Edges of Darkness and New Belgium Ranger IPA

So in my first trip to my local FYE I was able to add two new films to the zombie movie collection.  It's beginning to take over the entertainment center shelves.  The two movies i found were Lucio Fulci's "The Beyond" and some other movie that i vaguely remember hearing something about.  I was beside myself to finally own "The Beyond".  I've read a lot about it and thought it was not being released anymore, but there it was in the used section.  I decided to start with the more unknown of the two films.  This one was called "Edges of Darkness".  The cover makes some lofty claims as to the enjoy-ability of this film but after Zombie Diaries I'm not sure how much faith i put in cover claims.  I put this beer with the rest of my New Belgium IPA six-pack.  Throw another IPA on the fire!  I've begun marinating with IPA, battering with IPA, and baking bread with IPA.  I........love.........hops.

Before I start my review i feel like i need to stress that this is NOT a Mel Gibson movie!!!!  I repeat: NOT a Mel Gibson movie.

Right off the bat i can tell that production is going to take a couple of knocks.  This one is filmed much in the same way "Days of Darkness" was filmed.  It's a professional camera but lighting is a big rough at times.  This is overly apparent in the night scenes and in the outdoor daytime scenes.  It could use a nice dark lens or something.  Like in MUTANTS!!!  That's the kind of feel that works the best for most zombie movies.  The action is very angle oriented.  By that I mean that nobody really gets punched in the face they just shoot it from behind and the zombie jerks his head and spits a mouthful of blood on cue.  The movie seems to follow three sets of people.  A computer obsessed husband and his wife, a black couple with a......disturbing addiction, and a warrior woman who saved a mother and son.  I feel like i need to point out that for a movie released in 2009, staring a computer enthusiast, you would think he would be working off more than a green screen desktop!  Not to mention his terrible acting.  He is indifferent and distracted in a way that showcases a lack of conviction rather than a compelling character.  And if zombie movies aren't weird enough, the young black couple EATS people.  Like zombie style without the undead thing.  They kidnap this (Asian?) woman and pull off blood periodically.  Then two scenes later, instead of being the terrified woman, she's the compassionate friend with Stockholm syndrome?  Meanwhile the husband and wife pair slip further apart.  He's too busy writing on his computer to notice her, meanwhile she falls in love with a zombie outside her window.  She looses touch with reality and things get.......weird.

The beer and the movie are about even in ranking at this point.  The beer is a B+ by the people on Beeradvocate.com and a A- by the Pros.  It's not bad.  It pours a light brown/medium amber with just a tinge of chill haze.  There is a medium hoppiness dominated by the grapefruit and orange that I've come to know and love.  There's a slight piney stickiness in the bouquet.  This is a light bodied IPA with a significant bitterness at the base of it.  There is fresh citrus in each sip.  This beer is an IPA for sure it's just not the powerhouse that some IPAs are.  This is a good flavorful beer to have around the house as a staple.  Grilling?  Just pop a New Belgium IPA....cool fall evenings need a little warming? It's good for that too!  Eating fish or a light chicken dish.....WHAMO! New Belgium IPA.  It's a good beer to have arround.

The movie is taking turns for the weirder.  Now the woman that the cannibals captured turns out to be......something else.  By drinking her blood the two cannibals fall severely ill and realize that this woman they kidnapped......is something else entirely!!!!!  It also turns out that the black kid that our road warrior woman saved is actually the anti-Christ trying to save people from God's purging zombies so that the sin of man can continue.  There are some really cool zombie kill scenes at this point.  A head crushing with a bowling ball and a machete extreme slaughtering which we only get to see the aftermath of.  Our road warrior decides to team up with the Anti-Christ in order to save mankind.  What will she become in the process.  Things with computer nerd get stranger as well.  The computer processor he installed begins to kill plants, rats, etc... in order to keep power and grow.  It doesn't really explain much other than that.  oh and i almost forgot!  There is a pack of priests that are trying to kill the anti-Christ and allow the zombies to wipe out man.  They're a strange bunch.

The computer ends up eating the nerd and his wife.  There was really no point to their characters in this movie and it never explains what the computer thing is?  Why it's alive?  Anything!  It also doesn't really explain who the Asian woman is?  It doesn't show what the deal with the anti-Christ is?  It's a big open ending where the cannibal wife runs off into an alley chopping up zombies.  It feels like they ran out of money and just stopped the movie.  That's not to say it's a bad movie.  Like i said, it ranks with Dead Moon Rising and Days of Darkness but this was overall......a plot train wreck.  It was saved by some cool gore and the feeling that the writers (and some of the actors) were really trying.  This film is not for the easily bored or the faint of heart.

The Beer:

Aroma – 7/12

Appearance – 2/3

Taste – 15/20

Palate – 4/5 

   Overall – 7/10

Total = 35/50

The Movie:

Production – 3/5

Plot – 2/5

Gore – 3/5

Zombies – 2/5

  Overall – 2.5/5