

An undead podcast discussing all things zombie. Movie reviews and TV shows, franchises and chats with fans and the ghouls and boils who bring us this much loved genre.

  1. 1D AGO

    Episode 334: Death Metal Zombies (1995)

    Send us Fan Mail PLAY THIS MOVIE LOUD!  The soundtrack is by Pungent Stench, Evit 13, Dead World, Brutality, Disrupt, Mortician, Pyogenesis, Candiru, Winter, and Dismember. If you don’t know who they are, just check grandma's record collection, and it follows a group of bad acting metal heads Brad, Tony, Johnny, Kathy and Angel as Brad wins a contest to get the latest album by his favourite band Living Corpse. The cassette includes a unique song that is not available anywhere else in the world. A song, that when played turns Brad, Tony and Kathy into zombies at the beckon call of the band. So is it virus or voodoo? It is definitely voodoo. And this makes sense to me as the zombies are just slow shuffling looking humans, staring and with dark rings around the eyes. Whilst some reviewers slagged the FX off for not being either bloody Fulci zombies, or blue Romero zombies, I think this is absolutely, and probably accidentally, in keeping with the style of voodoo zombies. Anyway, Angel must save the guys by playing the song backwards, and all the while a serial killer is bear hugging people to death in a Richard Nixon mask. Tricky Dicky indeed. I would have hated it more if I hadn't just seen Hsien of the Dead, and so this is going to be a 2.5/10 for me, on par with Pro Wrestlers versus Zombies. Which may sound bad, but there are over 30 movies below it in our list. Maybe not avoid if you like bad b-moves with a heavy metal theme.

    31 min

  2. 1D AGO

    Episode 333: Hsien of the Dead (2012)

    Send us Fan Mail The elation of finding a movie from our 42nd country was short lived within the first ten seconds of Hsien of the Dead, Singapore's Shaun of the Dead from 2012 and a supposed comedy. Although it was as funny as a road accident. This was awful, just plain awful. The 5.4/10 on IMDB is a reflection of a few idiots giving it 10 and then plenty of people giving it 1/10, and that was only because you can't give 0. With the worst level of amateur acting, bad shot choices, poor camera quality, terrible effects, and pointless plot lines, Hsien, a young army enlistee, Ah Huay a cosplaying martial artist, Edward a porn sensor in the ministry of propaganda, and receptionist Hana all fight their way to meet up in a parking garage, before going out, then back to the parking garage, with the idea of getting off the island on a boat. There is very little to redeem this movie. It is as if random people from the street were asked to ad lib scenes without talking about it before, and with total strangers. The toy helicopter, the cardboard chainsaw, and the terrorist were all low lights in a movie that had perhaps two amusing jokes, dozens of extras, and that I hated. This was 73 minutes of my life that I won't get back, and you can thank me for taking this one for the team. It is the worst movie we have seen since Oasis of Zombies, that at least has the permanence of still being around 50+ years later. Avoid this one. It was not one of those movies that are so bad it was good. This was just so bad. 1/10

    46 min

  3. MAR 16

    Episode 332: Michael Catchup about Res Evil Series and Black Summer

    Send a text A little chat-ette to start the week, as Michael appears in the rear view mirror to discuss the short-lived Netflix Resident Evil series and the first season of Black Summer amongst other things.

    54 min

  4. MAR 15

    Episode 331: Godforsaken (2022)

    Send a text I am going to be lazy here. These two reviews summed this movie up for me. A review 5/10 Some decent elements, but felt like it would never end Once you get past the cheesy low budget acting, there are some good parts to this movie. Some creepy scenes and the guy who played Chris was great and genuinely creepy. Chad's mum was also a good character/ actor.    But the last 30 minutes felt like 4 hours, I thought it was never going to end. Just non stop running and screaming and shakey camera. I got bored.    The girl, Katie, was pretty annoying in the 2nd half just constantly crying. I was relieved when they finally all died.    When the 3 of them were trying to hide, why did they seem to make as much noise as humanly possible? Stop screaming and make a plan maybe. 2/10 Demonic Zombies I watch about 3 horror movies a day searching for those hidden gem ones.... This was not one of them!! I feel like this movie had a good idea but it was poorly executed. The acting was soooooo bad!! The fake crying was awful and constant for about the last 25 minutes of the movie! It's hard to like any of these characters by the end. Also jerking the camera, yelling and screaming like a blubbering idiot isn't an enjoyable watch! Whoever wrote the dialogue for this movie did a terrible job! I really couldn't wait for it to end...Awful...just Awful! Also a cat and a dog get killed, they're eaten and it's very bloody! In short, the best thing about this movie was that it was 77 minutes long, and that was still 65 minutes too long. A very unconvincing found footage movie where the idiot filmmakers basically filmed everything, including driving there, going to a bar, walking to a friends house to get stoned, and even when a first aid kit is needed, picking the camera up to go find the first aid kit. The two reviews captured it, this was shit, they were annoying and too loud. It is a 3/10 for me, the worst movie I saw this weekend, and that includes two movies from Pakistan Out of the found footage and documentary style movies I have seen recently this was a poor, poor, poor Canadian cousin to the others. Savageland 6.5/10 The Bay 5 this piece of shit 3

    33 min

  5. MAR 15

    Episode 330: Hell's Ground and Altered Skin

    Send a text Two movies from Pakistan in this episode, all prompted by Ollie Eats Brains who had just discovered Altered Skin but hadn't seen it. Taking a look into it further Pakistan doesn't have too many horror movies and the list of zombie movies is even thinner on the ground. They do have their own webseries version of The Walking Dead called Zombistan but I am here for the movies. After a bit of research, i.e. I googles Pakistani zombie movies, I got two, these two so decided to watch them both. The idea for both of these movies is that the pharma and chemical companies through corruption in government just dump their waste into the waterways and the horrors that follow. Hell's Ground is a 2007 gore fest apparently that tells the story of 5 teenagers from Karachi that bunk school to head to a concert and end up lost in the woods and preyed on by zombies and a family of psychopaths. It is widely classed as Pakistan's first gory movie.  And it was alright. We see people demonstrating about the water quality and it causing zombies that look like they have leprosy as the groovy gang of Roxi, Ash, Simon, OJ and Vicky get lost in the woods whilst stoned. Simon is bitten and one by one they end up running into the darkness for one reason or another and are preyed upon by a spiked ball and chain wielding psychopath and his family. So, it all gets a bit Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 5/10 And Altered Skin was just dull. It was a conspiracy story with investigative journalists getting kidnapped and murdered, as an American ex-pat tries to find the truth to why he wife is in a coma. My interpretation of what the zombies could be was more interesting than the movie itself and other than about 8 minutes of chase scenes and a final battle, the most poster was the best thing about this one. 3/10

    1h 12m

  6. MAR 6

    Episode 329: Chrysalis aka The Living Dead (2014)

    Send a text Despite the sneaky rebranding of this movie, from changing the title from Chrysalis to The Living Dead, to making the DVD box look very The Walking Dead including the font and the colour scheme, and including the tag line about day of the ghouls making us think of both Day and Night of the Living Dead, this 2014 low budget post-apocalyptic zombie effort is actually ok. It was referenced in one of the reviews of The Cove aka Escape to the Cove as being so much better and that reviewer was right. I mean, there was plenty to annoy me throughout, mostly that this is set 30 years post the end of society and still todays events, thoughts, attitudes and knowledge is referenced by people who were not even born when the world came to an end. It tells the story of Penny and Josh who are ambling around the post apocalyptic US, occasionally coming across running infected as they camp out in broken down warehouse after cliched broken down warehouse. They then meet Abira, who is heading to the city to meet a group who want to rebuild society by taking the city back block by block. A truly stupid notion if you ask me. And Abira has secrets. I actually thought it was well done. I have seen far worse. I have also seen better. The acting was fine from the 3 leads, and the tension was palpable. Would I watch it again? Probably not. Would I recommend you see it? if this is your bag, then yes. Strides better than The Cove and Zombie Warz, and the like. 5/10

    48 min

  7. MAR 4

    Episode 328: The Cove aka Escape to the Cove

    Send a text I hated this one. It wasn't that the writer/director/producer thought he was suited to play the vulnerable, although not really, overly macho nihilistic lead. It wasn't the 5 minute cameo of Eric Roberts in a setting wholly out of character with the rest of the movie, remembering this is a post apocalyptic zombie movie where 99% of people are dead and those that are still alive are scavenging for food and eating cold beans out of a can and Eric in a suit is taking phone calls in a shiny clean bright lit office in front of a working computer. It isn't the appearance of US Navy planes twice with no explanation. Or that the whole thing is a bag of cats set in a marina. Or that the characters wore sleeveless tops and didn't carry weapons. Or that the slow moving blood stained white contact lensed zombies were replaced with glowing eyed fish zombies at some point. It was that Cairo, the supposed lead was an absolute p***y.  He is a useless, whiny, weak, pathetic character who wouldn't survive a weekend in a 2 star motel let alone the zombie apocalypse. No weapon. Doesn't even know how the zombies hunt. Doesn't scavenge in houses. Doesn't know anything. Doesn't fight back. You know Berkeley in Zombieland 2? This is not him. Cairo was just pathetic. Why do we join him months or years into the apocalypse, at a point where the streets of LA are empty and this idiot has survived with zero survival skills? Grr. 2.5/10 bottom 25 for sure, out of the nearly 400 we have seen. F**k you, Cairo.

    43 min

  8. MAR 2

    Episode 327: The Bay (2012)

    Send a text Following on from a mention on a review of the far superior Savageland, this fake documentary/found footage horror was helmed by Barry Levinson. Yup, Oscar winner Barry Levinson. Good Morning, Vietnam, Rainman, Bugsy... etc etc and the list goes on. It tells the story of 2009, 4th July weekend in Claridge, Maryland, and a horrific outbreak of something that causes lot of nasty side effects, not least having your tongue and liver eaten from the inside. But is it a zombie movie? I asked Google. Yes. The Bay (2012) can be classified as a zombie movie, specifically within the subgenres of body horror****ecological horror, and infected/rage-virus cinema. While the antagonists are technically mutated sea parasites (isopods) rather than undead corpses, the film heavily utilizes zombie tropes and is often cited as a modern "infected" film.  And to be fair the cop who kills the chief before offing himself and the woman attacking the mother and baby in the cop car at the end were in so much pain they were not in control. But Trench 11 (2017) and Viral (2016) this was not. Check those two out for proper parasite zombie movies. This wasn't as good as Savageland despite costing a hell of a lot more and having an Oscar winner directing and the Insidious guys producing. Watch that instead 5/10

    33 min
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About

An undead podcast discussing all things zombie. Movie reviews and TV shows, franchises and chats with fans and the ghouls and boils who bring us this much loved genre.

Information

  • Creator
    Darren Smith, Michael Avery and Guests
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    334
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Undead Symphony
  • Show Website
    The Undead Symphony