Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010) - Horror Film Review

I still remember the hoo-ha surrounding the video game Dante's Inferno upon its release in 2010. This was a God of War style ultra violent action adventure game that was based upon Dante Alighieri's famous series of poems from the 1300's, specifically The Divine Comedy 1: Inferno. Being the early 2000's still, this was a time of edge, and so what better way than to have a ridiculous over the top violent game starring a rage afflicted protagonist. It was while doing admin on my index that I finally got to 'D' and so editing my review of the game I was reminded that there had been an animated film, Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic released at the same time. I had always assumed it was a prequel to the game itself and so had little interest in seeing it, but with Apple Airplay not working today, I decided to check out this film on Amazon Prime Video.

Rather than a prequel, this in fact tells the far more interesting story of Dante's journey into the depths of Hell, so the story mirrors the events of the game. Returning home from the Crusades, Dante (Graham McTavish - The Hobbit trilogy, Castlevania TV series) is shocked to discover the love of his life, Beatrice (Vanessa Branch - Pirates of the Caribbean film series) dying, having been attacked by a stranger. Her soul being pure is destined to go to Heaven, however, it is then Lucifer (Steve Blum - The Mandalorian TV series) appears and states that as Dante broke his pact to be faithful to Beatrice while away fighting, her soul is his to take. Dante, convinced he didn't break that promise is enraged, and after Lucifer takes his love away to Hell, Dante pursues, determined to fight all the demons of Hell in order to rescue her. Along the way, Dante is reminded of just how sinful a person he really was.

I already felt the video game was a speed-run through the nine circles of Hell, so a ninety minute film was going to be even more so. This is almost a step-by step recreation of the game with some story elements changed. Just from what I noticed, in the game it was the Grim Reaper's scythe that Dante was armed with, here it is just a nameless demon whose weapon he takes. There was also more of a motivation for Lucifer here, with it all being a plan designed to get himself freed. From what I recall of the game that wasn't actually the case. Each circle of Hell is preceded by a title card, and it is a swift downward path. 

Battle of the Damned (2013) - Zombie Horror Film Review

The penultimate zombie film at this years UK Festival of Zombie Culture and one I was looking forward to seeing thanks to it starring 80's action star Dolph Lundgren was Battle of the Damned. Now I was not expecting anything at all ground breaking in this mash up of sci-fi and horror but I was expecting some mindless fun.

It starts with text on screen explaining that a zombie outbreak led to a city somewhere in Asia being sealed off from the outside world, trapping both infected and uninfected alike there. Dolph plays Max Gatling who heads up an operation to enter the forbidden zone and rescue the daughter of a V.I.P (who just so happens to be the man responsible for the outbreak in the first place). With most his squad killed by the ravenous ghouls, and the allotted mission time limit up Max decides to stay in the danger zone rather than evacuate to complete his mission. He soon finds the girl and a bunch of survivors she is holed up with, but nothing is ever easy as not only is there a group of malfunctioning robots rampaging through the city but also the place is due to be fire bombed at any time, so Max has his work cut out!

Battle of the Damned was enjoyable, though certainly not a film that tries to convey any sort of message of any importance. From the heroes name alone you can tell it is an ode to the 80's action films of old. Dolph is starting to look his age now but spending most his time contained in the futuristic military suit thing it is only when he pauses to make plans that this is really seen. Every time he goes to read, his character puts on these ridiculously old man reading glasses that just had me and everyone else laughing out loud. Side character suffer more, the daughter of the V.I.P (Melanie Zanetti) comes across like Asia Argento, a bad-ass first seen battling zombies in a convenience store with a shotgun before a cool chase sequence, she is in fact not bad. Matt Doran as her romantic interest Reese though just looks weedy, is hard to take him seriously. The rest of the characters are mostly forgettable with the exception of Elvis who becomes almost on par with Max for skills, and I enjoyed the character of Duke (A bad guy in a weaselly kind of way).

The previously mentioned robots were a cool inclusion. I really can't think of a single zombie film out of the hundreds I have seen that have featured robots. Scenes where waves of the undead advance on the giant machines were pretty awesome in all honesty. The special effects while not stellar are still good enough. Why zombies are trying to eat the robots that do not even look remotely human though I do not know!

The plot is nothing special, I wouldn't expect it to be but the fact the city is to be carpet bombed is something that comes out of nowhere and a late twist was really pointless. With montages, traditional 80's action heroes and plenty of one dimensional characters this is a modest love song to the films of old. That in turn does limit it's ideas though as genius robot inclusion aside there is not any innovation.

With plenty of zombies, plenty of action, and of course those robots Battle of the Damned knows exactly what sort of film it is and gives you everything expected of it. A good film to drunkenly watch with friends.

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