Horror Stack - World War Z: Unrated Cut (2013)

Director: Marc Forster

Cast: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, Fana Mokoena

Country: United States

Rating: Unrated

Run Time: 122 min

Horror Stack is a series dedicated to reviewing films within the horror genre specifically during October in order to get myself into the mood of the Halloween season. Whether I've seen them before or not at all, those stacks of horror film DVDs and Blu-Rays are never better than during October.

I never got around to catching World War Z upon its initial release. I was kind of a schmuck and wrote it off as a throwaway blockbuster based on all of the film's notorious production issues and umpteenth portrayal of a zombie invasion. However, I finally caught the film two years after its release and am pleasantly surprised to discover that it is an extremely intense and terrifying blockbuster. 

Director Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace, Machine Gun Preacher) earned many action fan's chagrin when he brought Paul Greengrass' shay cam style of action photography to the Bond series in 2008. This style of action, according to Vern of OutlawVern.com, can also be referred to as "post-action." Fortunately, Forster shows an improvement in his action competence with several visually comprehensive set pieces that racket up the tension and exude sheer horror with their zombified proceedings. Even though World War Z bases its plot around a zombified infection, one of the most over used plots in recent horror cinema, the film distinguishes itself due to its epic scale and non-stop action that lands the film more in the action genre than it does horror. Still, horror fans will find plenty to love here based purely upon the graphic nature of Forster's zombified mayhem and the unbearable amount of tension on display.

Just your average, ordinary, zombie killing, dad.

Based upon Max Brook's novel of the same name, which was a sequel to his more comedic The Zombie Survival Guide, World War Z tells the story of one UN investigator's search for answers concerning a devastating zombie outbreak. Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) is now a retired UN investigator who dedicates his time to being with his family. Unfortunately, Lane and his family are immediately thrust into the midst of a zombie outbreak as their home town is laid waste too by violence and death. After being rescued by helicopter, Lane and his family take refuge upon a UN battleship. It is here where Lane is told that he must investigate into the outbreak's origins in order to ensure his family a place upon the ship. Therefore, Lane travels the world in search of the infection's cure in order to ensure his family's safety.

World War Z is a global and action packed zombie infection film that bases its plot around one of the genre's most successful conceits. There's no denying that zombie infection films are a dime a dozen. Some of the best examples of the genre (i.e. 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, I Am Legend, and even the television series The Walking Dead) achieve greatness through their personal and small scaled stories that concern a select group of characters. However, World War Z is unique in that it focuses upon a small group of characters amidst widespread panic and devastation. Even though the film is a full blown disaster movie, it is also a personal story about survival and investigation.

Brad Pitt (Troy, Mr. and Mrs. Smith) does a fine job as Gerry Lane, a determined father of two who puts his life on the line to uncover the infection's mysteries. Even though Pitt is on point, Lane is a particularly bland character. Beyond his motivation and goal, that is to protect his family and discover a cure, there is nothing more to Gerry than meets the eye. Lane is purely a vessel the film uses to traverse the epic devastation with. He's a fine character, but in no way a memorable hero when stripped of Pitt's A-list name. If Pitt didn't play the character, than audiences probably wouldn't care for him as much. Still, Forster does a good job instilling a sense of discovery and innovation within the audience through Lane's journey.

Watching soldiers lay waste to zombies has never been so awesome.

This brings up another unfortunate truth about the film: it's supporting cast. Despite Pitt, no other character in the film has any characteristic to them beyond their profession. Everyone is in service of the plot, plain and simple. However, Israeli newcomer, Daniella Kertesz, shines bright as a soldier who accompanies Lane throughout the second half of the film. She's even more memorable than Lane's own wife, a damning truth if there ever was one.

Forster keeps World War Z jam packed with as much zombie action as possible as the film moves from set piece to set piece. However, World War Z excels as a zombie invasion picture because its action is not only exciting, but terrifying and visceral as well. Forster does a fantastic job balancing exciting large scale set pieces with horrifying small scale ones that give the audience both the thrills and chills of a terror picture. The first 30 minutes of the film mainly focus on Lane and his family's escape from their hometown. Therefore, all of the film's initial action is made all the more horrifying because the characters are hopelessly vulnerable and their situation terrifyingly realistic. We see Lane and his family move through a massive car pile up, survive a gun fight in a grocery store, and than work their way through a close quarters apartment filled with infected zombies. The film's first act feels like a whole different film of its own: that of a family working together to survive a horrific incident. 

I initially feared that World War Z would than place its focus entirely on Lane, as his family would no longer take precedent in a journey across the world. Fortunately, Forster repeatedly brings up Lane's wife and family throughout the plot in order to remind audiences of their importance to his quest. Even Lane's selfless moments during the film's emotional climax are preceded by him sharing his love to his family. Therefore, Lane remains a family man from start to finish, no matter what the zombie mayhem.

If this is what rewrites and production problems get you, than I'm in.

World War Z kicks into high gear once Lane gets on a plane and flies across the planet. Lane encounters a plethora of increasingly terrifying set pieces that traverse South Korea to Jerusalem. The film delivers its most blockbuster styled action when Jerusalem falls at the hands of thousands of infected zombies. Forster depicts zombified devastation on a scale previously unseen in all of horror cinema. This sequence features incredible imagery of zombies swarming over the tops of Jerusalem's walls as helicopters hover around and fire away at thousands of zombified bodies. One could pause any instance of Forster's grandest set piece and frame it as a work of art; the cinematography and special effects on display during the fall of Jerusalem is truly jaw dropping. The sequence's imagery recalls the Wachowski's incredible craft in The Matrix Revolutions when swarms of sentinels poured into the city of Zion during the film's final battle.

Forster than follows up the Jerusalem mayhem with the film's two most horrifying sequences: a zombie attack upon an airplane and Lane's journey through the infected halls of a research center. If plane crashes weren't terrifying enough, than imagine one preceded by a zombie attack upon said plane. Forster truly forces the audience onto the edge of their seat throughout every single one of the film's set pieces; the tension and suspense is that unrelenting. After all of its zombified mayhem and city wide devastation, World War Z shoots small and sets its finale within a small research center. This third act was infamously rewritten by screenwriters Drew Goddard (Cabin in the Woods) and David Lindelof (Prometheus) in order to save the film from its otherwise original bleak ending. This thankfully rewritten finale is extremely emotional and the key to the film's success. Forster's "zombie film to end all zombie films" is particularly exciting, emotional, and horrifying for a film with a title as silly as World War Z. 

It should also be stressed that one should only watch the unrated cut of World War Z (found upon its Blu Ray disc and streaming on Netflix). The unrated cut is far more violent and filled with added violence, gun shots, gore, and zombie deaths. This cut is clearly the definitive version of the film and leaps and bounds better than the otherwise tame PG-13 theatrical cut. Even though the theatrical cut is still solid, the unrated cut is where true action and horror fans will find their satisfaction time and time again. World War Z joins the ranks of recent action films Taken and The Wolverine whose true definitive cuts can only be found on home video, not in the theater or on T.V.

Gerry Lane: The Zombie Whisperer

The biggest thing working against World War Z is its own respective genre. Ever since Danny Boyle and Alex Garland introduced fast zombies to the mix in 2002 with 28 Days Later, the zombie genre resurged like never before. Similar films, such as Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead, Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake, as well as George A. Romero's Land of the Dead, heralded the zombie's return to horror cinema. Warner Bros.' big budget I Am Legend and AMC's immensely successful The Walking Dead series brought the post-apocalyptic zombie film into the mainstream like never before. Unfortunately, post-apocalyptic zombie films and television series dominate mainstream entertainment so much now, that their scares, plots, and zombified imagery all start to blend at some point and leave the viewer numb to their horror. Therefore, World War Z's zombified mayhem feels extremely, and I feel silly to use the phrase, "been there, done that." Forster is simply too late to the game for his film to be as affective or as ground breaking as previous "fast moving zombie films."

That being said, World War Z is the best "been there, done that" zombie film I have ever seen. Forster crafts several immensely terrifying set pieces that make World War Z one of the most affective blockbusters in recent years. Few films with a price tag of $200 million feature as much tension, excitement, and horror as Forster's latest. Pitt's determined performance, along with the film's incredible special effects and solid script, certify World War Z as one of contemporary action/horror's very finest.

Rating: 8/10 - Intense, suspenseful, horrifying, and emotional. Get on it!

Predator-a-Thon, Part 1 - Predator (1987)

Director: John McTiernan

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Elpidia Carillo, Bill Duke, Jesse Ventura, Richard Chaves, Kevin Peter Hall

Country: United States

Production Company: Silver Pictures

Rating: R

Run Time: 107 minutes

John McTiernan's Predator has always been a personal favorite of mine. Unlike many other violent 80's action films, Predator is one of the few that I have been watching since I was a little kid. This film and the very similar Aliens were two big staples of my childhood viewing. Surprisingly, these were the only R rated movies my dad allowed me to watch as a kid. I didn't get to see The Terminator or Die Hard until I was much older. Even though I have come to love Arnold Schwarzenegger for his many excellent action films, Predator is the film that introduced me to him at a young age. 

After revisiting Predator for the first time in several years, I can whole heartedly confirm that Predator is both one of the best action films of all time and one of Arnold's finest films. If Arnold wasn't in the two James Cameron Terminator films, than this would be his crowning achievement. Predator is an excellent pseudo sci-fi/action/horror that delivers so much. You get an excellent performance by Arnold Schwarzenegger, awesome shoot 'em up action scenes, a tense and terrifying survival horror plot, and an antagonizing alien creature. Science fiction fans and 80's action movie fans couldn't ask for more! Warning: spoilers ahead!

Arnold and The Predator face off.

Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his team of elite specialists land in Central America for a search and rescue operation. Their mission is to find and rescue a kidnapped presidential cabinet minister. Upon landing, Dutch is met by his old friend Dylan (Carl Weathers), who is now working for the CIA. Dutch, Dylan, and his men locate the guerrilla forces outpost within the jungles of Central America and engage in an epic gunfight. After wiping out every single man (minus a captive woman) in the compound, Dutch realizes that he and his men were set up by Dylan. There was no captive cabinet minister. This whole operation was set up to rescue back two of Dylan's fellow CIA operatives and to take out numerous enemy guerrilla forces in the process.

As the men start to make their way back to their helicopter extraction, something in the trees begins to follow them with infrared eye sight. When the female captive escapes Dutch and his men, something in the jungle kills one of the men. The men suspect that the killer is another rogue guerrilla  in the jungle. However, they quickly realize that their enemy is not of this world as they are slowly picked off one by one. Dutch eventually becomes the "final man" as he and the creature go head to head in a final face off where Dutch pits his survival instincts against the creature's sci-fi weaponry and advanced cloaking system.

Predator is a tense thrill ride packed with awesome action scenes and one of the most memorable creatures in cinematic history. I cannot stress enough how tense and engaging this film is. John McTiernan found a way to make invincible muscular action heroes vulnerable as they go up against the one thing they can't defeat: an other worldly creature. Just like McTiernan's other action masterpiece, Die Hard, Predator is a subversion of action genre staples.

The film opens with an epic shootout where Arnold Schwarzenegger and several other bad asses of the 80's lay waste to dozens of soldiers. This opening raid on the guerrilla forces' compound is the kind of gun fight you would expect an action film to conclude with. And yet, here it is at the beginning of the movie. It kicks so much ass and gives you exactly what you expect from an 80's action film. But than Predator twists the action genre on its head by becoming a full fledged survival horror. These muscular bad asses are no longer the invincible killing machines that we think they are. Instead, we watch these hulking men get slashed to death by an invisible alien with far more brawn, weaponry, and skills than any of them have. If that isn't a subversion of the genre than I don't know what is.

If these guys can't take down a Predator, than what can?

I know that everyone knows Predator as an action film. But I think it's due time that some one reads this film as a "slasher" film. Released in the 80's, the heyday of the slasher genre if I am correct, Predator pulls quite a bit from the slasher genre formula. The final two thirds of the film are essentially a group of people taking on a masked killer in an isolated location. The slasher, the Predator, takes out each of his victims one by one and as quietly as possible. He even wears a mask like Michael Myers, Jason Vorheeves, and Leatherface (up until the very end).

Since there are no teenagers having sex, I am going to hypothesize that slaughtering dozens of bad guys in an action scene is what makes you vulnerable to being killed by the Predator. The film even ends with Arnold as the "final man" (my substitution for the well known "final girl" phrase). Arnold and the slasher than engage in a one on one fight that turns into a chase scene similar to what one would find at the end of Halloween or Friday the 13th. But unlike the slasher genre, the "final man" wins and defeats the slasher once and for all. The Predator doesn't get back up and return for a sequel. No, the Predator loses fair and square (until he whips out his self destruct device and proves that he is a sore loser). However, the fact that there are numerous sequels to this film proves that the Predator species could not be held down.

John McTiernan brings all of his action craftsmanship from Die Hard and Die Hard With a Vengeance to this manly as heck action film. The opening shootout alone is one of the great 80's shoot 'em ups. Arnold single handedly guns down over 40 guerrilla soldiers in this scene! After this shootout, the rest of the film is essentially Dutch and his men shooting back and forth with the Predator. Even though most people remember the opening shootout as the best action scene of the film, my money goes to the great scene where Dutch and his men mow down the jungle with their guns for a good minute. Literally, Dutch and his men stand side by side and fire away into the jungle as they try to hit the Predator upon first seeing it. This whole action scene is made better by Bill Duke's loud screaming and mini-gun blazing. 

Long before AvP, there was a time when the Predator looked this awesome.

The final face off between Arnold and the Predator is also great entertainment. After Arnold realizes that the mud on his skin can cloud the Predator's heat vision, he turns into a survivalist and sets up numerous traps alongside a lake. He than slathers more mud on his skin and screams for the Predator to come after him. It's one of the best cat and mouse face offs I have ever seen. Action movies don't get better than this.

I think that Predator contains the largest assortment of great one liners in action movie history. Look at the assortment of badassery spouted by these men.

"If it bleeds we can kill it."

"You are one ugly mother f*****."

"I ain't got time to bleed man."

"Knock knock, *bang!*"

"You're all a bunch of slack jawed faggots. This stuff will make you a god-damn sexual tyranosaurus, just like me!"

"Stick around!"

"You're ghosting us mother f*****. If you give away our position again, I'll bleed you. Real quiet."

"Get to the choppa!"

"What the hell are you?"

"They're dug up in there like an Alabama tick."

"Come on, do it! Kill me now! Come on!"

If those one liners weren't enough to certify Predator as action royalty, just look at the dream team of filmmakers behind this project. With John McTiernan (Die Hard) directing, Joel Silver (The Last Boy Scout) producing, Alan Silvestri (The Avengers) scoring, and Stan Winston (The Terminator) doing creature designs, Predator was guaranteed to be an action masterpiece. And just look at the cast! You get Arnold Schwarzenegger (Conan the Barbarian), Carl Weathers (Action Jackson), Bill Duke (Commando), Shane Black (screenwriter of Lethal Weapon), Sonny Landham (48 Hrs.), and Jesse Ventura (The Running Man). Predator oozes so much action royalty that it actually hurts a little bit.

Predator gives a whole new meaning to disarming an enemy of their weapon.

It would also be criminal of me not to mention Kevin Peter Hall, the man inside of the Predator suit. Hall's imposing stature coupled with Winston's masterful creature design makes the Predator one of the best science fiction creatures ever put to the big screen. Even though the Predator dies at the end of the film, Hall would return to play another lead Predator in Predator 2. It is also worth mentioning that none other than Jean Claude Van Damme (Hard Target, Universal Soldier) actually filled out the shoes of the alien for a while before Stan Winston and Kevin Peter Hall came onto the project to turn the Predator into a much more imposing and muscular creature. Sorry Van Damme.

I'm sure no one was aware at the time of making Predator that they would be kickstarting an entire franchise (an incredibly rocky one that is). What separates Predator apart from the rest of the Predator films is that the film takes its sweet time to introduce the Predator. McTiernan took a cue from Jaws by not revealing the creature until the absolute best moment. We get to see the creature's POV, his hands, and his camouflage for a very long time. The Predator doesn't fully reveal itself until about an hour into the movie.

Predator also establishes many staples of the franchise. The jungle setting has since become the most popular of all of the Predator settings (as seen in the return to the jungle in 2010's Predators). The film also introduces us to a few of the Predator's weapons. We get to see his cloaking device, his shoulder mounted laser gun, and his Wolverine styled wrist blades. I forgot how few weapons the Predator uses in this film. It won't be until Predator 2 when we get to see the Predator use his iconic net gun, retractable spear, and spinning razor blades. The film also establishes that the Predator will only kill people using weapons. This establishes that the Predator is only interested in the thrill of the hunt and will never kill unarmed innocents.

Predator is also bolstered by an incredible score by veteran composer Alan Silvestri. The score is incredibly dramatic and works as the perfect action movie score. Every tune in this film will embed itself into your mind and never leave you. Nearly every aspect of Predator will do this to you. It's that excellent.

"One ugly..."

That Predator was John McTiernan's very first big action film astounds me. He would shake the entire action movie community with the perfect one-two-punch of Predator in 1987 and Die Hard in 1988. And while Die Hard will always remain as McTiernan's magnum opus and most popular film, Predator is right up there in terms of pure filmmaking and craftsmanship. Predator is an excellent and masterful action/horror hybrid that packs shootouts, one liners, and a slashing alien creature all in one film. You really feel like you get two movies worth of entertainment out of this film (one being the mission to rescue the presidential cabinet minister and the other being the survival horror story involving the Predator).

Predator is truly one of the greats. The film is arguably Arnold Schwarzenegger's finest film (if not for the even better and far more iconic Terminator films). Like I said, the craftsmanship and filmmaking in this film is incredible. McTiernan wasn't just trying to make a good action film. He was trying to make an excellent film that any one of any genre preference could enjoy. And while Predator never received the box office dollars and critical acclaim of James Cameron's similar "men on a mission"-action-horror hybrid Aliens (1986), the film will always be beloved and held dear to all action cinema fans hearts.

Rating: 10/10 - They just don't make 'em like they used too. 'Nuff said.

Franchise:
Predator (dir. John McTiernan, 1987)
Predator 2 (dir. Stephen Hopkins, 1990)
Predators (dir. Nimrod Antal, 2010)

AvP Spin-Offs:
Alien vs. Predator (dir. Paul W. S. Anderson, 2004)
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (dir. The Brothers Strause, 2007)

End of Days (1999)

Director: Peter Hyams

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Bryne, Robin Tunney, Kevin Pollack, Rod Steiger, Udo Kier

Country: United States

Production Company: Beacon Pictures

Rating: R

Run Time: 123 minutes

End of Days is one of my new favorite action/horror hybrids. I am always on the lookout for good action/horror hybrids because I think they make for a great sub-genre. I usually consider Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Til Dawn (1996) to be the best action/horror I have ever seen. However, End of Days is a darn good competitor and an absolutely awesome action film as well. The film blends a religious end of the world plot with disturbing imagery, excellent action scenes, and some big special effects as well. I did not think I was going to like this film that much going into it. But in all honesty, I had a blast with this movie and think it is a very underrated Arnold Schwarzenegger flick and a good film for Arnold to end the 90's with.

Images like this remind me why I love action movies.

The great action icons should dabble in action/horror more often. Dolph Lundgren did I Come In Peace (1989), Steven Seagal did Against the Dark (2009), Wesley Snipes did the Blade ('98-04) trilogy, Michael Bean did The Terminator (1984) and Aliens (1986), Fred Williamson did From Dusk Til Dawn (1996), and Arnold Schwarzenegger did The Terminator (1984) and End of Days (1999). I think it helps to see some of these actors get dropped into incredibly gritty and scary films in order to shake things up a bit from the usual action films they always do (but don't check out Seagal's Against the Dark, it sucks hard and he's only in it for 20 minutes).

End of Days opens with the birth of a young girl who is prophesized by a Satanic cult to help bring about the end of the world in 1999. To be honest, it is quite a creepy scene. The young baby is carried into a room to be "cleaned off" by the nurses. However, the nurses reveal themselves to be Satanists and perform a bloody ritual by slicing open a live snake and having the baby taste the blood. The movie than fast forwards twenty years to reveal that one of the Satanist nurses is now that young girl's step mom (Miriam Margoyles) and another is her doctor (Udo Kier). That young girl has grown up into the adult Christine York (Robin Tunney), a sweet woman who has no clue that she is being prepped to be impregnated by Satan one day.

But let's move on to the hero of the movie. Arnold Schwarzenegger is Jericho Cane, a professional body guard and security officer. When Jericho and his friend Bobby (Kevin Pollack) are out protecting a wealthy banker, they are attacked by a priest with a sniper rifle. After stopping the priest and arresting him, Jericho becomes curious of the priest's ramblings about the end of days. For no reason other than curiosity and possibly boredom, Jericho starts to investigate what the priest was talking about and quickly discovers that Satan has found his way to earth and is planning on impregnating Christine to bring about his son and the end of days.

Gabriel Bryne eyes Udo Kier's family.

It's also worth mentioning that Satan chooses a random human on Earth to act as his physical form. That human ends up being a nameless character played by Gabriel Bryne who basically become Satan. Satan causes all sorts of mischief and mayhem while on Earth. One of my favorite things about this film was Gabriel Bryne's performance as Satan. This is one of the my favorite Devil/Satan performances in any movie because Bryne is clearly loving this role. He doesn't ham it up and really comes off as truly evil while being fun at the same time.

Man, there is a lot of set up for this movie to make sense to anyone reading this review. If you made it through that than let me start by saying that End of Days' strongest point is its creative plot. I have seen a lot of action movies lately and have grown increasingly tired of boring and/or standard plots. Sometimes you just need something totally out there and different to go along with your action. If you desire something like this, than End of Days is the film for you. The film is a great combination of Satanic horror and Arnold Schwarzenegger styled action. You get exorcisms, bloody murders, awesome shootouts, cult seances, and Arnold Schwarzenegger making a milkshake out of Chinese food, Pepto Bismol, old bread, and coffee. There is never a dull beat in the film and I found myself thoroughly entertained from beginning to end.

End of Days could have easily been dull and dreadful DTV material if the filmmakers didn't attempt to craft a creepy and foreboding atmosphere. Thankfully, the cinematography and color scheme of the film is flat out excellent. The film looks and feels very much like a horror/noir. The film coincidentally looks a lot like David Fincher's Se7en (1995), another horror noir of the 90's. I would say this film is probably 2/3 "end of the world horror" and 1/3 "Arnold Schwarzenegger action." Since the horror seems to be the main priority of the film, it comes across as less of an action film and more as a horror flick.

Some dated 90's CG. Creepy.

This film reminded me why I love Arnold so much. Before he took a break from acting, Arnold had the ability to make any action film likable or memorable simply based off of his performance. It's hard to explain to people sometimes but I honestly think that Arnold is a great actor. He really immerses himself into his characters and completely becomes them (even though it's obvious that it is always Arnold and not a shape shifter like Gary Oldman).

End of Days seems like the kind of film that Arnold needed in his career in 1999. Eraser was his last true action film in 1996 for about three years. He than starred in two terrible but wonderfully nostalgic 90's flicks, Jingle All The Way and Batman and Robin. One might forget that Arnold was ever an action star after watching those two films. Arnold needed a hard R action film that would be a return to form but an attempt at a level of dark and mature filmmaking that Arnold hadn't really tackled since 1984's The Terminator. People needed to be reminded who was the action king. I honestly think that End of Days is a great reminder of Arnold's action talents and he should be darn proud of the flick.

Arnold takes a page out of Desperado and uses his sleeves.

The action scenes in this film really took me by surprise. Besides the opening action scene, all of the action is very memorable and bloody as heck. The first action scene involves Arnold attached to a rope hanging from a helicopter as he is chasing a crazed priest on top of a building. I don't know what it is but there is something really lame about watching Arnold being dragged by a helicopter.

There is however a great scene where Arnold and Kevin Pollack (who is the last person who should ever be in an action movie) get in a gunfight inside of an apartment with three radical Catholics from the Vatican. It's a sweet scene peppered with loud gun fire, breaking glass, and a small fist fight too.

The last thirty minutes of this film are just awesome. It's basically Arnold taking on an entire religious cult and Satan himself! I loved when Arnold headed back to his security job and armored up with their weapons supply. He straps on a bullet proof vest, slides pistols into his sleeves and holsters, and loads up an assault rifle with a grenade launcher. It felt like the Arnold of the 80's all over again and I couldn't get enough of it. It's definitely the best action scene of the movie.

Poor bus driver.

I really should stress how dark and disturbing some of the imagery in this film is. In one scene, Christine holds up a piece of bread and than screams. The film cuts to show a bunch of maggots all over the bread. The film than cuts back to Christine and than back to the bread to reveal that the maggots are now like little human bodies squirming around. There is also a scene where a creepy hobo comes up to her with creepy hair and tells her that Satan is going to "**** her." The hobo than falls apart into a bunch of puzzle like pieces and continues to cuss at her. I don't know what was going on in these scenes but they were really weird.

Satan also has a real love for Falcon punching his enemies to death. He literally punches through the back of a subway driver at the end of the film and punches clean through Udo Kier's face at one point! Literally through his face! It's like the scene in 30 Days of Night (2007) where Josh Hartnett punches through Danny Huston's face but it comes totally out of nowhere. It also bugged me that Satan kills some of his followers at some point and chooses not to revive them. What is the point of worshipping Satan in this movie if he's only going to punch you through the face? 

The most disturbing and bizarre scene in the entire film is when Satan meets Udo Kier's family. He walks up to them and than the scene cuts to him having sex with both of them in bed. As he has sex with them, the two women start to fuze with his skin and transform as if he were absorbing them. I don't know how to describe this scene but it is extremely gross and really dark. There's also a really messed up scene where Satan crucifies a priest on a ceiling using scalpels and scissors. Overkill much?

Robin Tunney is not in a good place here.

There is one element of the plot that confounds me and makes no sense. A priest explains to Arnold that 1999 is the end of days because it is the number 666 upside down plus a 1 in front of it. That makes no sense to me. How do you explain the 1 in front of 999? The film does explain that Satan tries to take over the world every 1000 years. However, 999 is just 666 upside down. Why does Satan only choose this one day and why not a different day? Does he just like that 999 is his number but upside down? And why only every 1000 years? Who stopped Satan the first time in 999? Arnold Schwarzenegger's ancestors?

Arnold also has no real motivation or reason to investigate into the plot of the film at all. He investigates simply due to curiosity. There isn't any emotional reason or anything like that. I guess I just don't understand what is the job description of a body guard. He acts more like a cop in this than he does anything else. This seems to happen in a lot of action films where non-cops simply act like cops because they have to get involved in the plot somehow.

The film also suffers from some pretty dated CG effects. There's one shot where Arnold and Robin run from a fireball and it is the worst looking green screen shot I have ever seen. If you can past some of the dated CG effects, there is some very good practical stunt work here and lots of great explosions and gun fire as well. It is worth mentioning that special effects guru Stan Winston worked on the film. I really enjoy the design of Satan at the very end of the film too. He's entirely unique from your typical Satanic interpretation.

Arnold is going to need a lot more than just a machine gun to take this on.

End of Days is an underrated gem if you ask me. All horror and action fans should seek this film out. It's an extremely underrated Arnold film too! The film is also one of the very last big budgeted action hero films of the 90's. It cost around $80 million to make and grossed around $200 million worldwide. While those numbers aren't incredibly impressive, they show that audiences still wanted to see films like this even though the big budget PG-13 blockbuster was slowly but surely coming into dominance. I think what attracted me to this film the most was that it combined the big budget action hero sub-genre with the end of the world / Satanic cult sub-genre. It's just an awesome hybrid of movie making and everyone involved should be proud of their work!

Rating: 8/10 - One of the best action/horror hybrids ever made! Highly recommended!