Review by: Eric R. Lowther
Posted by: Root Rot
Hey, kids! It’s Eric R. Lowther, aka biguglyhairyscary, bringing you yet another zombie movie review courtesy of Mr. Rot and the Witch’s Hat blog. Today we’ll be looking at the zombie movie “City of Rott”, a quick little flick that will either grow on you or leave you a bit flat. Perhaps even both. Who knows? Anyway…
City of Rott (2006)
Directed by: Frank Sudol
The zombie apocalypse has finally come thanks to an infestation of theworld’s water supply by parasitic worms that have laid waste to 95% of the world’s population. Since the worms are independent creatures, not only can the bite of a zombie transfer the parasites, but in a world where the global water supply has been infected they can be picked up almost anywhere. Welcome to the world of City of Rott, the 2006 animated release written, directed, produced and animated by Frank Sudol.
The synopsis;
The story of City of Rott revolves around an old man named Fred and his trusty walker as they search for a new pair of shoes during a zombie apocalypse. Oh, yeah, and the walker talks to him, offering both friendly and unfriendly advice and serving as his primary weapon against the dead. As the movie opens, we’re introduced to both Fred and the Nurse, a survivor that has apparently decided that her short nurse’s uniform is preferable to pants in the undead world. After getting our first dose of conversation between Fred and his walker, he meets up with the Nurse. She explains that she’s been infected, and the only hope for her, the drug Zombifate, is in the local mall. Fred agrees to help her get into the mall to get the miracle drug developed just before the world went to hell, but first he wants her to get him his new shoes. The nurse succumbs to her infection before that can happen, though, and the old man is left alone to fend off the mall of zombies and find his new loafers for himself. Before he can do that, though, he’s chased from the mall by the hordes and finds himself back on the dangerous streets.
Once outside the mall, he meets up with John, a rough-and-tumble survivor. After a rousing bit of combat the two are cornered into a bodega that still has a few bits of food left in it, allowing both to get a meal. After a time, John learns that Fred thinks his walker talks to him. This leads John to believe Fred has at least been driven insane or may even be infected. John escapes when the zombies find them and leaves Fred to fend for himself but has a change of heart during his escape and comes back to rescue him. Fred drops his walker during the rescue though, and since John refuses to go back for it Fred leaves him to retrieve it himself, leaving him alone and now defenseless. Fred manages to get back to the spot but his friend and weapon is nowhere in sight, presumably carried off by one of the zombies. Oddly enough, Fred can still hear the disembodied Voice in his head and we soon learn that the Voice he’s hearing isn’t from his walker but from the shoes he so desperately wants to replace; the right shoe to be accurate.
The slipper guides him away from the hordes where he eventually acquires both a motorcycle and guns. Now with groovy wheels and automatic weapons, Fred continues the search for his walker. He finds an empty shoe store along the way and we’re treated to a bit of his active dementia before he makes his escape. We also get our first clue that all is not precisely what it seems with Fred. Eventually, the bike runs out of gas on a bridge. With the water below infected and trapped from the advancing hordes on both sides we get bodily thrown into an animated gore fest as Fred opens up with his guns. But just when he’s out of ammunition, time and, it seems, hope, the Nurse zombie shows up complete with Fred’s trusty walker stuck over her head. Invigorated by the return of his walker, Fred continues to lay waste to dozens and dozens more, eventually fighting his way off the bridge via a lucky find of a skateboard even as we see the continual deterioration of his mind via hallucinations.
Fred manages to make his way to the outskirts of town and we learn that even though Fred could hear the Voice in the absence of his walker, he still believes the walker is the sentient and vocal one as they discuss the benefits of drinking a bottle of prune juice Fred has found. We also get more musings on how the zombies work. Eventually, and of course, they encounter more zombies, and we find out via the Voice that he’s literally dying of starvation and thirst even as he is cornered by more of the dead. He decides to go out fighting and we get yet another sequence of “walker-fu” before Fred spots another, living old man. Fred ends up saving the newcomer from certain death and is repaid by the old man stealing his prune juice while Fred is busy turning zombies into goo. We also find out that at some point along the way, the Voice believes Fred was infected by the worms. We get a melancholy moment or two while Fred muses on the dead world around him. He does continue on though, and eventually works his way to a rural area. Starvation is getting the better of him now, and the arguments get more hostile as the Voice tries to convince Fred to forget about his single-minded goal of finding new shoes and instead concentrate on finding food and Fred comes to terms with the fact that he’s been infected for quite some time now, ultimately succumbing to the worms in his brain and finally joining the ranks of the undead.
The next day we come back to the survivor, John. Zombie Fred stumbles upon him and the survivor shows him a new pair of slippers he’d managed to find. But just before John can put Fred out of his misery a horde shows up. From here we flash forward more than a week to another group of survivors. Fred appears, complete with his walker draped over his shoulders and with several other zombies in tow to catch the survivors by surprise in a darkly comedic scene lifted straight from Romero. We also find there are other infected yet not turned survivors out there. Zombie Fred continues shambling around Rott City but even dead we find the other zombies still follow him in a slow-speed chase all around town. This and other clues tell us that some zombies are not above attacking each other for food and that Fred retains some of his intelligence and humanity. We learn more about the miracle drug Zombifate as well from multiple ads and billboards around the city. Zombie Fred focuses on these signs and somehow knows he must find the drug while other zombies, perhaps sensing his not-quite-them status, continue to chase after him.
Zombie Fred is ultimately reunited with the old man he saved. The old man pops tablet after tablet of Zombifate while he lambastes Zombie Fred for being a zombie. Eventually, the old man shows pity for Fred and actually tries to converse with him. Some zombies still retain some control of parts of their mind, the old man tells us, and he encourages Fred to start thinking for himself. From here it’s a quick trip to the end. It’s not for me to tell you just how that goes, but I will say it was quite well done and has just enough of a twist to be poignant but not so much that it beats you over the head with tying up the story.
The Review;
If you haven’t gathered yet, this is an animated film. The style is completely computer-generated and done in the “flash” style, which means a lot of jerky motion and blocky movements. The characters move in a very clunky, boxy fashion, and it’s obvious a lot of templates were used. This method will take some getting used to for those of you more familiar with fluid animation styles. It also doesn’t lend itself well to the combat scenes. After you see the first few melee combat sequences it will likely all start to look the same to you thanks to the limitations of the animation style. I should also warn you that this is about as gory as you can get with animated grue and gore, but by the same token it also tends to lose its visceral punch after the first few times due to the nuts-and-bolts limits put upon it by how it’s rendered. If you’re not a fan of animation you may even find yourself tempted to shut it off after the first few fights.
But, if you’re a zombie fan you really should put on your big girl panties and keep at it. It’s obvious Sudol enjoys the genre and that does come through here, if not in the animation than at least in the telling. The story is surprisingly tight and Sudol cleverly parses out the information and plot points at a nice, steady pace to keep us interested between reveals. The 77 minute runtime also helps keep the padding to a minimum while allowing just enough time to tell the story and include enough zombie goodness to make it worth the while of genre fans. He also does a great job with the overall appearance of the city itself and his color palette succeeds in giving the city and it’s living and dead inhabitants a washed-out, faded look. The background music is rather stale though, with a few rock n roll riffs during the numerous combat sequences to spice it up a bit.
Overall, “City of Rott” is worth the watch for adult animation and genre fans, though some of you that don’t always appreciate animated movies may get bored with the repetitive images. This little flick is also full of dark humor moments as well, but you’ll need to pay attention to catch a lot of them. The DVD is available from the filmmaker’s website, www.blackarro.com where you can find more information on this movie and other Sudol projects. You can also find it on Amazon and your usual on-line outlets for about $10-$20 depending on where you go. The repetitive nature of it doesn’t lend itself well to repeat viewings, so unless you’re an animation fan I’m not sure you’ll want to actually own it. The DVD is available for rent through Netflix as well, and for those of you that use that service I will recommend seeing it at least once to keep up your zombie movie chops. So, until next time this has been biguglyhairyscary saying… see ya, kids.
Related Witch’s Hat links
Other Witch’s Hat movie reviews
Question or comments
The Witch’s Hat Voice Mail 313 444 2611
thewitchshatblog@gmail.com
Bravo Big E!!!! Bravo. I loved this flick! yet another one of those so bad its good types. great work my friend! :)