What a waste of my time!!!

Purely Joyful Movie!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I didn't track down this rare flick till last year, but am I glad I did. This one stands as a strong entry into the post-nuke genre. The plot is simple: after the nuclear war, small pockets exist where the radiation levels are low enough to sustain life. These areas are known as "Survival Zones". The story follows the lives of a family on a farm, trying to eek by after "the big one". This is definitely a B movie, and the acting less than stellar, but it makes up for it in spirit. I really liked the overwhelmingly positive attitude displayed by the father. This is just what would be needed to get through a situation as dire as this. He was the glue that held his survival unit together. What really hurt the movie was the budget. There was no footage of any devastation: flattened cities, burnt-out buildings, nothing. No money for special effects here, like radiated zombies, etc. The only way you know what happened is from dialog. This hurt the overall impression of how bad the aftermath of World War III would be. They only make one trip to a city for supplies, and it looks normal, just abandoned. The heavies in the movie are leather-clad cannibalistic bikers (a bit cliché, no doubt). I'm not sure what the significance of the plastic baby doll parts on his helmet and clothing was!? If it was supposed to be scary, it wasn't. Nevertheless, the realities of kill or be killed in a lawless world are presented quite clearly, and provide a lot of food for thought. As far as I know, this never made it to DVD, so you will be forced to locate a used VHS on online, but it will be worth the search. If you can look past the numerous small flaws, it is a solid flick. If you like these types of movies, also check out The Aftermath, Def Con 4, Damnation Alley, Warriors of the Wasteland, and After the Fall of New York.

After a devastating nuclear war most of the land has become contaminated by radioactive fallout. Only several scattered patches of land known as "survival zones" remain untainted. Rugged, hard-working farmer Ben Faber (forcefully essayed by dour, husky, pudgy-faced "2001: A Space Odysey" star Gary Lockwood) resides on one such area with his gutsy wife Lucy (lovely Camilla Spav), willful teenage daughter Rachel (comely brunette knockout Zoli Marki), adoring son, and feisty old buddy Uncle Luke. The Faber's peaceful existence gets jeopardized when a vicious horde of scummy, black leather-clad cannibalistic bikers led by the highly intimidating and intelligent Bigman (coolly underplayed by big, brawny, hirsute George Eastman lookalike Ian Steadman) stop by and lay siege to their house. Fortunately, nice guy itinerant loner Adam Strong (a likable turn by handsome, muscular Morgan Stevens) comes to the Fabers' aid.The shopworn premise, basically just another rough'n'tumble post-nuke survivalist take on a classic Western movie scenario (the Fabers are clearly patterned after early settlers, with Strong as a heroic roving troubleshooter type and the bikers substituting for marauding Native Americans), doesn't promise much, but luckily the uniformly sound performances, unusually complex, well-drawn and even plausibly human characters, a welcome element of genuine humanity, Percival Rubens and Eric Brown's smart, surprisingly thoughtful and introspective script, a few unsettling oddball touches (Bigman has a severed doll's head affixed to the top of his motorcycle helmet), Rubens' capable direction, a sturdy theme which addresses how a man ought to fight for what's his and stand up for what he believes in (Ben refuses just to let the bikers destroy his farm without putting up a fight), an unsparingly harsh and savage tone (early in the picture the bikers raid a missionary and murder a bunch of nuns!), and shocking outbursts of raw, brutal violence lift this one well out of the rut. Vincent Cox and Colin Taylor's spare, stripped-down cinematography, shot on gritty film stock, gives the film a convincingly scrappy look. Only the somewhat sluggish pace and Nic Labuschagne's slushy, obtrusively overwrought score detract from this otherwise satisfyingly tense and gripping winner.

I was thirteen when I saw this film. Some friends of mine were big fans of horror films. I wasn't particularly a fan but I knew what to expect. "Survival Zone" wasn't at all what I expected. I have a soft spot for this movie and would love the opportunity to see it again. But I'm afraid to say that is because I distinctly recall it as being the worst film I ever saw. I mean....the doll's head on top of the motorcycle...is that supposed to be scary? Evidently it was supposed to be. It wasn't.

This movie is not too shabby. The scenery is magnificent. Zoli Marki turns in another one of her brilliant, brown-eyed performances (she could have been the South African Lara Flynn Boyle). The rest of the cast is okay, but as things go with these "international" productions you can't pay too close attention to the accents (you might ask why, for instance, is the dad American, the mother English, and the two children South African). The main villain looks like a lost member of the Village People and wears a tight leather outfit with "Big Man" spelled out in studs across his back. As in THE DEMON (another film made by the same director and crew), the blood is orange.