SARS Wars: Bangkok Zombie Crisis (2004)

Directed by Taweewat Wantha

Movie Review by Al Fleshrot

Summary
A young girl named Liu is kidnapped in a roadside hijacking by a gang of thugs who then demand a large ransom. Her father retains Master Thep to save her, but he's past his prime and sends his top student Khun instead. Meanwhile, Thailand just happens to be the ONLY country in the world that has fully contained/prevented the deadly Sars No. 4 virus from taking hold. This virus turns the poor infected person into a ravaging zombie. Coincidentally, a bug carrying the virus happens to bite a man who resides in the same apartment complex where Liu is being held hostage, and thus the zombie madness begins.

In a nutshell, Liu escapes her captors only to be pursued by them and a horde of zombies. Kuhn locates her, but the cannot get out of the building because the zombie outbreak has been identified by the authorities and the complex has been sealed. A team of scientists led by Dr. Diana is sent in to try a new antivirus, but soon all save the doctor are dead. Master Thep also arrives after sensing his student is in trouble. After many gun battles and sword fights, including encounters with a giant zombie snake and a demonic zombie baby, Dr. Diana, Liu, Master Thep, and Kuhn escape the building just as it's blown to hell by the C4 charges placed by the authorities.

Review
Where to start? This is an interesting zombie movie to say the least. It's definitely an attempt at comedy with lots of blood. The movie was made in Thailand, and uses English subtitles. As seems to be the norm for a foreign made B movie, the English translation results in extremely cheesy dialog. The comedy overall is really bad...seriously bad. The best categorization I can make is Slapstick - in fact I almost expected Leslie Nielsen to show up for a cameo. But there are some genuinely funny moments, despite lacking any subtlety whatsoever. The SARS Wars title apparently stems from the fact that Master Thep has a special battery powered sword reminiscent of a light saber. Throughout the movie he constantly struggles with it because the batteries keep going dead.

The zombies are done quite well - lots of blood and scary faces, but many of the special effects are obvious CGI. Especially the giant snake and the newborn zombie baby. The zombies seem to be a mix of all sorts of influences; one zombie girl looks like she came straight out of the Exorcist, with perfectly formed vampire fangs as well. Another has a mouth full of jagged, sharp teeth.

Though there isn't any outright nudity, there are tons of sexual references. And there are romantic encounters between Master Thep and Dr. Diana, as well as Kuhn and Liu. There was a twist involving the transvestite gang leader, but I'll leave that to you to see when you watch the film...

I certainly can't claim this is one of the better zombie movies out there, but I definitely recommend it as long as you are willing to suffer through extremely bad dialog and humor for the sake of a few laughs.

Best Zombie Death
The zombie formerly known as Arthur Biggs is the first to be infected and the first to die. The gang that kidnapped Liu fills him with bullets, but he won't go down. But then the last gang member arrives with a shotgun and blows the zombie's head clean off. The headless corpse is still staggering, but a second blast knocks it through a window.

Memorable Scene
When Master Thep senses his student Khun is in danger, he breaks out his leather suit and prepares for battle. Before setting out he opens a cabinet filled an arsenal of machine guns, but opts only to take a remote control instead. Upon arriving at the zombie infested apartment complex and encountering a group of zombies, he whips out the remote and by pressing a button a table magically appears holding the hilt of a sword. Taking hold of the hilt, he chants and a green blade appears just like a Star Wars light saber. He then makes short work of the zombies by slicing them to pieces.

Al Fleshrot wants your brains