Steve Niles' Remains

a nice surprise
After seeing the "made for television" 2012 Zombie Apocalypse, I had little hope for Remains, thinking it was going to have a lot of the same production value; mainly over used and cheesy C.G.I. affects and a thrown together story line with a poorly written script, which would all lead to annoying, clichéd characters that were under developed. Well, zombie movie lovers rejoice! The Chiller Channel has got their stuff together and made a durn fine, rooting, tooting zombie movie! Yes, it does have a slight "made for television" feel to it, in that there is no gratuitous loads of gore and blood and the intelligent actors don't have "f-bomb" diarrhea of the mouth! Some folks like that in their zombie movies, I however prefer a though out and well written story and script! And I got just that with Remains!
Now in other zombie movie reviews I have read where folks are disappointed that the movie didn't add "something new" to the zombie genre... sorry, but Remains is not a movie...

THE BEST THING YOU EVER DID WAS ME!
This zombie film starts on international "Peace Day" when some undisclosed process will neutralize radiation and make nuclear weapons useless. While these sketchy details are televised in the background, Tom (Grant Bowler) and Tori (Evalena "cleavage" Marie) go to a bomb shelter to get it on at a Reno hotel casino. When they emerge I expected to see Burgess Meredith looking for his glasses, but instead there is a full blown zombie food riot going on outside. Like "Dawn of the Dead" the first rule is to secure the perimeter and eliminate zombie hazards within the safe zone...which isn't that easy as this appears to be the only hotel casino that doesn't have a gun stashed anywhere.

Our non-zombie people group narrows down to four, with one openly gay character. (Guess who dies first because killing off the brother first has become too cliche?) The radioactive zombies require head shots and are a combination of fast moving and foot dragging zombies, whichever suits the mood of...

Not bad, not great. Totally watchable.
Maybe its just because I've watched so many terrible zombie movies that were made with more money and less love, but I thought this was kind of okay. It could have been better, yes. But it was enjoyable. There were a few moments that made no sense, but there were also a few moments where i cringed, and a few moments where i unexpectedly laughed my butt off at something that was SUPPOSED to be entertaining. SO i call that a win in this genre. I believe that this movie is a good example on the positive influence the success of "The Walking Dead" TV show is having on networks and studios throwing a couple dimes behind a director with a bit of vision. Now... if they could just start throwing them at BETTER directors with MORE time to work ..

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