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The special effects for this film were a mixed bag, with mostly excellent effects, but a few problematic ones. Before we get into the physical and visual effects, we’ll start with the color grading of the film. To give a spooky, horror/sci-fi look to the film, Mr. Engström chose to go with a blue grading, which works pretty well throughout and gives a more professional appearance to some of the later effects work. He also chose to go with an artificial flicker effect, designed to add suspense, and a severe vignette. (A vignette is where the edges of a film are darker than the center, in a circular pattern, designed to simulate certain type of glass camera lenses.) The overall effect is designed to give it an eclectic film look, but these latter effects were a bit excessive, reminding one of a Rob Zombie music video. (Think of “Living Dead Girl,” for example.) As with most post-processing choices, with flicker and vignettes, a little goes a long way.
For the physical effects, the most noticeable effect is where Klas drives a board with a nail into the zombie’s brain and then the zombie pulls it out, with the blood and brain matter dripping off the nail. This looked very realistic and was quite well done.
Now, when you get into visual effects, Mr. Engström managed to get Gustaf Nilsson, who has worked as a compositor on Hollywood films like V for Vendetta, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, King Arthur, and the like, to composite in visual effects for him. The most polished of these were a few sequences when Klas pulls out his gun and fires bullets at the zombie, and the “camera” zooms into the whirring bullets as they fly through the air, pulling out as the bullets blow through the zombie’s side. Later, the 3D effects have a bit of a problem for me. When the zombie explodes, after crawling over the grenade, this scene did not work so well for me, because it lacked some essential realism. (Most action/horror movies are low on the realism quotient, but some forms of realism are imperative for believability, to draw the viewer into the tale, thereby adding to their suspense and fear factor.)
The realism issue happens during the scene with the grenade: usually when a grenade blows up under something it actually blows up first and then its shrapnel rips to pieces whatever is on top of it. Instead, in this situation, the zombie explodes from the inside out, as though it has swallowed the grenade and the explosion is originating from within. (Think of Blade, when Deacon Frost explodes). While the overall explosion didn’t work for me, they do have a very nice touch to conclude the explosion. As the body erupts, one of the hands flies straight into the camera before gravity pulls it down, very nice and reminiscent of the fatalities in Mortal Kombat.
Use of Audio
The overall audio for this film is quite good, though the narration becomes problematic at times for comprehension purposes. From the director’s commentary track, I discovered that Thorsten Flinck's narration in the middle of the film is from a poem by Oscar Wilde; but Mr. Flinck's English narration is so heavily accented that I could not make out the words or even recognize that it WAS English. Later voice-overs from Klas and from newscasters who comment on Klas’ final "solution" are much easier to understand.
The sound design was very effective, while the composed score was appropriately edgy and spooky.
Use of Budget
While $10K may seem a decent amount for a fifteen minute film, considering the Hollywood quality effects they achieved and the fact that it took Mr. Engström three years to make this film, this was actually quite reasonable.
Lasting Appeal
For folks who like action or horror, this film has some very decent, lasting appeal. After I watched it, I wanted to watch it again and I wanted to show it to others. In my opinion that’s saying a lot for a film, especially a film that is in a genre that can quickly go stagnant and stale.
Overall Comment
Like Blade meets the Matrix, Zombie Psycho STHLM has an impressive look with strong effects and a pointed social commentary. While not everything in this short film works, it is impressive and makes you want to see more films Mr. von Engström makes. I hope that he was not serious about the prophecies he made in his commentary track about giving up his filmmaking aspirations due to the difficulty of making this film, because I really want to see what he does in the future.
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Content |
8.0 |
Visual
Look |
9.0 |
Use
of Audio |
9.0 |
Use
of Budget |
8.0 |
Lasting
Appeal |
9.0 |
Overall
Score |
8.6 |
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The
director of two feature length films and half a dozen short films,
Jeremy Hanke
founded Microfilmmaker Magazine to help all no-budget filmmakers make
better films. His first book on low-budget special effects techniques, GreenScreen Made Easy, (which he co-wrote with Michele Yamazaki) was released by MWP to very favorable reviews. He's curently working on the sci-fi film franchise, World of Depleted through Depleted: Day 419 and the feature film, Depleted. |
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