Fantastic Short Film Friday - Universal Dead

And we are back with another weekly installment in our Fantastic Short Film Friday series, as we look to showcase films released in the "lesser" known form of cinema- the short film.

This week we have for you something a bit different, rather than the usual one and done short, this one is the first episode in an ongoing zombie webseries called, Universal Dead. Directed by Vernon Mortensen and written by Kelly Parks, the series stars a plethora of talent such as DB Sweeney (of Jericho fame), Gary Graham (of Alien Nation fame), and Doug Jones (of Hellboy and Pans Labyrinth fame). So yeah, its nice to see some fairly known stars in a webseries. Here's the official synopsis:

Planet Earth is ravaged by a strange disease that turns people into mindless murderers. As civilization struggles to survive, a small team of US Navy SEALs must protect a doctor from the Center for Disease Control on a mission to evaluate the claims of an erratic scientist who may have discovered the secret to mankind's salvation.

I'm not sure what I really think of Universal Dead so far. To be fair it's only the first 5-minute episode. But it does have this cheese factor to it, with some oddly pretty poor acting, and I'm not a fan of the gray shuffling zombies the filmmakers have decided to use. For one, the make-up looks poor, and secondly, I think shuffling gray zombies in a visual medium is just lazy. Still, it's very early on and there's a lot of promise I can see here. So I'm waiting to watch at least the first 5 episodes before I make a final judgment.

I can sit around all day and watch a zombie show and a bite-sized webseries sounds right up my alley. To find out more information about the series including the rest of the series (when they finally air) go: here.

I know it seems as though I'm down on Universal Dead, but it's only because I see so much promise here and can't wait for the creators to hit their stride and flesh out the story they want to tell. Give the series a chance, watch the first few episodes, and hopefully we'll all be rewarded with an interesting and fun take on a zombie filled world. Enjoy.