Skip to main content

Theatrical Tuesday - Rise of the Animals

TuesdayAt B-Movie Club this weekend, we watched "Rise of the Animals". No, not the David Attenborough special. The Chris Wojcik masterpiece where even vegetarian animals craved human flesh.

Director: Chris Wojcik
Writer: Chris Wojcik
Film Studio: Whacked-Out Entertainment
Budget: $7000 (estimated)
Gross: Unknown
IMDB Rating: 3.7/10

Rise-of-the-Animals-2011-Movie-1

Synopsis: In a world where animals have turned on humanity, a teen travels across the country in search of the girl of his dreams.

*** Spoilers ahead ***

Premise

Our hero Max, played by Greg Hoople, has one last pizza delivery to make before making it to a movie with his buddy (Adam Schonberg). Trouble is, it's in the bush at some cabin and they'll be slightly late to the movie. After some difficulty they reach the cabin and by then there's no way to make the movie, but the wary travelers are in luck as this cabin holds a plethora of drunken teen girls. Max's longtime crush is visiting from Canada and they hookup despite her having a boyfriend. Max, not knowing that tidbit, tries to be chivalrous and return her phone to her while dealing with killer animals.

[caption id="attachment_11633" align="alignnone" width="808"]Max Max, before the SHTF.[/caption]

Writing

There were a lot of things that didn't make sense in the story like why a girl would leave her phone in the back of a car with a voicemail on it for the guy she cheated with. From a writing perspective there were some overly convenient things that happened like suddenly stumbling on a canoe when they happened to need a boat, but the way it is executed makes it OK. There were a lot of good lines and funny things that happened that kept us laughing. Max learns good lessons and I like the way it ended.

Continuity

The film had trouble with continuity. The pizza boy was wearing a white shirt under his blue short-sleeved dress shirt until he opened his dress shirt and suddenly there was just hairy chest and a thin gold chain. Later, a girl at the cabin party lost her hand to a puppet deer. There was arterial spurt. A while later, a hand was cut off by a regular car window and there was no arterial spurt. Early on in the movie there was a lot of blood, but later there was almost no gore. All the animals are affected by some unknown thing causing them to attack humans, so it's odd that humans aren't affected when a dark-haired CGI gorilla shows up out of nowhere also super pissed off.

Effects

[gallery ids="11635,11628,11632" type="rectangular"]

Bad taxidermy puppets, early 2000s CGI, fake blood, manikins, and explosions come together in this harrowing tale that is unlikely to scare. The sound effects rarely match the creatures emitting them, but that's part of the fun of B-movies as any enthusiast knows.

Favourite Parts

My favourite part happens around 38:30 when Stephanie Motta was supposed to be peeing in the woods. Oh, and the romantic mushroom cloud moment is good too. I also felt nostalgia at the CGI creatures because they reminded me of my old Dark Age of Camelot player days during college.

Conclusion

It's a fun movie to heckle with friends. The gore is on the fake side and not stomach churning, so unless you're extra sensitive to the sight of fake blood, you should be able to get through this one. It could also lend itself well to B-Movie Bingo. It's also barely over an hour long, so it's a quickie if you're strapped for time and want a laugh or two. Actually, you'll probably have more than that.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Under Siege

My city is under attack. I wish I was being facetious.  The so-called "freedom" convoy is here and so far this is what has transpired: 1. They parked on the war memorial. These people who call themselves patriots. This is where the Unknown Soldier rests. This is where Corporal Nathan Cirullo lost his life in October of 2014. The cars were towed, but who knows what actual repercussions they will face. 2. Later, when asked to move away from memorial, one stood and jumped on the tomb itself while others cheered.  3. Despite having port-a-potties provided for by the mayor, they've been defecating on Parliament Hill, in snowbanks, and on streets nearby.  4. Flags being flown include the Confederate flag of the United States, Trump flags, the Quebec equivalent to the Confederate flag, upside down Canada flags, regular Canada flags, Fuck Trudeau flags, libertarian flags, and ones adorned with swastikas. Yeah, this is totally about freedom rather than racism, white su
Post a Comment
Read more

The Gauntlet That Was October

I had a lot of things happen in October. I watched Frankenstein in the cemetery with friends. I had tea with a friend. I started a new sport: curling. This is really fun and I'm enjoying the level of activity it provides and all the strategic elements. I'll do a separate post on it soon. Unfortunately, soon after my first game, I came down with Covid and so did the friend who I had tea with, so I think we both caught it at the place we went to. That wasn't fun. I already posted about that. I was fortunate to be free of it in time to attend Can-Con where I took in lots of panels, saw some of the wonderful writer community, bought many new books, and volunteered to help out in the rooms. The following weekend, I went to the livestream for Danielle Allard's new album release, followed by the in person release. As part of this, she has a 6 video series that releases every Sunday on her YouTube at 1:15 PM EDT. Video number 2, Falling Into Place, is one that I feel fortunate
Post a Comment
Read more

December 2023 Holidays

The drive to North Bay was pretty smooth until I was 30 minutes away and ran out of windshield washer fluid. That was the first time that ever happened to me. Luckily, about 10-15 minutes later, there was one last gas station where I could fix that. Since it's my busy season, I worked the mornings and took the afternoons and evenings to spend with family and friends. My brother stopped by with a special gift, a new ornament for the tree. My mom loved ceramic Christmas trees, so it's a perfect way to keep her with us at Christmas. His friend, Fawn, helped him get it made. She has a YouTube channel you can check out here: https://youtube.com/@thethriftyfawn After that, I visited friends in the slightly rural part of Callander, Ontario. We were having a lovely time catching up and then the evening had a surprise in store. Someone in the area had hit a small deer with their vehicle. My friend's dad skinned and gutted it in around -20C (due to the windchill) weather.
Post a Comment
Read more