It’s a trio of flicks about zombies, infected crazies, and demonic creatures, and they all have spittle spilling off their lips and freaky eyes. Sounds good. Right? But is it?
THE SILENCE AFTER (2025)
Despite its flaws, this was my kind of indie horror in terms of the zombie visuals and gut-munching action.
Its first flaw is opening with a scene that comes later in the movie. I get that they want to draw you in with some early zombie action, but right after this preview/spoiler scene, there’s a news report montage about unethical medicinal experiments, followed by a massive breakout scene! We didn’t even need to wait long for this even better zombie moment. This could have been the opener.
The zombies’ look appears to be a combination of makeup and CGI effects, but it’s nasty good. A couple of them even ham it up for the camera, one of them delivering major Busta Rhymes mouth for the lens.
We meet a handful of main characters, but the problem is that as we bounce back and forth between them, it kind of feels like they and their stories are meandering and going nowhere fast in between the intense zombie moments. In other words, watch this one for the zombie moments, which are a blast.
Brace yourself for one of a nasty scene of a pregnant zombie giving birth, watch out for the one white dude in the movie that comes in and fucks up everything for a Black family, and stick around for the awesome final frame.
DEAD BLOOM (2026)
Ooh. This is a tense little creeper. Some might find it slow, but I actually liked the ominous atmosphere created by the lack of action for a while after the gruesome opening sequence.
A family living in a rural area finds a mysterious plant bearing fruit (or vegetable) in their field. So, like any dumb country folk (yes, it appears even Black people can be dumb hicks), they begin eating the untested fruit (or vegetable). WTF?
Doesn’t take long for a gross, drool-inducing infection to kick in…and it takes even less time for one of the daughters to behead her mom at the first sign of spit hanging from her mouth. No concerned, “Mom? Are you okay?” She goes straight into kill the bitch mode. Awesome. Let that be a warning to any of my family members to never come near me when they are sick and look like death.
Next, we meet a pregnant woman, her adult daughter with MS, and her white husband. The woman discovers she has inherited a house. How do people always inherit shit from unknown relatives in these movies? Why did all the dead relatives I never knew let me down? Clearly, this is why I’d go right into kill the bitch mode.
Anyway, the family travels to the house, because nothing makes more sense than an interracial family with another kid on the way moving into the middle of bum fuck.
Soon, the husband’s white trash sister (played by horror queen Sadie Katz) and her grown douchey son show up. Maybe the family should have given them the house since they’re much more at home in hillbilly land.
Slowly but surely, the plant is discovered by them, and everyone begins looking not so well…except daddy. Damn. I love when an unassuming father in a movie suddenly appears shirtless to give us all this hidden treasure.
The gore and action don’t kick in again until the final act, when it all comes fast and furious…and complete with a nasty mutant dick scene and a gnarly birthing scene. So satisfying.
THE DEAD OF NIGHT (2004)
This one is so a product of its time, with monster makeup effects on par with early seasons of Buffy, and a cheesy hybrid rock/techno score setting the tone for stuttering action sequences straight out of the opening credits sequence of Charmed.
That bad upbeat music and choppy editing kick right in at the beginning, with patients escaping a mental institution. I honestly don’t know how this part is relevant to the rest of the movie, so I’m hoping I just wasn’t paying close enough attention.
Next, we meet a bunch of high school kids that bully two dudes, but them to go party in a cemetery. Of course, the assholes have an ulterior motive. They tie up the two dudes, dump them in an open grave, bury them in a bit of dirt, and leave.
And then…demons appear out of nowhere. They possess some of the kids by drooling in their mouths, then the rest of the action moves to the kids beginning to act weird at school.
It’s pretty bad, and you can’t see much of the monsters for a majority of the film because of the quirky, disorienting editing style, but eventually we get to see full demon masks where the actors’ necks aren’t even painted to match the color of the mask. The teeth look cool though, and the drooling aspect is kind of icky.
Weird things is there’s absolutely no mention of it being Halloween time, but all of a sudden near the end of the movie, there’s a scene of a guy standing in a classroom doorway, and there are old school cardboard Halloween pictures taped to the walls and door. Weird.
Anyway, this is pretty much on the level of bad SyFy originals, so if you’re looking for some nostalgia and haven’t seen it, that might be the only reason to bother to check it out.
