Film Review: Xombies 3D (2011)

SYNOPSIS:

Professional headhunter Edwige has captured her former mentor, partner and lover Franco. Franco is wanted by reclusive billionaire Boris, the only governing power left in a post apocalyptic world. Boris believe Franco to be immune to the epidemic, but there are others out to get him.

REVIEW:

Edwige is caught in a world she didn’t ask for. She enlists her partner Franco on a trip over the country which pits their lives against the fury of zombies and rouge deviants who seem to enjoy taking potshots at the living dead.

As they race thru the zombie filled state of the world against a back drop of chaos and destruction, you can’t help wonder what might pop up next. The film at times dips into the surreal as film and 2D art often intermingle into a mix of wacky hybrids of sorts. Much of the audio track was hard for me to make out due to low voice tracks, so my perspective was mostly based on visual elements. From what I could tell the team was on a mission to seek out a diabolical Nazi named Boris. In between we get plenty of zombies who’s heads look like they were made from paper mache and latex.

 

Wow, what can you say about a film like this. It is quite bizarre from a editing, creation standpoint. Xombies 3D is literally a piece of work created almost entirely from a cult film inclusion. Directed by Johnny MARKUSSEN, this inclusion into weird stuff to watch is basically a zombie apocalyptic tale at heart. Our actors almost seem like they came right out of “Night of the Living Dead”. Though the real star here is, the visuals which were created entirely form a 3D standpoint. The edition I received happened to have a 2D version, so for me that’s usually the route I prefer. Though it did have a 3D trailer using old school 3D technology that was pretty trippy to watch. Now it needs to be said that the FX really mixe alot of 3D and 2D elements using real footage with cut out characters, green screened and pieced together almost in a way that feels purposely amateur. In other words, some of the characters look like they came directly from a video game overlayed against the real stock footage. The entire production segues into clips that were obviously pieced together to give depth in the 3D view point in a way that feels highly retro and silly.

For instance, the film has the sound of flies buzzing about thru most of it using overlayed ink blotches. When a zombie comes out of the ground it’s usually done so in a way that looks like it was shot and imported in over the footage. This also is applied to approaching zombies who also appear cut out and imported back in.

You have to hand to the team for the odd looking result that came out of this project. I think maybe its purpose would be better served as a zany cult product than trying to really win any horror awards. There is a decent helping of blood and guts, but they also are usually in 2D edited back in like clip art or single image graphics.

In research it is reported that the film was shot on 20 rolls of 16 mm film over the course of 5 years of which it was hand edited. Markussen surely is a shoe-in for his determination. I’m not sure though this film will make it into mainstream hands due to its bizarre visual construction. I do think that it has a similar appeal that fans of “Birdemic” might latch onto for a great humorous experience.

The cast is made up of David Allen who plays Franco, Silje Reinamo who plays Edwige with various players who appear here and there throughout.

As of review I couldn’t find much in the way of online credits to really give the kind of information so it was hard to tell exactly where this movie was filmed. It feels strangley Australian at times though upon checking the trailer seemed to be located out of Norway, so I’ll go with that. Xombies 3D is a purposely bad movie for the greater good. You might just need to check out a copy for yourself.

Xombies 3D (2011)