Dark Review - Disease

Review of Disease by M.F Wahl

Review written by Casey Douglass

 

In my own opinion, the mark of a truly great zombie story is that the zombies aren’t the only threat. To varying degrees, the effectiveness of a tale depends on whether the zombies are more a background threat whilst the soap opera of human interactions plays out in the foreground. The risk with this approach however, is that if you sideline the shambling dead too much, some bright spark will ask “Why did you bother having zombies in it at all?”

I’m happy to report that M.F Wahl’s Disease gets the balance about right. The zombies are an ever present threat and integral to the story, yet the humans and their interactions are just as important.

The story begins with Casey and Alex as they forage in an abandoned house for food and supplies. Of course, it turns out that they are not alone and a frantic fight with one of “The Risen” ensues. This is another great thing about Disease. The skirmishes with the undead are vividly described and paced very well giving you a great feeling of the shit hitting the fan. They also happen plenty of times in the course of the story so any gore fans should find ample here to keep them grinning as they read.

Going back to Casey and Alex. Alex is a young boy who doesn’t speak. Casey is his carer and she looks out for him and worries that something might be quite broken inside him. At times he knows what is going on, at others he ignores things and gets lost in the details of a faucet or the contents of his backpack. As you can guess, someone apparently so switched off is a bit of a risk with zombies around. They are both discovered by a party from a nearby hotel and taken into the folds of a cult-like group which is run by the enigmatic Lot, a devious woman who, with a mixture of religion and fear, has a stranglehold on her followers’ minds.

To say too much more would be to give too much away. Suffice it to say that M.F Wahl has certainly achieved the task of showing that the zombies aren’t the only type of monsters in the world after an apocalypse. M.F also depicts very uncomfortable issues in just the right way, not going too in-depth but showing enough that the reader can read between the lines. I think that this is a great achievement and one worthy of highlighting here.

If I did have any criticisms, one might be that some paragraphs in the book feature shifts in viewpoint between two characters that sometimes worked and other times slightly disrupted my reading rhythm. This is a minor quibble though in what otherwise is a fine book.

I give Disease 4 out of 5. It is well written, interesting and paced in a way that will get you wondering what happens next.

Disease is being released as a serialized novel in six parts. Part One is available from Thursday the 18^th of September with each new part releasing every Thursday thereafter until all are out. It is also being released in audiobook format.

You can check out W.F Wahl’s website here for more info and places you can buy them, and also read the first chapter for free.

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Trailer for upcoming zombie tale 'Disease'

M.F. Wahl, author of soon to be released zombie novel Disease has released an impressive teaser trailer.  

Disease is set in a world where humanity's war with zombies has been lost, and the zombies themselves pale in comparison to the demons that can live in the survivors' minds.

“It’s been said many times before,” says Wahl, “but that’s because it’s so spot on. True horror is what we see when we hold up the mirror to ourselves. Whether it’s zombies, serial killers, or unseemly circumstances, it all boils down to how the characters relate back to us.”

Disease is set for release in the summer of 2014 and will be available as an eBook for all the major formats, and as an audiobook. If you love your zombies, you'd better keep an eye out for it.

Visit M.F Wahl's Website here.

Dark Review - World War Z

Image ©Paramount Pictures

World War Z Review 

By Casey Douglass

World War Z is the film based on the novel of the same name by Max Brooks. I read the novel sometime ago and found it very enjoyable. It made me think about some of the issues involved in a zombie outbreak that I had never before considered. I’ll admit that as a narrative, being made up of disjointed events and reports, the novel was a little dry. I can fully understand why the film was manipulated into a more traditional narrative, even if it meant leaving out some of the tastiest tales in the book.

Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) is a retired U.N employee who happens to have the skills that the U.N needs when the zombie outbreak reaches the worldwide consciousness. He and his family are plucked from the melting pot of teeth and screeching terror in the hope that he will aid the U.N in its hunt for the cause of the outbreak and ideally, the cure. Thus the film proceeds, flying from place to place just ahead of each location succumbing to the scourge. It struck me as a potential idea for the next Idiot Abroad TV series, although I would feel very sorry for Karl Pilkington if that ever got the go ahead.

I was unimpressed with the film, and I didn’t go there thinking that I wouldn’t like it. There were the usual moments of silliness that any film seems to suffer from these days but in the case of World War Z, I just couldn’t look past them this time.

Brad Pitt’s character seemed almost surplus to requirements. Any number of faceless U.N observers would have probably pieced together the clues as to the way the disease might be hampered, if not eradicated. As that is mainly what he did. He took the time to watch and observe the victims and the zombies, while everyone else panicked or fled. This helped him formulate a course of action which he swiftly keeps to himself. He calls his bosses on a satellite phone with a rapidly fading battery, and instead of telling them what he has observed and deduced, he asks if there is a research station nearby. Well thanks Brad, if you die before you get there no one will be any the wiser as to what you were going to do or try!

The zombies in the film are the controversial “fast moving” kind that sprint at you at full speed. I don’t mind those too much, as it does make the chase scenes that little bit more exciting. If I had to choose between two films though, I would usually choose the shambling zombies over the athlete kind. Maybe I am a traditionalist in that sense, but it just feels right to me.

I was unlucky enough to see the film in 3D. All I can say is DON’T BOTHER! Besides a few dark corridor sequences which gave a meagre impression of depth, the rest of the film was flatter than the pages of the book that bares its name. I am not a great fan of in your face 3D but to pay extra for what felt like minimal effect didn’t help my opinion of the film. To this day, the best uses of 3D that I have ever seen were the recent Resident Evil films, they are quite stunning.

The plot of the film was okay, and the ending seemed to be the right one for the film. The acting was fine, the CG passable, the music was the typical “save the world” kind of duh...duh-duh-duh-duh-duh beat. Maybe the book ruined me for the film, I just don’t know. All I do know is that I won’t be too bothered if I don’t ever see it again.

Rating : 2.5/5

On IMDb

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Dark Review - Thirst

Thirst Review

By Casey Douglass

Directed by : Chan-wook Park
Written by : Seo-Gyeong Jeong , Chan-wook Park , Émile Zola
Starring : Kang-ho Song , Ok-bin Kim , Hae-suk Kim , Ha-kyun Shin

Whenever some kind of plague or disease is cutting a swath through mankind, one of the questions rarely answered by movies is “How would it effect a vampire?”
Most movies seem to view the vampirism itself as the plague, so in this respect, Thirst is giving you two afflictions for the price of one, in the manner of some backward pharmacy. Thirst follows the story of Sang-hyun (Kang-ho Song), a Catholic priest who volunteers himself for experimentation at an out-of-the-way institute that is trying to find a cure for the Emmanuel Virus that is proving fatal for anyone who is unlucky enough to catch it. It consists of blisters that grow and split, gradually ravaging the body of the poor sod that has contracted it, slowly spreading inwards until it affects the muscles and organs. Sang-hyun takes to it like a martyr, hoping it will bring him closer to God. He whiles away his time writing optimistic letters to his old patients and playing his flute, until the day blood gushes from the end of the instrument and he is rushed into surgery. He dies on the operating table and is covered over with a sheet. Before the doctors can even turn away, his croaky voice seeps out from beneath the white covering, reciting a prayer that becomes the last link to his old faith throughout the rest of the film. He has awoken a vampire, and as you can imagine, this is quite an awkward position to be in for a Catholic priest.

It isn’t all bad though, as the vampirism holds the EV virus in check, and also grants him the usual powers and desires that go hand in hand with any blood sucking story. The story is then set up for the conflicts and clashes of desire that are inevitable. It is very interesting to see the way he rigidly holds to his Catholic faith, but as the seriousness of the situation impinges on his mind, he loosens his hold a little. Things come to a head even more when he meets Tae-ju (Ok-bin Kim), the wife of his childhood friend. She is very unhappy in her life, running barefoot at night in shear exasperation and fantasy of what it would be like to really run away. Her restlessness and Sang-hyun’s identity crisis draw them together as two people unhappy with their place in the world and seeking answers.

Thirst is a very nice take on the usual vampire style film. There are no incisors that emerge with a clicking noise, nor are there any of the really fantastical abilities such as shape-shifting or mind control. This really helps the film in my opinion as it lets you concentrate on the human aspect a little more, and shows that no matter how powerful you might become, your frailties and weaknesses will still accompany you. The scenes of the film itself are shot in quite a dark way, much of the film taking place at night or in dim rooms. There are some scenes which are in brighter areas and they do add a nice contrast, and later in the film, one particularly violent scene takes place in the brightest room of the whole film, which I think sets up a nice comparison with the issues of dark and light and good and evil that the film plays with.

Thirst is a great watch and I think it is a film I will carry with me for a while, which is usually a good sign that a film appealed to me. If you enjoy subtitled films and vampires, it doesn’t come much better.

Rating: 5/5

IMDb

My review is now up on Generic Movie Blog UK here.

I had hoped to have a short story up today but it's not quite ready yet so needs to bake awhile longer.

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Dark Review - Plague Inc.

My review of Plague Inc. just went up on Geek Syndicate. It's a great iOS/Android game that sees you try to kill off humanity. I know! Well it is well worth a purchase if you have a device that can play it. Find my review here.

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