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Fantasia 2020: ‘Yummy’ is a Tasty Treat for Gore Hounds

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Yummy

Zombie movies are — by now — a tired dime a dozen, so it can be extremely difficult to make one that stands out as worth watching. You’ve got to bring something new to the table. Belgian bloodfest Yummy puts the zombie subgenre under the knife; there’s a fresh, attractive face, but ultimately it’s the same (undead) body. 

In the film, a young couple travels to a shady Eastern European hospital for plastic surgery. The young woman, Alison (Maaike Neuville) wants a breast reduction. Her mother Sylvia (Annick Christiaens) comes along for yet another face-lift. Wandering through an abandoned ward, the boyfriend, Michael (Bart Hollanders), stumbles upon a young woman, gagged and strapped to an operating table; she’s the result of experimental rejuvenation treatment. He frees her but doesn’t realize she’s patient zero and he just caused the outbreak of a violent, deadly virus.

Yummy is director Lars Damoiseaux’s feature film debut, co-written with Eveline Hagenbeek. The film isn’t trying to reinvent the shambling, groaning, zombie film wheel — all the familiar tropes are there — but the hospital setting gives a lot of gruesome flexibility.

The gore is where Yummy really comes out to play, thanks to the amazing work of makeup effects artists Daphnée Beaulieux and Erwan Simon (billed as “Heroes of the Movie” in the end credits). Damoiseaux wears his influences on his sleeve with his heavy use of splattergore that takes each surgery-gone-wrong opportunity (one scene hits reverse on a liposuction, another poor woman was abandoned in the midst of a chemical peel… it’s gross, it’s great). 

The script is full of characters that you’re quite ready to see devoured; they’re shallow, vain, and deeply unlikable. It jabs at certain personalities with a dark, unapologetic sense of humour. Only our leading lady is even remotely tolerable. Alison is strong-willed and capable, but her beau is mostly useless.

As a clever detail, Michael has hemophobia, the last thing you want in a zombie film. When the shit goes down, you better be ready — and he is definitely not. But it’s not given the full exploration that you’d expect, which is actually quite disappointing. It’s a great set up and leaves the door open for some quality character development, but it’s dropped pretty quickly. 

Because movies have rules, Yummy does take some effort to explain the origins of its virus by way of a side plot that probably doesn’t need to be as melodramatic as it is. It throws a bit of a wrench into the pacing. That said, this seems to be a staple of just about every zombie film (right up there with the guy who hides his zombie bite from the rest of the group), so it’s not unexpected. 

Taking a step back, the film itself looks fantastic. The shots are clean, the cinematography clicks, and when things start to unravel, the lighting washes the hospital in panicked emergency reds and blues. The effect is arresting. I should also note the opening title sequence, which caught me immediately. It draws you in and setting the tone for a fun, splashy zombie flick. 

Fans of the zombie genre will find a lot to love in Yummy. If traditional gore is what you’re here for, you won’t be disappointed. It’s a loving addition to a roster of zombie films that thrive in viscera, nudity, and pitch-black comedy. It’s a sure crowd-pleaser that would be perfect for a late-night screening with a rowdy audience. 

You can guess most of the beats through the movie (if you’ve ever seen a zombie film at all), but  the ending certainly changes it up, and it’s an enjoyable ride all the same. If you’re tired of zombie films, you can probably shamble past this one. But if you love a good ol’ fashioned bloody mess, Yummy is a film to devour. 

Yummy is playing as part of Fantasia Fest 2020. You can watch it On Demand here. For more from Fantasia 2020, click to read my review of The Mortuary Collection.

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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