5/5 CHILLS__&__THRILLS__DUE__TO__GREAT__ACTING__AND__WRITING..!
  by Patricia (Queens, New York, USA)
MANY -- IF NOT MOST -- TV SHOWS TODAY lack good writers. The same, sadly, can be said for too many movies today. Hackneyed scripts, with jokes only a laugh track could really really laugh at....and stories that go in tedious circles with no real excitement. Horror and suspense films -- which USED to make use of the viewers' imaginations, and which mostly had original stories, have, all too often, settled into the "ten little Indians"-type storyline, wherein all the excitement there is, is deciding which of our heros/heroines will die next...

Luckily, not all movie/TV stories are like this. SHADOWZONE: UNDEAD EXPRESS is a wonderful combination of imaginative story, good acting and directing, music that adds to the storyline without being intrusive, and dialogue that sounds true and real.

The name of this movie is: "SHADOWZONE: THE UNDEAD EXPRESS". It is introduced by a sort of "cousin" to the "Crypt-Keeper" from the tV show, "Tales From The Crypt" -- at least, they looked quite similar to me. As the ghastly introducer here only introduces the story -- and does not play any part in it, and als, as the title of the story is "Shadowzone: The Undead Express", I wonder if this was meant to be one in a anthology of "Shadowzone" stories. Or if it really WAS one story in such an anthology. I have never heard of the "Shadowzone" series, and/or if it was a success on TV or in the movies -- but if this story is any indication of the quality of stories that played or were expected to be played, I really do hope this series succeeded! It has suspense, and believability. It has only a slightest amount of gore and violence -- all of it necessary for the story, and none of it gratuitious.....

In the story, our hero, Zack, is a 10 or 11- year-old boy from a lower-middle class home, in Manhatten, New York City. He has problems: his mom and dad are divorcing. One day, he wanders into the subways...and finds -- a VAMPIRE! The vampire, played by RON SILVER, is a gentlemanly sort,
who tells Zack he was once a railroad entrepreneur, in wjat looks to be the 1870s or 1890s, and that, after building many above-ground railroads, he was intrigued by the idea of building an UNDERGROUND railroad, newly proposed for the city. Zack can't believe that an individual person actually built and ran one of the VERY publicly-owned subways in New York -- but, as a seeming native-New Yorker, Zack shouldn't have doubted this. (This reviewer is a proud native New Yorker, and, although I don't know everything about the New York City Subways, I DO know that one subway line -- the IND, (or Independent), Line -- WAS in private hands for quite a while, before
it, too, became city property.) Anyway, the vampire, Valentine, tells Zack that, on the very night of the grand opening of his subway line, he met -- amongst many other guests -- a gentleman named "Barnabas" (the name being an homage to the DARK SHADOWS' character, perhaps?), who, unknown to Valentine, was a 1,000 year old vampire. Valentine is taken aside by Barnabas, and is quickly turned into a vampire himself. Valentine was now unable to rejoin his family in the main subway car....and the last thing he remembers of that terrible night is seeing his little son, being taken out of his life, as the subway car, filled with celebrating, well-dressed guests -- a subway car that Valentine can no longer enter -- goes down the track.

The vampire, Barnabas, has long since been destroyed. But other vampires -- including a 1890s woman, a 1920s businessman, and a 1990s
youngish black man, bedecked in beads and jeans...and about 20 other --are still around. They want to take Zach "to lunch", as one of them says...as the main course! Valentine, however, is the most powerful vampire of the lot, and he takes Zach into his protection. All Valentine wants to do, he tells Zach, is to be able to go up from the subways into the Manhatten night, and see what the "real world" is like. To do this, he must have a guide -- and Zach, after a few harrowing experiences, agrees to take Valentine up there. It's quite an exciting and poignant mini-journey that the two take, but it is interrupted when they discover another vampire, not so benign as Valentine, has also made it into the "real-world" Manhattan night. They search for him.....and find out information about Valentine's lost son, as they do....

DO vampires -- even those as solicitous and benign-seeming as Valentine always tell the truth? The answer to that question leads to an exciting climax, which includes the fates of Zach's two best school friends...and, ultimately, the fates of ALL New Yorkers, if the vampres get what they want. The last scenes are ultimately poignant and scary....but are as satisfying as the rest of the movie -- which is to say very satisfying indeed, due to the aforementioned good acting, realistic dialogue, good direction, and atmospheric, but not over-whelming, music.

The only reason one could call this a "children's movie" is that the three main protagonists in the story are children. But it is head and shoulders above many a program, and/or movie, designed for "grown-ups", today. Buy the premise that vampires really do exist, and/or set aside your disbelief in vampires for a while -- and you will be rewarded by an excellent, logically-progressing, and very exciting, realistically-played movie. You will definitely enjoy this movie as you watch it unfold -- and you will probably remember it, if not for all eternity, at least for a very, very long time to come!






3/5 VAMPIRES, SUBWAYS AND VALENTINE!!
  by Deidra Cox (Garrett, KY)
I really didn't know what to expect with SHADOW ZONE:THE UNDEAD EXPRESS, the front cover was kind of cheesy, I'd never heard of the title before, still I was willing to give the movie a shot. I was glad I did. SHADOW ZONE opens up with the GRIM REAPER in a graveyard and he has absolutely nothing to do with the story--he is there merely to introduce it!!

ZACH KINCAID is having a rough time. His mom and dad are divorcing and he hasn't quite adjusted to it yet. He's a good kid, but has trouble stretching the truth at times. So much so in fact, his friends, J.T. and GABE, have a hard time looking the other way, especially when this causes trouble for them at school. So when Zach tells them he's met a vampire named VALENTINE in the subway, you can imagine how this goes over.

But Zach really does meet Valentine, an elegant vampire from the turn of the century, who puts Zach under his protection. Valentine, you see, doesn't drink human blood. But Zach doesn't trust him and instead, bolts and boards the first train he sees which is a BIG mistake. It's filled with several nasty vampires who aren't as kind as Valentine.

There are several more twists and turns, saves and frights, giving this a pretty good ride. SHADOW ZONE reminded me of a cross hybrid of MONSTER SQUAD(oh, i love that movie)and the Saturday nite series that used to be on NICK AT NITE years ago, i can't remind the name of it, but a group of kids would sit around a campfire and tell scary stories, I LOVED THAT SERIES!!! Anyway, this movie had that same feel--sweet, scary, funny, good stuff!!

So, check it out!! You'll feel like a kid again on a late Saturday nite again:)