the sheep captain

source: Captain Z & the Terror of Leviathan

If I could sum up this movie it would be fun. Once again, Captain Z has to battle demons after being freed when an unsuspecting victim reads an inscription on an amulet. When will humans learn not to read ancient Latin phrases off of evil artifacts? Okay the premise is hokey and the movie knows it and plays to it making it a laugh riot. I have seen a few independent horrors that have a great premise but the actors don't do it justice (Clown Hunt for instance) or have great acting but was not a coherent movie. This movie has both believable characters and great plot. if you love horror comedies this is definitely for you.

Steve Rudzinski and Zoltan Zilai both write and star in this amazingly fun indie movie. Overall plot boils down to "group of people try to stop cultist from bringing forth an ancient one and ending the world" but Rudzinski and Zilai definitely made sure to add a unique twist to everything. I can honestly say, I don't know of any other movie with a time traveling pirate that fights against dimension hopping demons possessing hillbillies. One of those movies that you hear about and cannot imagine anything but a fun time. We start with a flashback to 1714 where Zilai's Captain Zacharia stops the demon cultists only to be sucked into a portal and disappearing. Now in the present, the location is now the small town of Riverwood here the center of tourism is a museum to Captain Zacharia, better known as Captain Z thanks to the ditsy Heather (who cannot pronounce Zacharia and instead just says Z). Thanks to local hillbillies, an amulet is found in the river that brings forth the demon cultists and Captain Z! The demons want to finish a ritual to bring forth Leviathan, yet Captain Z steals the amulet and escapes, running into Rudzinski's Glen Stewart, a scholar that specializes in oddities including Captain Z. Madison Siple rounds out the trio as the previously mentioned Heather, a ditsy worker at the museum that can play an important part in bringing forth Leviathan thanks to her crimson hair. Aleen Isley is the primary antagonist as demon Vepar in hillbilly Bobbie's body. As usual with Rudzinski films, the dialogue is full of puns and sarcasm. There is also plenty of self-aware jokes, some of which mock the movie itself (Heather commenting how a certain incident in the movie felt like a scene right out of a movie). Another prime example of self-aware comedy includes Vepar in Bobbie commenting on how its amazed that people speak Latin aloud without knowing what it means, coming right after Bobbie unknowing unleashing the demons in that cliché method. Another of my favorite quotes is Heather, casually speaking aloud in an aloof tone, "Heaven doesn't support racism and demonism, does it?" One thing I really liked is that each character has their own personality and get their own moments to shine with no one feeling like a cliché or straight stereotype. It's obvious a lot of characters began as a stereotype before being properly fleshed out into something better. This movie was heavy with CGI effects, some of which worked but others at times just stuck out. Yet for an indie movie on a tight budget, I think they did a great job with the effects. The practical effects were also well done, especially with the make-up of the demon-possessed hillbillies. The horns were perfectly accomplished, not looking like prosthesis at all. One of the main issues I had with the movie is that there were a few times the color of the scene would switch between takes, taking on either a bright green hue or a washed out white. There many scenes like that, I'm guessing they tried to use as least amount of those scenes as possible. They did do a great job of the audio mixing, especially giving the demon-possessed hillbillies unique echo-y voices. Those were especially amusing thanks to Seth Gontkovic's Barbatos/Judd, with a thick hillbilly tone of voice mixing extremely well with the echo-y demon voice. Overall this is a highly enjoyable and unique trip.

I don't know where to start with this. I picked it up at a convention because I was a fan of the filmmaker's other work not really knowing what to expect. It's like a low budget, modern version of Army of Darkness and it's surprisingly wonderful. No other indie movie has made me laugh as much as Captain Z. In 1714 demons have possessed humans to raise the Leviathan using a necklace. In the knick of time Captain Z stops them, causing them all to be sucked into another dimension. 300 years later Captain Z has become the thing of legend. But hillbillies find the necklace and open the portal, causing the entire family to be possessed and Captain Z to be brought into our time. It's up to Captain Z and a supernatural expert Glen Stewart to thwart the demons from allowing Leviathan dominion over our world. I was shocked when I found out how much this was made for. The shots, the visuals, the make up, the acting, the locations, even the audio (mostly) are all top notch quality you'd expect to see in a studio film. I half expect SyFy to want to pick this film up. It just LOOKS much more expensive than it is. The writing blows other movies with this kind of budget out of the water. The plot doesn't bring much new to the table but it is VERY solid. The pacing is great, the laughs are all genuine, and all of the characters are absolutely interesting. It's just very tight, never was I bored or looking at my watch. I don't know how, but Steve Rudzinski (the writer/director) somehow took a really silly idea and made me take it seriously (as seriously as a comedy would expect you to, at least). Acting in the film again is fantastic, there wasn't a bad actor in the bunch (just varying levels of good). Captain Z and Heather were perfectly stupid, Glen was snarky as needed, and Mr. Kincaid was delightfully salty. I think my favorite of the batch were the hillbilly family, with my favorite character definitely being Vepar (played by Aleen Isley). She was a joy to see on screen and the movie could have used even more of her. She absolutely carries the climax on her shoulders, with this movie having my favorite climax in any low budget film. It's not absolutely perfect. There's a couple of spots where the audio seems canned and I felt that a stab sound effect was missing three times in the film; the CGI also was pretty weak but barely featured. That's it, to me those are the only problems. Like I said, it's not perfect but it's very close. Not perfect compared to movies with over a hundred thousand dollars to use for a budget, but placed against most films I've seen with a budget UNDER that? This movie does so much right and I didn't expect it to do much of anything. If you like low budget indie films, see this and see what skill and heart can do. If you like comedies or Army of Darkness, see this because I laughed more at this than most studio films. 9/10, without hesitation.

Captain Z & the Terror of Leviathan