The Undead Symphony

Darren Smith, Michael Avery and Guests
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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. 3D AGO

    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

  2. 5D AGO

    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

  3. 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

  4. FEB 27

    Episode 326: Savageland (2015)

    Send a text A rarity for me, as this is a found footage documentary with a difference. An acted docu-drama where a town of 57 people are massacred and a man, Francisco Salazar, an illegal immigrant from Mexico is the only survivor and therefore the only suspect for the heinous crime. In true crime documentary style this movie follows the case, taking perspectives from a glory hunting writer, corrupt local law enforcement and the family and loved ones of the victims whilst we see Salazar being interviewed by the police. And then it flips, as this is a zombie podcast, to Salazar saying the first victim died then attacked him which is why he had to kill him. And from there we are shown the order or events by a former border patrolman, combined with 36 photos taken by amateur photographer Salazar on the fateful night. Not what I was expecting, hadn't heard of it until I saw a reel by Chris Short listing it as one of the top 10 TUBI zombie movies at the moment. So thanks, Chris, and this one did well for me, 6.5/10, and I would seriously consider a drama of what really happened, so you can watch the two movies in either order.

    38 min

  5. FEB 24

    Episode 325: Miruthan (2016)

    Send a text The first Tamil zombie movie sees mustachioed tough guy traffic cop Karthic take on the zombie hordes after a chemical spill. In true Bollywood style you will need to see past the bright red blood, cartoon sound effects, and at one point a full on pop video complete with backing dancers in a garden centre, as well as a sea of mustaches, to enjoy this zombie movie.  In a nutshell it is very obvious, chemical spill, spread, response, then a cure, with a shopping mall, some scenes stolen from other movies, and characters that are purely comical despite it trying to be a serious piece. Or is that their way of making movies, it is a bit of everything. Funny, sad, cheesy, horrific? I am not a fan of Bollywood style movies, or the cheese, or the overly macho mustache hero, flying jump attacks, songs, overly sentimental flashbacks, however, I need to appreciate it for what it is - a bang on average middle of the road zombie movie with a Tamil cultural lean. 5/10

    1h 11m

  6. FEB 21

    Episode 324: Dead Bloom (2025)

    Send a text This is one of those movies, like Outbreak with Billy Burke, like Herd, that appeared on the Amazon feed from nowhere.  Made in 2025, and doesn't mention the z word at all, instead describing itself as a socially charged horror story about the lingering effects of environmental contamination and corporate denial. So basically it tells the story of a family, lawyer dad, heavily pregnant artist mom, and MS suffering teen daughter who inherit a farm. Although we see the previous family go bat shit and kill each other, very The Crazies but more gross, after a couple of guys dump drums of a chemical into the ground. And it is this chemical, via the water and the fruit that turns everyone white goop drooling, and homicidal. Where in most zombie movies I want everyone to die, the family are ok, other than the trailer trash sister of the lawyer and her pointless son after they turn up. Whilst some of the script and the cinematography is great, we get terrible scenes from time to time, and awful plot devices and design decisions.  The green plant penis was straight out of a Troma comedy, or Night of Something Strange. The hit men for the chemical company were comically bad from their car, their outfits, their choice of weapon and cliched deaths. That being said, it was ok. A bit daytime TV drama, a bit of The Crazies, with the family dynamic of the Griswalds and Cousin Eddie, and some Troma goop. 5/10

    38 min

  7. FEB 17

    Episode 323: We Bury the Dead (2025)

    Send a text In this episode Michael and I chat Daisy Ridley's We Bury the Dead, a movie we have been looking forward to for such a long while. Both huge fans of not only Ridley but also Brenton Thwaites (Teen Titans, Office Uprising, Ghosts of War). Ava and Mitch are having marital issues, that they plan to address when Mitch returns from a work conference on Tasmania. But the US military accidentally drops a weapon of mass destruction off the coast wiping out the entire population of the islands. Ava wants to know what happened to Mitch so volunteers to be part of the human relief programme that in conjunction with the Australian military with the idea she will be able look for him when she can. She is part of the effort to find, identify and dispose of the hundreds of thousands of bodies.  From the off the military explain in a briefing that some of the dead come back. And they do... and we see them... Hear our thought here.

    39 min

  8. FEB 15

    Episode 322: Silent Night, Zombie Night

    Send a text We have had zombie outbreaks whilst on international flights, we have had zombie outbreaks at a wedding, at a school trip to a petting zoo, and here, we have a bad daytime TV soap opera affair story, set in LA, at Christmas during the zombie apocalypse. The menage-a-trois, complete with daytime TV soap piano, and awful dialog is between overly macho and difficult a*****e cop Frank Talbot, his yoyoing wife Sarah who goes between Frank and his younger more handsome, but clearly morally questionable partner Nash. There is too much of this going on. We start with Sarah separating from Frank and going to Nash, but when Nash loses a toe, that Frank cauterizes, she ends up in bed with Frank, then Nash when he wakes up, then Frank again after she shouts and attracts the zombies, then Nash again when they get drunk and Frank heads out to supposedly find supplies but never gets any, before Frank again when he is back after shooting Nash by mistake, and Frank needs a wound cauterized. Too much cauterizing, not enough using the first aid kit in their squad car outside. We do get Lew Temple (The Walking Dead and Zombex) and Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp) and Vernon Wells (Commando and Mad Max 2), but they are but fleeting moments of IMDBery. None of them bringing much to the movie at all. And the zombies? Lumpy faced contact lens wearers, the colour of the lenses denoting if you are a runner or a shambler. It was poor, none of the characters likable enough for you to care if they live or died. 3.5/10 instead get three TVs and set them up in the same room. Put Days of Our Lives on one TV, a bad cop show on another, and a bad zombie movie on the third and get stoned looking from one TV to the next for similar effect.

    57 min
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Ratings & Reviews

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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
    329
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Undead Symphony
  • Show Website
    The Undead Symphony