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know it's something of a cheat to call Brian Clement's
zombie opus "Meat Market" a foreign film, since while the film is made
by Canadians in (most likely) Canada, it's not really a "Canadian
movie". The questionable cataloging of the movie aside, "Meat
Market" is a no-budget Zombies Attack movie shot on video, and as a result
"Market" suffers from every known pitfall of no-budget filmmaking, but
in the end still manages to impress -- if just slightly.
Claire Westby and Paul Pedrosa stars as Argenta and
Shahrokh, respectively, two gun-toting ex-bounty hunters who used to work for an
Evil Corporation responsible for the sudden zombie plague. Realizing what's in
store for their fair city, Argenta and Shahrokh have stock up on canned foods
and weapons and found a sort of bomb shelter (?) outside of town. Sure enough,
the town is overrun by zombies that, as it turns out, are infected by -- well,
does it really matter? Zombies are everywhere and people run from zombies, shoot
at zombies, and get eaten by zombies. Nuff said.
The point is, there isn't really a lot of thought put into
the story. I suspect that all of the filmmaker's energy went into staging the
zombie attack sequences and securing proper locations to make their apocalyptic
film. "Meat Market" is basically 90 minutes of pure mayhem, with
perhaps too many scenes of stalking zombies, zombies eating victims, zombies
getting shot, etc. Tipping its head to numerous pioneers of the Zombies Attack
genre, from George Romero to Lucio Fulci, "Meat Market" borrows
heavily from Romero's "Dawn
of the Dead" and "Day
of the Dead", while taking inspiration for its makeup effects from
Fulci ("Zombie").
Being that the movie is shot with a video camera, it's not
surprising that the aesthetics for "Meat Market" is not very good.
Generational videotape degradation shows itself every now and then, and the
lighting is horrible. Of course it's a bit mean to point out the movie's
shortcomings, since most of its aesthetics, like lighting and sets, all depend
on real-life locations that the filmmakers were able to get the use of. Also,
Clement and crew manages to utilize a lot of exterior street scenes, mostly shot
at night or during hours when people aren't around.
The acting in "Meat Market", as expected, is
horrid. Lead Claire Westby is a pretty face, but beyond that I'm hardpressed to
understand why Clement cast her. Co-lead Paul Pedrosa does a much better job,
and is probably the best thespian in the group. Of course no-budget films are
notorious for casting non-professional actors (since, you know, real actors cost
money and stuff) to fill out the roles. Unfortunately like another Canadian
movie called "Jesus
Christ Vampire Hunter", "Meat Market" throws in an eclectic
cast in the mistaken belief that it'll make the movie more "odd" and
thus, different.
With "Meat Market", the eclectic cast consists of
3 lesbian vampires armed with (get this) rifles that fire lasers. There's also a
Mexican wrestler called El Diablo Azul who goes around doing, well, he really
doesn't do much. The screenplay also throws in a Mad Scientist who, in the
tradition of all movie Mad Scientists, end up meeting a most gruesome end at the
hands of his very own creation. Didn't see that coming, did ya? Needless to say,
the vampires are all Goth chicks covered in tattoos, and have no discernible
acting talent to speak off. I guess they were cast because they
"looked" the part. That, and probably because they were willing to
strip naked and simulate lesbian sex.
For a no-budget movie shot on video, "Meat
Market" is actually not all that bad. Brian Clement clearly knows his
genre, and although his movie is more of a bad comedy than an actual action
movie, there are times when I was amazed by the things he managed to pull off.
But unfortunately the film relies too much on its gore and gratuitous sex and
nudity, and not enough on story. For instance, the characters all seem to run
around doing very little except loot stores, shoot zombies, and run back to
their hideout. Although I think the Argenta character is looking for her sister,
or something.
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