Planet Earth has been infected by a rabies-like virus which leaves its victims little better than flesh-eating zombies, and violent with it. In Australia, there are those who cope with this as best they can, including Rhys (Luke McKenzie) who has harnessed the kinetic power of the undead to fuel his lifestyle in a fortress of his own devising. Need electricity? Just strap a zombie to a static bicycle and get it to pedal its way towards a hunk of meat just out of reach. But Rhys is not alone out here, as he is in semi-reluctant cahoots with a laboratory nearby where they have an arrangement: he supplies living people for experimentation, all for the benefits of humanity, he believes. But how true is all this? What is he involved with?
Wyrmwood, latterly titled Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead, was a low budget action-science fiction-horror hybrid from Down Under that managed to pick up a fair few fans across the world, and though its creative instigators the Roache-Turner Brothers worked on a separate project since, it seems they could not stay away from their most recognisable hit, even if it was a cult item. The trouble with that was, it had been the best part of a decade before they resorted to conjuring up this sequel, and a lot can happen in that time, including those who enjoyed the first one moving on to different entertainments. Were zombies more passe than they had been when they started out on this journey? It did come across as a shade second hand, conceptual quirks aside.
One thing that had not gotten old here was the pacing. In the sphere of budget action, classing your production as an action flick can hide a multitude of sins, and anyone who had sat through latter day, equally sedentary Steven Seagal or Bruce Willis thrillers would be able to tell you too much of the time "action" as a genre was simply a misnomer. Especially when the money would not stretch to a decent setpiece or three, but what was pleasing about the Roache-Turners was when they said this was an action effort, they meant it. Indeed, this follow-up barely paused for breath for ninety minutes, cramming in as much fighting, chasing and things blowing up real good as they possibly could, something that would be appreciated by aficionados of movies that promise all that but rarely deliver. For that reason, this was well worth taking a chance upon.
One drawback would be that it assumed you could remember the finer points of the first one in great detail, which for many viewers would not be the case, leading to some questioning arising - were they in the first one? Is that the same place as before? Are we supposed to be getting references in this? But in all honesty, it did not really matter as once this got going, which was about a minute into the plot, you simply sat back (or sat forward) and enjoyed the ride. It may not have had many ambitions as far as the plot went, the kind of thing that was merely an excuse to stage the wilder violence, but if you had no problem with that, then neither did Wyrmwood: Apocalypse. Acting was serviceable, and contained the diversity of casting that the zombie genre often enjoyed, plus there were plenty of opportunities to build on a third instalment if this chimed with audiences. Keeping the white contact lenses industry in business, this may have dialled back somewhat on the Mad Max car chases, but it made up for it in abundant gore and flinging people around willy-nilly. Music by Michael Lira.
[Wyrmwood: Apocalypse will get its home ent. release from 101 Films in May 2022.]
