News

Late to the Party: Train to Busan (2016)

Published

6 years ago

May 9, 2018

It seems like it was farther back than 2016 when Train to Busan, the South Korean genre-bending zombie movie, was at the top of both critic and fan year-end lists everywhere. So, by just getting around to seeing it now, I’m not showing up incredibly late to this party, more like fashionably late. But I am the last of my circle to see it.

My reasoning behind waiting for so long to finally check it out is simple. I have been completely bored with zombie movies for years now, so nothing about the movie excited me. Even when people would tell me that it was their favorite movie of the year, and that it’s not “really” a zombie movie, I still couldn’t get interested. The two-hour running time turned me off a bit as well, since I am the king of the eighty-minute slasher flick, and two hours is a ridiculously long time to watch zombies feast on humans. But alas, in the name of Late to the Party, I fired up my Netflix and hit play on Train to Busan.

Train to Busan (2016), courtesy Well Go USA Entertainment.

Immediately, I could see why people would think that this was more than just a “normal” zombie movie. There’s a human element to the story from the start, with the struggle between the father and the mother for custody of their daughter, and the father being pulled between work and family. And that’s not the only interesting backstory, either; just about every character on the train, from the confrontational jerk who just wants to protect his pregnant wife to the youth baseball team travelling with their girlfriends, has a mythology that reaches beyond the frame of the zombie attack. The characters development, even when most of it occurs off-screen, raises the emotional stakes and helps the audience empathize with the principals.

Late to the Party: Train to Busan (2016)

Train to Busan (2016), courtesy Well Go USA Entertainment.

But Train to Busan is, first and foremost, a zombie movie. The zombies are cool, closer to 28 Days Later… than they are to The Walking Dead, but they are still, in fact, zombies, so they’re a threat that modern viewers have seen ad nauseum. And the zombies in Train to Busan don’t bring much to the table as far as re-invention goes. They swarm and cooperate like the undead in World War Z, but other than that, they’re just the typical Return of the Living Dead, fast-moving zombies.

Train to Busan (2016), courtesy Well Go USA Entertainment.

There’s an exercise in film school screenwriting classes where the student is asked to spice up a tired old trope by changing the setting. Stick your slasher in a submarine. Put your vampires in a high-rise. Set your creature feature in an airplane (I’m convinced that this is how we got Snakes on a Plane). That’s what Train to Busan feels like to me, like someone tried to breathe new life into the retreaded zombie genre by throwing most of the action on a moving train. And for the most part, it works. It’s got a Snowpiercer meets the Dawn of the Dead remake vibe to it, but that’s better than seeing zombies traipse around a dilapidated graveyard, isn’t it?

Train to Busan (2016), courtesy Well Go USA Entertainment.

It seems that I may have been a victim of the hype train (no pun intended), as Train to Busan didn’t quite live up to my expectations. I was expecting it to be much more than a zombie movie, but that’s really all it is. It’s one in which the deaths hit harder because the film builds relationships between the audience and the characters, but when the dust settled, it was just a very well-crafted zombie flick. It’s a good movie, but I’ll probably never find the need to watch it again. I might even forget that I watched it this time.

Check out more Late to the Party fun!

Feature image by Chris Fischer.

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Movies

Trailer for ‘The Exorcism’ Has Russell Crowe Possessed

Published

13 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Timothy Rawles

The latest exorcism movie is about to drop this summer. It’s aptly titled The Exorcism and it stars Academy Award winner turned B-movie savant Russell Crowe. The trailer dropped today and by the looks of it, we are getting a possession movie that takes place on a movie set.

Just like this year’s recent demon-in-media-space film Late Night With the Devil, The Exorcism happens during a production. Although the former takes place on a live network talk show, the latter is on an active sound stage. Hopefully, it won’t be entirely serious and we’ll get some meta chuckles out of it.

The film will open in theaters on June 7, but since Shudder also acquired it, it probably won’t be long after that until it finds a home on the streaming service.

Crowe plays, “Anthony Miller, a troubled actor who begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. His estranged daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), wonders if he’s slipping back into his past addictions or if there’s something more sinister at play. The film also stars Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg and David Hyde Pierce.”

Crowe did see some success in last year’s The Pope’s Exorcist mostly because his character was so over-the-top and infused with such comical hubris it bordered on parody. We will see if that is the route actor-turned-director Joshua John Miller takes with The Exorcism.

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Win a Stay at The Lizzie Borden House From Spirit Halloween

Published

15 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Spirit Halloween has declared that this week marks the start of spooky season and to celebrate they are offering fans a chance to stay at the Lizzie Borden House with so many perks Lizzie herself would approve.

The Lizzie Borden House in Fall River, MA is claimed to be one of the most haunted houses in America. Of course one lucky winner and up to 12 of their friends will find out if the rumors are true if they win the grand prize: A private stay in the notorious house.

“We are delighted to work with Spirit Halloween to roll out the red carpet and offer the public a chance to win a one-of-a-kind experience at the infamous Lizzie Borden House, which also includes additional haunted experiences and merchandise,” said Lance Zaal, President & Founder of US Ghost Adventures.

Fans can enter to win by following Spirit Halloween‘s Instagram and leaving a comment on the contest post from now through April 28.

The prize also includes:

An exclusive guided house tour, including insider insight around the murder, the trial, and commonly reported hauntings

A late-night ghost tour, complete with professional ghost-hunting gear

A private breakfast in the Borden family dining room

A ghost hunting starter kit with two pieces of Ghost Daddy Ghost Hunting Gear and a lesson for two at US Ghost Adventures Ghost Hunting Course

The ultimate Lizzie Borden gift package, featuring an official hatchet, the Lizzie Borden board game, Lily the Haunted Doll, and America’s Most Haunted Volume II

Winner’s choice of a Ghost Tour experience in Salem or a True Crime experience in Boston for two

“Our Halfway to Halloween celebration provides fans an exhilarating taste of what’s to come this fall and empowers them to start planning for their favorite season as early as they please,” said Steven Silverstein, CEO of Spirit Halloween. “We have cultivated an incredible following of enthusiasts who embody the Halloween lifestyle, and we’re thrilled to bring the fun back to life.”

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Spirit Halloween is also preparing for their retail haunted houses. On Thursday, August 1 their flagship store in Egg Harbor Township, NJ. will officially open to start off the season. That event usually draws in hordes of people eager to see what new merch, animatronics, and exclusive IP goods will be trending this year.

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Movies

’28 Years Later’ Trilogy Taking Shape With Serious Star Power

Published

17 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Danny Boyle is revisiting his 28 Days Later universe with three new films. He will direct the first, 28 Years Later, with two more to follow. Deadline is reporting that sources say Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Ralph Fiennes have been cast for the first entry, a sequel to the original. Details are being kept under wraps so we don’t know how or if the first original sequel 28 Weeks Later fits into the project.

**Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes**

Boyle will direct the first movie but it’s unclear which role he will take on in the subsequent films. What is known is Candyman (2021) director Nia DaCosta is scheduled to direct the second film in this trilogy and that the third will be filmed immediately afterward. Whether DaCosta will direct both is still unclear.

Alex Garland is writing the scripts. Garland is having a successful time at the box office right now. He wrote and directed the current action/thriller Civil War which was just knocked out of the theatrical top spot by Radio Silence’s Abigail.

There is no word yet on when, or where, 28 Years Later will start production.