Zombie Pigs: Pork and Beings

Word of warning before you watch Proie, a 2010 French horror movie about zombie hogs. There are numerous, highly graphic and gory depictions of animal damage. If that kind of stuff goons you out, this is not the movie for you. (It’s double icky.)

Proie, or Prey as it was released in the States, finds a tempestuous family reunion gathering out in the French countryside (or “woods”), where there’s a lot of back story stuff to color the characters so that you feel emotionally invested in them. What ev. The family runs a pesticides business and is headed up by dad, one cranky and tough S.O.B. Have to be if the contaminates your slinging is your only source of income.

Several recent violent animal behavior incidents have the men in the family heading out to see what the fudge: panicked deer ramming themselves into electric fences and maddened feral pigs, rotting from the inside out, chasing anything and anyone who ventures out into the overgrown forest. (Even the flora looks mean.)

The men keep hearing ominous screech-y sounds, augmented by lots of heavy grunting. (Like my neighbors on date night.) Words are said, swearing exclaimed and the men are systematically being hunted by zombie hogs who are beyond rabid, violently hungry, mega-aggressive and double icky.

It’s determined that the contaminated pesticides leaked into a nearby lake. The area’s woodland creatures chug the water. Then they mate. (Who wouldn’t after loosening up with a drink or two?) Then they give birth to mutated offspring that pursue all things human with extreme prejudice.

Where Proie excels is when they don’t show you these animal attacks –you hear the pant-soiling growls in front, behind and on the sides of you and see the tall weeds indicating something is heading your way. And they do this at night. Nerve-wracking set-up to balance the food chain.

There’s so much goopy gore and blood gushing towards the end, you kinda feel the need to bathe after watching it unfold, which it does nicely. (Just when you think this madness is ending, it throws some more twists and gunk at you several more times.)

With that, Proie is subtitled, even the animal noises. Just wish I could read so as to get a much more satisfying movie experience.

Pant-less Alien

When was the last time you were abducted by aliens? For me, it’s often, In fact, they’re running a bit late today. Wish they’d at least text me so I’m not just sitting around waiting.

Not sure if people get abducted in the upcoming alien invasion movie Encounter (due 2015). But a flying saucer (or “UFO”) crashes into a rural lake and an extraterrestrial with backward bent legs (think space grasshopper) comes out making noises like an empty stomach. And get this…he’s not wearing pants! (Maybe it’s on Spring Break.)

Anyway, here’s what they have plotted: “In a quiet community outside of Washington, DC, a pair of tech-savvy roommates discover a hidden signal within our nations data and security systems. As the pair try to locate the source, strange happenings begin to occur throughout the neighborhood and the unsuspecting citizens discover something is stalking them.”

“As the truth of the unknown is revealed, they find themselves face to face with a chilling encounter.”

Ugh. Whoever wrote the promo copy needs to be probed by an English teacher.

A Case of the Crabs

Giant crab movies are nothing new. You can go far back as 1961’s Mysterious Island for some sweet supersized crustacean action. And when you run out of ways to have mega crabs shell humans as if they were um, crab legs, then you give the title creature a new designation: Queen Crab. No word if this is a gay crab or one born of royalty.

Filmed using good old fashion stop-motion (see The Gumby Show/1956), Queen Crab is introduced via a meteor crashing into a remote quiet lake, probably loaded with giant leeches (see Attack of the Giant Leeches/1959). From there the space rock, probably thrown by God (see The Ten Commandments/1956), “awakens a centuries-old beast, who tears through a nearby town and its inhabitants who must fight for their lives and stop this Queen Crab before she can hatch an army of babies.”

An army of crab babies. Good luck finding diapers that stay on during pinch-y attacks on humanity.

Queen Crab arrives via DVD September 2015 and is reported to be loaded with extras. Wishful thinking, but I hope one of the extras is a package of drawn butter and/or cocktail sauce.