Well folks, at long last and after much public demand, I am bringing you my review of Rob Kreh's horror classic, Graceland. The oft-delayed DVD release has finally made it into my hands, and I am ready to offer a full review of this gory zombie masterpiece.
The Movie
Rob Kreh made a huge splash as an up and coming director when his first feature film made a limited scale release in the El Dorado area. Created as an homage to classic horror directors like George Romero, Graceland is intended to be a treatise on mankind's inability to survive when the conveniences of our modern society are removed.
The basic plot of the movie follows Corey, played by Nick Foster, who starts off the film as a happy-go-lucky Elvis impersonator. He is quickly thrown headfirst into a struggle to survive when his best friend is killed in front of his own eyes by an intestine-devouring zombie. Over the course of the movie, Corey has to ward off attacks from a motley gang of zombies, mummies, ghosts and other assorted spooks while at the same time try to save his pregnant girlfriend who is sick with an unknown illness. Things take a shocking turn during the film's final moments, but needless to say, I won't spoil things for you here.
This film is most legendary for it's amazing technical accomplishments. On a shoestring budget of under $1000, director Rob Kreh pulled off Hollywood-caliber blood and guts. By utilizing creative no-budget hacks like using condoms as intestines, Rob creates what are possibly the greatest gore effects ever achieved in a low-budget film. Truly any up and coming horror directors who want to know how to make a great horror film on the cheap should study "Graceland" very closely.
From a cinematography perspective there are a number of gorgeous shots. The haunting scene of the courthouse at the beginning, as well as the scenes where Corey is driving under a brilliant Kansas sunset and the zombie chase scene show that Rob is a director who knows how to create memorable imagery.
One area of concern during the movie's preproduction stages was whether or not Kreh would be able to get decent performances from his actors. Fortunately, these concerns proved to be without warrant. Lead actor Nick Foster does a commendable job as Corey. While clearly not a professional by trade, Foster's performance here is more than adequate. The real star of the show however was young Lauren Demott who played girlfriend Kathy. There were a lot of irate emails sent to Rob when fan favorite Ciara Kreh was dropped from production but Demott's performance proved this to be a judicious choice. The assorted extras playing the part of the film's ghouls also did a surprisingly good job. Kreh seems to have some talent in extracting the best possible performances from his actors.
My only significant gripe with the film as a whole is that it has at it's core a depressing sense of nihilism. The basic message of the movie is that mankind is too weak and stupid to save itself in the face of any true catastrophe. I have never liked movies like Dawn of the Dead or 28 Days Later because I don't view art that intends to leave the viewer more depressed for having watched it to be worthwhile. There are some exceptions of course, but this is just an example of my own internal biases.
Realistically, the Zombie genre has never been about happy endings and sunshine and Santa Claus. In the final analysis, Graceland is an excellent example of this genre and this reviewer liked Graceland a lot more than either of the two aforementioned films. Director Rob Kreh shows an extreme amount of talent on this one, and Graceland is by any measure an amazing debut effort.
Score: 9
The Video
My first experience with Graceland was watching the blurry and pixelated version that is up on Youtube. I don't know if I am just really used to that version, but the picture quality on this DVD blew me away. I was playing it through DVI on my 32 inch widescreen HDTV and the picture quality looked incredibly crisp. In all honesty, it even looked better than some Hollywood DVDs I have purchased over the years. Truly a stellar effort from Dark Harvest Films in his department.
Score: 10
The Sound
Probably my biggest gripe with this DVD is that the sound was poorly mixed in some areas. There are a couple points in the movie, always during conversations between Corey and Kathy, that the background sounds overwhelm the speaker's voices, making them impossible to hear even with my volume cranked pretty high on a simple stereo 2.0 setup. I don't recall this problem ever happening in the original youtube version. l It's unfortunate that Dark Harvest's sound engineers let this slip into the final version.
Also Kreh showed a bit of overzealous editing in the sound department for this DVD release. The original youtube version of the movie included a zombie version of Elvis singing "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You" as the film ended. This has been nearly completely cut from the movie and it was one of my personal favorite moments. Maybe someday there will be a super duper version for Graceland that will address these complaints.
Score: 6
Packaging and Extras
The first thing that really me blew me away about Graceland was how professional it's packaging looks. It comes in a standard amray case with some hillarious youtube reviewer quotes on the cover, and an elaborate back cover worthy of a Hollywood release. I never expected a low budget film such as Graceland to come in such a high-grade package. Rob really knocked it out of the park here.
Another area Rob knocked it out of the park in is the extras. This DVD is chock-full of special features that are of the absolute highest quality. Some of the gems included is a featurette called "Behind the Lense" which features director Rob Kreh answering a series of questions about the production of the movie. Rob handles these questions as if he was already a lifetime veteran of the industry. Also included as easter eggs is one episode of the Rob Kreh show and Press Start, a videogame show which also featured his awkward brother Dustin Bond, who nearly ruined the entire thing. There is also a trivia game, various stills, and cast/crew bios.
The only thing one can find fault with on the extras is that some of the choices made may not have been optimal. Kreh included an unfinished short film shot with Mike Jones that ends on frustrating cliffhanger. I think most fans wish he would have included either the other episode of the ridiculously popular Rob Kreh show, some of the legendary footage of Ciara Kreh acting in the role of Kathy or just some of the other scenes left on the cutting room floor. Most fans speculate that Dark Harvest will eventually release a Rob Kreh: The Complete Series DVD, so that may explain why only one episode was included. Other fans think that some of the deleted scenes are being held back for the Blu Ray version. Only time will tell, but one can't complain too loudly about the special features since what we have is already so over-the-top good.
Score: 10
Overall, Graceland is a landmark film that will probably continue to gain more and more respect with age. This DVD does an excellent job of bringing Kreh's classic to the small screen and is highly recommended to all film aficionados, especially horror fans.
Monk-Blog Ratings
The Movie: 9
The Video: 10
The Sound: 6
The Extras: 10
OVERALL: 9
