Alien vs. Zombie : The Dark Lurking (2010)

Gregory Connors The Dark Lurking, or Alien vs. Zombie as it’s know as in Germany and Sweden, is probably this years funniest DTV-movie. From Australia, the land of ancient Egyptian pyramids and Aztec tempels (just kidding there…), comes a movie with so much energy I almost could consider it hyperactive. A mix between everything from Aliens to Even Horizon (well, there’s not that much in between actually!) and tons and tons of action and monsters, could this be something other than perfect?

Yes, it is actually. It’s not perfect, but still a lot of fun.

Some tough mercenaries is called to a distant planet where something has happen deep down in an underground base. When they arrive the whole base is filled with something that I from now on will call zombsters (a combination betwee zombies and monsters) and a few scared survivors. Now they have to get from one of the lower floors up to the freedom outside… but is it possible with monster around every friggin’ corner!

The bad thing is the acting. Not that any of the actors are mega-bad, but a couple of them just have deep, deep problems talking… well, just being in front of a camera. They chew dialouge like Charlton Heston on LSD and roll their eyes like they’re in a Colin Nutley-movie. I’m not sure of they’re trying another accent or not, but it just don’t sound right.

BUT… you get used to this after ten-fifteen minutes. I promise you. Why? Because the story are so filled with action, gore and monsters (zombsters) that it’s very easy to forget the shortcomings of the film. It starts with a violence shoot-out, zombster-attack and then it’s one fleshy, juicy chase from the first minute to the last one. One after one our heroes is killed off or infected by what the darn it is that’s spreading in the base.

First we have the zombsters, mutated people with faces like raw meat and nasty little buggers for teeth. Like the Nightmare City-mutants gone wild. Nice stuff! But the most awesome thing is the Alien-monster running around (I’m not sure if it’s one or two), which is a fantastic creation, a throwback to the Corman-movies of the eighties but much more advanced and slimy.

Obviously made on a fairly low budget, The Dark Lurking also looks great. Sometimes the metal doors vobbles like cardboard, but that’s just for whiny bitches to complain about. The sets, monsters and acting is from an eighties movies, but it has a more modern and edgy visual style when it comes to directing and camera work – nothing bad with that, because this is made for an audience in 2010.

Njuta Films in Sweden will release this in January, and it’s a must for monster-geeks and gore-freaks!