The 8th Plague (2006)

Director: Franklin Guerrero Jr.

Writer: Eric Williford, Franklin Guerrero Jr., J. Michael Whalen, Eric Williford

Tagline: It Doesn't Matter if You Believe in Hell... Because Hell Believes in You

Actors: DJ Perry, Leslie Ann Valenza, Terry Jernigan, Charles Edwin Powell, Nitin Adsul, Hollis Zemany, Jonathan Rockett, Laura Chaves, Paul Bugelski, Syn DeVil

Runtime: 1h 40m

Category: Possession, Zombie

Synopsis: Launa and her friends Crystal and Gavin are heading up to the mountain town of Halcyon Springs in search of her sister Nikki. While investigating her disappearance, they come across their abandoned campsite. They head to the local police station to file a missing persons report, and the sheriff tells the deputy to take them up to the Halcyon Ridge Correctional Facility. On the way, they stop to pick up Mason, a local man with a shadowy past. On the way, they meet Curtis, the local lush, and he tells the story of the prison and why nobody ever goes up there. Turns out, that a prisoner there had somehow gotten a hold of an ancient book and turned most of the other prisoners into flesh-starved zombies. Curtis also said that they should not read the writing on the wall, because that’s how “the evil” gets inside you…through your eyes.

Now at the prison, Crystal and Gavin, Launa and Mason, and Deputy Buck go off in search of Launa’s sister Nikki. What they find is a prison crawling with the hungry undead and sinister markings on a mess hall wall. The legend states that is you look at the markings, the evil will take over your soul; and the only way to get rid of it, is to gauge out your eyes. Can anyone survive this prison of horror, or will some get away and live to tell their story?

Review: This movie was referred to me by a buddy of mine from work (yes I have an actual job). He told me that it was one of the best zombie movies he’s seen in a long time. So, being a self-proclaimed zombie-connoisseur, I took the challenge; and I would have to say that it was not as bad as I thought it was gonna be.

The story was actually the only thing I was not totally crazy about in this movie. I knew where they were going with the story but it just didn’t seem to fit together tightly. The whole thing about an “ancient evil” taking over your soul was a really nice touch. But the premise behind the story just seemed strained. There was no back-story on the book itself, where it came from, what religion/belief it was, who gave it to the prisoner, why that prisoner got the book, and whatever happened to it. Some very important plot-points I think! For me, maybe I’m nuts, huh huh, parts of the movie were actually hard to watch because of the lack of background on the book and its origin (religion and region). But the rest of the story was really good; a heart-sick sister in search of the other gets trapped in a prison swarming with zombies…not bad. I always like to see new ideas for a zombie movie…keeps me going.

The acting was…to tell the truth…not too bad. Trust me, I was expecting much worse. But the acting was good enough for its purposes. I didn’t particularly care for some of the character development though. Some of the characters didn’t really develop at all. It’s a shame too because I think that if some of the characters could have expanded a bit, I would have been complimentary. The other unfortunate thing about the acting was the zombies. The zombies were terrible; in acting and make-up (more on that tonight at six, back to you Diane). The actors that portrayed the zombies must have never seen a zombie film in their entire life. It was hard to watch a bunch of no-namers make a mockery of my favorite horror character. They should have gone to zombie acting school or something; I’ll teach…Professor Jonny Cage in the house! Detention…Booyah bitches!

The effects were not what I expected at all. Apart from the problem I have with the poor make-up job on the zombies, the rest was really good. The gore was fantastic and the blood use was exquisite. When Mason took out his eyes…damn! That was a phenomenal scene. I was so very impressed with that scene alone, I actually went back and watched it twice over again. It surprised me to see such well-orchestrated gore in a straight-to-DVD B-movie. I haven’t seen caliber like this since Barricade (2007). But the other thing I liked about the effects was the nightmare sequences. With quality frame jumps and relevant content, they were able to pull the viewer in and keep them there. I was surprised to see such attention to detail in this area, considering some multi-million dollar movies with this kind of effect bomb completely. Sometimes it takes a little guy to make a big movie…now I’m a philosophizer.

Rating: 17. Please don’t get me wrong, this was a good movie. But some of the key parts needed were either not there or not well done. Thus, objectively, I have to lower the rating a bit. If they would have spent a little more time on the zombie make-up and back-story of the book, I may have given this a 21 or 22…maybe higher. But I have to calls ‘em like I sees ‘em. Cool movie though, if you get a chance…check it out. (17of25).