Remains

Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: August 7, 2012.
Director: Colin Theys
Cast: Grant Bowler, Evalena Marie
Year: 2012
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The Movie:

Steve Niles is probably best known as the guy who wrote 30 Days Of Night but the truth is that he's got loads of other comic books under his belt, one of which is Remains, a series he wrote that was illustrated by Kieron Dwyer and which was published in 2004 by IDW. Well, that series has been made into a movie and that movie has now been released on Blu-ray and DVD from Shout! Factory. How does it hold up?

The movie takes place in Reno, Nevada where two casino rats named Tom (Grant Bowler) and Tori (Evalena Marie) are hanging out behind closed doors snorting coke and ignoring the news reports about a soon to be unveiled new power source that will surely bring about the dawning of a new utopian age. They'd rather fuck each other blue than pay attention to what's going on outside, and you can't really blame them - but you can fault them because soon enough, something outside explodes and the power goes off in the casino. When, hours later, the lights finally come back on they look outside and find that there are hordes of zombies wandering the streets of Reno.

From here, our two heroes team up, sometimes rather begrudgingly, with whatever other survivors they can come into contact with as they try to find a way to escape to somewhere safe without being eaten by the increasingly thick horde of shambling corpses that awaits them…

Kind of like Dawn Of The Dead in a casino instead of a mall, Remains is solid entertainment if not a whole lot more. It doesn't reinvent the zombie movie or really even try to, instead it relies a lot on what we've seen before - shambling zombies, the 'technology will be our downfall' motif, likeable if slightly gruff lead characters, some military intervention and some good, gory kills. This later characteristic is where most of the fun in the movie comes from, as the film does a pretty solid job of offering up some impressive gore and make up effects and there's plenty of it, from standard splashy blood stuff to more creative bits involving an elderly zombie and her walker. It seems that the filmmakers put more into the gore than they did the rest of the film, as the story is a bit predictable (though having said that, this writer did read the comic book first so maybe that's a bit unfair to say).

But this is fun, first and foremost. Zombies are pretty played out right now, they've hogged the spotlight from other movie monsters for the better part of the last decade and you'd think that everything that could be done with them has been done at least for now. Remains proves this to be true, but at the same time manages to make itself worth seeing simply because it's a ridiculously entertaining movie. The performances are fine, Evalena Marie looks good in cut offs running around with a shotgun and the movie rises above a fairly modest budget to periodically look a little more impressive than you might expect it to. The movie hits the ground running with a solid action set piece and succeeds in keeping things moving quickly from there on out - turn off your brain and keep your expectations in check and this one is easy to enjoy.

Video/Audio/Extras:

By and large, Remains looks good presented here in AVC encoded 1080p high definition and framed at 1.78.1 widescreen. The image is generally quite detailed and reasonably colorful, showing solid texture and good black levels. Close up shots fare the best, with plenty of craggy detail and what not evident, but medium and long distance shots also do well. The darker scenes suffer from some minor crush and shadow detail can get obscured during these moments but the good certainly outweighs the bad and overall the picture quality is just fine.

The only audio option on the disc is a DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track, in English, with no alternate language options or subtitles provided. Clarity is fine and the dialogue is always easy to hear. The levels are well balanced and both the sound effects and the score sound quite good - but a 5.1 mix really would have made some of the more action and horror oriented scenes a bit more fun. There's nothing to complain about really, what's here sounds good but you can't help but feel a surround mix could have sounded better.

Director Colin Theys and screenwriter John Doolan are joined by producer Andrew Gernhard and makeup supervisor Ben Chester for a commentary track that discusses the history of the project, where it was shot and why, the makeup effects work that plays such an important part in the film, the acting, why certain actors were cast, and more - like little bits of trivia like the difficulties of using contact lenses, who did the breathing for a certain character in a certain scene, stuff like that. Niles is nowhere to be found here, and it might have been interesting to get his input on the project but what's here is solid.

Aside from that, look for a trio of very quick behind the scenes segments, a blooper reel, a collection of TV spots, a Comic Con teaser promotional spot and a three part follow up (technically a prequel) called Road To Reno that is presented in three parts each running under five minutes in length. These are amusing - if you enjoyed the feature attraction, take the time to check these out too, you won't regret it. All of the extras are presented in HD, which is a nice touch.

The Final Word:

Remains is a well made zombie movie that entertains without really even trying to reinvent the wheel. It's fairly well acted, the effects are decent, it's paced nicely and features some cool locations - but it doesn't offer up much that we haven't seen before. Regardless, if you aren't burnt out on zombie movies yet and appreciate this particular subgenre of horror, by all means, check it out. It's plenty entertaining and Shout! Factory's Blu-ray is of pretty solid quality.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!