I think it's fair to say that after the first two MAD MAX films, every producer in the world decided to jump on the bandwagon and release at least one or more rip-offs. This was the glorious era when the "post-apocalypse" film ruled the box office and Italy kept churning out more nuclear adventures than everyone else, until the Philippines took over later in the decade. SURVIVAL ZONE is yet another cheap and cheesy genre offering, with the notable difference in that it's a South African film! Otherwise the formula is pretty much standard: a motorbike gang (led by BIG MAN, who wears a doll's head on his helmet!) terrorise and kill people; members chain-whip each other to death, and a nun gets her face broken by a well-aimed punch. Well, it starts off good anyway, especially the big guy playing BIG MAN, who is awash (and unwashed) with homoerotic undertones.Meanwhile, we meet a diverse farm family (family members are British, American, and South African, at least judging by their accents!) who you just know is going to get caught up in the violence. First of all a stupid old guy goes to feed his horses whilst the farm is under siege (talk about priorities) and ends up getting knifed, then the characters do lots of stupid and unbelievable things that makes you, the viewer, cry out in exasperation. After lots of waffle and non-activity, the father finally takes it on himself to battle the motorbike gang, so he sets up a wicked bomb and then undergoes a massive shoot-out (well as far as they can stretch to on the budget, that is). The finale involves a young, blond heroic guy who turns up taking on BIG MAN in a duel in the desert, which is as cheesy as it is genuinely entertaining.As you can imagine, production values for this film are non-existent. There's no room for special effects and only a couple of semi-decent performances; nobody is a real professional here and there are no familiar faces. Despite brief references to cannibalism there is little gore and the blood we do see looks like red paint; the atmosphere does simmer with violence though and the suspense is actually pretty good for a little low-budget movie like this. It's not the greatest post-nuke flick in the world and neither is it the worst; fans of this genre would be wise to give it a look before dismissing it with all the others. Characterisation and realism are pretty rare in these kinds of films but they exist in abundance with this one.

I didn't track down this rare flick till last year, but am I glad I did. This one stands as a strong entry into the post-nuke genre. The plot is simple: after the nuclear war, small pockets exist where the radiation levels are low enough to sustain life. These areas are known as "Survival Zones". The story follows the lives of a family on a farm, trying to eek by after "the big one". This is definitely a B movie, and the acting less than stellar, but it makes up for it in spirit. I really liked the overwhelmingly positive attitude displayed by the father. This is just what would be needed to get through a situation as dire as this. He was the glue that held his survival unit together. What really hurt the movie was the budget. There was no footage of any devastation: flattened cities, burnt-out buildings, nothing. No money for special effects here, like radiated zombies, etc. The only way you know what happened is from dialog. This hurt the overall impression of how bad the aftermath of World War III would be. They only make one trip to a city for supplies, and it looks normal, just abandoned. The heavies in the movie are leather-clad cannibalistic bikers (a bit cliché, no doubt). I'm not sure what the significance of the plastic baby doll parts on his helmet and clothing was!? If it was supposed to be scary, it wasn't. Nevertheless, the realities of kill or be killed in a lawless world are presented quite clearly, and provide a lot of food for thought. As far as I know, this never made it to DVD, so you will be forced to locate a used VHS on online, but it will be worth the search. If you can look past the numerous small flaws, it is a solid flick. If you like these types of movies, also check out The Aftermath, Def Con 4, Damnation Alley, Warriors of the Wasteland, and After the Fall of New York.

Another of the endless Mad Max ripoffs, and this one ranks with the stinkinest of all time. I don't mind a few stinkers, and I love the campiness of these late 70's/early 80's post-nuke films, but this is probably the worst film I've seen since Blair Witch 2. After a WWIII holocaust, we look in on the lives of a few survivors who are about to cross paths. We have the scum biker gang, the all-American dad and child with a foreign sounding wife and daughter (who have an old man as a mock grandpa),we have the last 2 remaining horses on planet earth, a convent of nuns, and finally a loner stud lookin' for action any way he can get it.All I can say is, all of the horrible clichés are in affect. Absolutely nothing happens for about the first 50-55 minutes except a lot of garbage talk about the way things were and how retarded man is for destroying everything. The rest of the film cannot be considered action, horror, or science fiction in my opinion. You just have to make a whole new genre for films like this and call it the Sh*t genre. You could fit this 90 min. film into a 25 min. TV show package.The editing is horrible also, and you have the feel that some scenes (including the ending) needed more extensions onto them to help tell the story, but I have a feeling this would just prolong the pain of viewing it even more. Please be warned, there's a good reason why less than 30 people have rated this film.

After a devastating nuclear war most of the land has become contaminated by radioactive fallout. Only several scattered patches of land known as "survival zones" remain untainted. Rugged, hard-working farmer Ben Faber (forcefully essayed by dour, husky, pudgy-faced "2001: A Space Odysey" star Gary Lockwood) resides on one such area with his gutsy wife Lucy (lovely Camilla Spav), willful teenage daughter Rachel (comely brunette knockout Zoli Marki), adoring son, and feisty old buddy Uncle Luke. The Faber's peaceful existence gets jeopardized when a vicious horde of scummy, black leather-clad cannibalistic bikers led by the highly intimidating and intelligent Bigman (coolly underplayed by big, brawny, hirsute George Eastman lookalike Ian Steadman) stop by and lay siege to their house. Fortunately, nice guy itinerant loner Adam Strong (a likable turn by handsome, muscular Morgan Stevens) comes to the Fabers' aid.The shopworn premise, basically just another rough'n'tumble post-nuke survivalist take on a classic Western movie scenario (the Fabers are clearly patterned after early settlers, with Strong as a heroic roving troubleshooter type and the bikers substituting for marauding Native Americans), doesn't promise much, but luckily the uniformly sound performances, unusually complex, well-drawn and even plausibly human characters, a welcome element of genuine humanity, Percival Rubens and Eric Brown's smart, surprisingly thoughtful and introspective script, a few unsettling oddball touches (Bigman has a severed doll's head affixed to the top of his motorcycle helmet), Rubens' capable direction, a sturdy theme which addresses how a man ought to fight for what's his and stand up for what he believes in (Ben refuses just to let the bikers destroy his farm without putting up a fight), an unsparingly harsh and savage tone (early in the picture the bikers raid a missionary and murder a bunch of nuns!), and shocking outbursts of raw, brutal violence lift this one well out of the rut. Vincent Cox and Colin Taylor's spare, stripped-down cinematography, shot on gritty film stock, gives the film a convincingly scrappy look. Only the somewhat sluggish pace and Nic Labuschagne's slushy, obtrusively overwrought score detract from this otherwise satisfyingly tense and gripping winner.