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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News

Exclusive Sneak Peek: Eli Roth and Crypt TV’s VR Series ‘The Faceless Lady’ Episode Five

Published

14 mins ago

April 24, 2024

Cameron McFarland

Eli Roth (Cabin Fever) and Crypt TV are knocking it out of the park with their new VR show, The Faceless Lady. For those unaware, this is the first fully scripted VR horror show on the market.

Even for masters of horror like Eli Roth and Crypt TV, this is a monumental undertaking. However, if I trust anyone to change the way that we experience horror, it would be these two legends.

Ripped from the pages of Irish folklore, The Faceless Lady tells the story of a tragic spirit cursed to wander the halls of her castle for all of eternity. However, when three young couples are invited to the castle for a series of games, their fates may soon change.

So far, the story has provided horror fans with a gripping game of life or death that doesn’t look as if it will slow down in episode five. Luckily, we have an exclusive clip that may be able to satiate your appetites until the new premiere.

Airing on 4/25 at 5pmPT/8pmET, episode five follows our final three contestants in this wicked game. As the stakes are raised ever higher, will Ella be able to fully awaken her connection with Lady Margaret?

The newest episode can be found on Meta Quest TV. If you haven’t already, follow this link to subscribe to the series. Make sure to check out the new clip below.

Eli Roth Present’s THE FACELESS LADY S1E5 Clip: THE DUEL – YouTube

To view in the highest resolution, adjust the quality settings in the bottom right corner of the clip.

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News

‘Blink Twice’ Trailer Presents a Thrilling Mystery in Paradise

Published

1 hour ago

April 24, 2024

Timothy Rawles

A new trailer for the movie formerly known as Pussy Island just dropped and it has us intrigued. Now with the more restrained title, Blink Twice, this Zoë Kravitz-directed black comedy is set to land in theaters on August 23.

The film is packed with stars including Channing Tatum, Naomi Ackie, Alia Shawkat, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Christian Slater, Kyle MacLachlan, and Geena Davis.

The trailer feels like a Benoit Blanc mystery; people are invited to a secluded location and disappear one by one, leaving one guest to figure out what is going on.

In the film, a billionaire named Slater King (Channing Tatum) invites a waitress named Frida (Naomi Ackie) to his private island, “It’s paradise. Wild nights blend into sun-soaked days and everyone’s having a great time. No one wants this trip to end, but as strange things start to happen, Frida begins to question her reality. There is something wrong with this place. She’ll have to uncover the truth if she wants to make it out of this party alive.”

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Movies

Melissa Barrera Says ‘Scary Movie VI’ Would Be “Fun To Do”

Published

2 hours ago

April 24, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Melissa Barrera might literally get the last laugh on Spyglass thanks to a possible Scary Movie sequel. Paramount and Miramax are seeing the right opportunity to bring the satirical franchise back into the fold and announced last week one might be in production as early as this fall.

The last chapter of the Scary Movie franchise was almost a decade ago and since the series lampoons thematic horror movies and pop culture trends, it would seem they have a lot of content to draw ideas from, including the recent reboot of slasher series Scream.

Barerra, who starred as final girl Samantha in those movies was abruptly fired from the latest chapter, Scream VII, for expressing what Spyglass interpreted as “antisemitism,” after the actress came out in support of Palestine on social media.

Even though the drama wasn’t a laughing matter, Barrera might get her chance to parody Sam in Scary Movie VI. That is if the opportunity arises. In an interview with Inverse, the 33-year-old actress was asked about Scary Movie VI, and her reply was intriguing.

“I always loved those movies,” the actress told Inverse. “When I saw it announced, I was like, ‘Oh, that would be fun. That would be so fun to do.’”

That “fun to do” part could be construed as a passive pitch to Paramount, but that’s open to interpretation.

Just like in her franchise, Scary Movie also has a legacy cast including Anna Faris and Regina Hall. There is no word yet on if either of those actors will appear in the reboot. With or without them, Barrera is still a fan of the comedies. “They have the iconic cast that did it, so we’ll see what goes on with that. I’m just excited to see a new one,” she told the publication.

Barrera is currently celebrating the box office success of her latest horror movie Abigail.