2.8 hours later - a zombie experience

Ok, I admit it. I am a zombiephile. I loved Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland and I'm addicted to AMC's show, The Walking Dead. Even my favourite Wii game was zombie-based, Resident Evil 4. But even better than that was taking part in 2.8 hours later.

What am I talking about, some of you may ask? Well, 2.8 hours later - the "city wide zombie chase game", as it's billed, is basically a massive game of tag, through the streets of the city, where you are chased by groaning/shrieking/shambling/sprinting zombies. More information here, or to view trailer, click here.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the closest thing you can get to a real zombie apocalypse without the occurence of a...well, a zombie apocalypse.

Aftermath of 2.8 hours later 2011

My first zombie experience was in 2011, which took place in the streets of Southwark - a tension filled evening, running away in terror from the undead lurking in multi-storey car parks (unbelievably creepy), pubs, and well, pretty much everywhere! I did quite well that year, only being caught in the kill zone (the last zone, filled with many, MANY zombies). It was intense, it was scary, it was thrilling, it was exhausting...and I loved it!

Would Halloween 2013 live up to the experience I had two years ago?

Well, to begin with, I was already walking around with a strained groin muscle (thanks to some overzealous stretching - I actually heard something pop/click...) so I knew I was going to be pretty useless running, but I was eager to see where the story would take us this year.

We started in an empty warehouse in Stratford, where we were checked for signs of infection, sprayed with decontaminant (mostly on my shoes??? come on, what help is that going to be?!) and told that we could enter the "safe city of London" - just go down the road to the Immigration office. Alas, when we got there we found out we didn't have the required documentation and so were meant to be ejected, but not before a helpful medic told us where we could find a friend of his that could organise fake IDs. Where? Wait for it...a multi-storey car park. Cue images of a dimly lit car park with flickering lights and narrow stairwells, and jumping down those stairs five steps at a time, chased by bloodthirsty zombies. Unfortunately, this time the car park was at mega shopping centre Westfields, and there were no zombies in the stairwell. Probably something to do with health and safety of players and the general public. Boo... We were sent to pick up medical supplies scattered across the car park - around which half a dozen zombies were shambling, of course. From there we were sent round the houses, encountering groups of zombies along the way, the most exhilirating section of which was running the gauntlet down the Greenway, where zombies were dotted all the way along this corridor. The final destination was the safe house, Asylum, where a zombie disco awaited us.

All in all, we had a good time, even though I was walking it by the end, thanks to my gammy leg (and needless to say got caught many times). However, I felt it was all so much less than 2011. Less scary, fewer zombies and zombie zones, the atmosphere less chilling and opressive too. There were too many busy places - the shopping mall, the busy roads and the long walks between zombie zones all detracted from the feel of it this year.

Zombie in the making

However, I did get another go at the game, this time as a volunteer zombie dressed in oversized overalls (apparently I used to be an employee of Alec Jarrett's meat processing plant), and it was so much more fun than I expected! It was immensely enjoyable chasing strangers round an industrial estate, jumping out from my hiding place in the bushes and shrieking at them before giving chase, in between ambling around with a floppy head and a pretend broken ankle. After being called "the chick from the Ring" a few times, I got pointed at by a slightly freaked out youth saying "Fuck! What is that?!" - highlight of my evening, I tell you. At the end of the night all us zombies managed to get a hold of the (actor) security guard and devour him in front of the last group of players. A great ending for a great night! I'd definitely do it again!

Giz a kiss!

Elysium

Ok, so I've been a bit lazy for the last few months and not posted anything new, but I did get halfway through this one a while back so I thought I would finish it before I started a new post. 

Elysium

I really wanted to like this movie. Given its South African links (reuniting director Neill Blomkamp and actor Sharlto Copley, both of whom did such a brilliant job on District 9) I was ready to proclaim this another "Proudly South African" product (like me!). Besides, this movie had a much bigger budget and more star power than District 9. How much could go wrong?

Well, a lot, apparently. First a quick synopsis: In the future all the rich people live in the sky (well, on a space station to be exact), while the poor people live on dusty, dirty, overcrowded Earth. The rich people also have this miraculous medical machine that heals everything but for some reason the rich don't choose to share that technology with the poor. Matt Damon plays one of the po' folk who needs the magic healing machine in the sky, but obviously the well-to-do don't want any dirty poor people on their space station so they try and keep them all out. Damon basically spends the movie trying to get to the machine while dying from radiation poisoning from a work mishap. Whatever happened to ridiculously patronising health and safety rules, eh?

I hate to say it, but Matt Damon was probably one of the very few good-ish things about this movie. Damon tries his best but it's not enough to save this movie - the writing is terrible and it shows in characters like Elysium's defence minister Delacourt (Jodie Foster) and Copley's mercenary Kruger. These villains are one dimensional and over the top, more like caricatures from a comic book than characters from a big budget movie, and completely unbelievable. 

I found it hard to care about any of the protagonists and also thought that there was a lack of chemistry between Damon and his love interest. Everything was just kind of bland.

Highlight of the movie for me was Kruger singing "Jan Pierewiet" to his captive on the plane/chopper/flying contraption, whatever it is (so I don't know my flying contraptions ok?!). Not because it was worthy of an X-factor audition, but because it's one of those things only South Africans would know about. Kind of like an inside joke. The action sequences are good, though and the part when Kruger's face gets blown off is also pretty cool.

Rating: 4/10