The premise of this movie was pretty decent, and I thought rather funny. Unfortunately it didn't deliver.I don't quite see how people can rave about how great this movie was and how great the talent was. It was ultra low budget with very forced acting and sub-par makeup. Did I say forced acting? I meant terrible acting. Overly dramatic attempts to do simple things like cocking a shotgun. Moves from sad to really annoying. What was the budget for this fiasco? 13 bucks? The idea of a zombie support group is rather intriguing, but turns out that the zombies in question are self-loathing zombies? Come on.Honestly it reminded me of a low budget version of every single other movie that scapegoats a group of society real or imagined, be it aliens or zombies, in some sort of thin ploy to expose the ways of our society. Been done, shouldn't be done again. Waste of 90 minutes of my life.

I'll forego a summary of the plot as it's available on many of the reviews already. This was actually an alright movie! The plot is fairly basic as a fanatical zombie group fights a fanatical human group. The trend to have zombies as more than just mindless, thoughtless, and speechless beings is a nice change (although there will always be a part of me who loves the Romero dead) I think what this story lacks however is a clear or at least defined subtext. It's fraught with social commentary, which I enjoy, but I feel like it's a bit all over the map. You can insert almost any "large group oppresses a minority group" commentary and it works. First that comes to mind is racism though. Second comes the idea of religious fundamentalism which is a bit more deep but just as interchangeable. Acting is actually pretty good. I like that the content is taken seriously by the film makers and I think that comes off well on screen. I think a lot of the actors put a lot into this and while there are times where the acting is a little stale or reactions are sub par, I think in general acting was a positive. One problem I have is during large portions of the beginning of the film, the soundtrack is far too loud compared to the dialogue and it's distracting. Editing isn't bad in the film but there are some sections where the cuts are off beat and a bit rough. Another issue I have with this is the amount of girls in underwear or underwear visible from angles which allow for upskirts. It's not like I have some problem with it overall but I do feel like by putting your main character in a skirt the entire movie then positioning the camera just right to catch those upskirts is a bit much. Maybe they were trying to hit more of a young male demographic but I think it's distracting from a decent film. There seems to be an abandonment halfway through the film of what is "normal" in the world. It's clear there are these 2 extremist groups but there is no sense of what the rest of the world actually feels as zombies are able to hold jobs and mingle at will with humans who tend to have no problem with it. It feels like I'm forced to watch only what these crazies are doing giving me little middle ground and honestly little break between one crazy group and the other. General camera work and lighting is alright. I think many shots are underexposed and framed poorly while others look great minus the low camera quality. As this is a zombie movie it's important to mention gore and SFX. If you want gore, well there's plenty of bites, head chopping, bullet wounds etc. I think it looked pretty good and I was impressed. Of course many of the gun shots (and there are a lot) have very low quality muzzle flashes but given the amount of other SFX I think the flashes can be excused. Overall, i think It's moderately entertaining. It's nothing fantastic but certainly better than much of the drudge that swarms the zombie genre. They took it seriously and so will I. I give it a 6 for accomplishing a decent story, good gore and better than your average zombie movies acting. I take off for the general pacing, an unclear subtext, at times rough camera, editing, and audio work and, the unnecessary use of language and panty shots. (Before you go and say "wow, who made you PC police" I think offensive words can be used if there is a clear meaning and it has some relevance to character or plot such but in this case neither occurred and I just felt it was unnecessary usage)

Last Rites of the Dead is set in a world where the dead don't stay dead, any freshly deceased person returns to life as a zombie. Office worker Angela (Gina Ramsden) is shot dead by her abusive boyfriend Josh (Joshua Nelson) but she doesn't stay dead for long, Angela quickly learns that being a zombie is difficult. Your skin rots, you have no legal rights & you are treated as dirt by the living. As the debate rages over what should be done about the living dead a section of society who are against zombies having equal rights set up their own terrorist organisations who persecute the zombie population as they try to get on with their lives (death's?) in normal society. Josh is one such extremist & joins one such organisation & uses his knowledge of Angela to help further his cause...Edited, written, co-produced & directed by Matt Fratto who also co-composed the music score & also known under the title Zombies Anonymous I have to say I thought this was crap despite all the glowing reviews from people who seem to have seen it at some obscure film festival & somehow that makes it great. Unfortunately I had to endure the full almost two hour cut of this crap rather than the shorter US DVD version which apparently makes no sense but would have thankfully lasted for twenty odd minutes less, I just have no luck at all. Last Rites of the Living Dead is an all too obvious take on the issue of mass immigration & racist attitudes. I guess the filmmakers were trying to go down the George A. Romero route by mixing zombies & (rubbish unconvincing) gore with a little bit of social commentary & satire but fail miserably, I will give Last Rites of the Dead some credit as the initial ten or fifteen minutes are quite good as the script focuses on the plight of a zombie in the real world, the fact they wouldn't be entitled to any money or have any rights, adverts on telly for make-up to hide rotting skin, the issue of termination centres & the basic core of the film the racist attitudes of the living. But once all the clever little allegories & references are out of the way including a support group for zombies in which they call themselves the 'mortally challenged' the film focuses on the battle between some left wing Nazi style terrorist group who attack & kill zombies & Angela & her struggles to survive in the world as one of the living dead. The plot is poor, there's some crap about a zombie cult which in a way exonerates the racists & what they are doing, the character's are poor, the dialogue is rubbish with every other word being a profanity because that's as imaginative as the writers can be & the film never elaborates or builds on it's central premise & the issues & ideas it first brings up. I also thought the film was incredibly boring with poor narrative & a very bitty plot that falls apart at the end& becomes a mess.Don't let anyone con you into thinking this is gory, sure there's a bit of blood but it's very poorly realised with very watery blood & poor make-up effects created by the interestingly named 'Demonic Pumpkins' whoever they are. There's some decapitations, some severed heads placed on stakes, there's a few exploding heads, a few bites, a bit of flesh eating, some blood splatter & a really poor scene in which Angela cuts Josh's testicles off & he just literally stands there & lats her do it. I'm not being funny but if I was stabbed in the groin I would at least take a few steps back to try & get away from my attacker, wouldn't you? Or would you just stand there & let them continue to mutilate you? The zombies in this aren't a bad lot really, they still have their human personalities & even though some like to eat human flesh most don't. Bless 'em. Shot almost entirely during the day in the cast & crews homes there's nothing scary here, there's no tension or atmosphere & the action & set-pieces are poorly handled throughout.Shot in New York this has all the production value & polish of one of my holiday videos, it looks awful with a really digital video camcorder look to it that I despise so much. I really wish filmmakers would go back to using grainy 35mmm film. Sigh. The acting by no-one I have ever heard of is up to the standard of the rest of the production, basically it's crap.Last Rites of the Living Dead had a few promising Romero style touches & ideas at the start but it all goes downhill very quickly & I thought it was pretty crap all round. It tries to clever & say something about immigration & racism in particular but it forgets all about the entertainment value in the process.

I tend to rent a lot of direct to video movies. I know I shouldn't, because most of these films are garbage, and renting them only puts money into the pockets of greedy hacks, but every once in a while you find a gem like Zombies Anonymous.YES: The lighting sucks.YES: Thespecial effects are lame.YES: The videography is mediocre and the editing a rough in spots, but you know what? The writing is really good.I was able to overlook all of the low budget flaws because there is actually an interesting story to be had in ZA. I won't go into it here because I want you to RENT THIS MOVIE! I almost didn't, it was stuck all the way down in the Z section and the cover art was horrible, but I took the plunge at brought it home. I am glad I did.The only real drawback to this movie is that the two major action set pieces go on FOREVER, and only highlight the low budget. These are both in the final third of the video and they drag down the momentum. There also seems to be a scene missing toward the end, because I was lost for half a scene before I realized "oh that's who that is, and that's what's going on.". With all these technical problems I still give this movie a 9 out of 10. If more no budget film makers made movies like this (smart, funny, and entertaining) then maybe Hollywood would take notice and start making good movies as well. Not because it's a trend but because it's a matter of life and death.