An overwhelming zombie outbreak has swallowed Athens and the most of Greece and four survivors, Melitis, Marina, Jenny, and Lieutenant Vakirtzis continue their embattled journey through the hell-stricken streets in search for help and in desperation for survival, but there lies hope in history. This evil has plagued Greece once before, in Ancient Greece thousands of years ago, and like that time before, a cloaked messenger from the Gods is sent to locate unwitting heroes and guide them toward a path that goes straight through the hordes of the undead in order to stop this ancient evil once and for all. Teamed up with another small group of eclectic survivors, they must fight the undead, and even match up against a merciless gang of people who kill humans for the pure joy of it, to fulfill their destiny and be Greece’s last hope.

If we’re being completely honesty with each other, Yorgos Nousias’s 2005 horror-comedy “Evil” has never screened across these reviewer’s eyes and so, Nousias’s 2009 followup, “Evil – In the Time of Heroes” (or “Evil 2”), became the ice breaker into the Greece filmmaker’s written and directorial approach to the zombie genre. The overall result is this: I absolutely need to watch “Evil” as soon as possible! Not only because of the overwhelming drive to watch films in sequential order, but because “Evil 2” is a well blended machine of horror, comedy, and action rolled up into a short circuiting toaster ready for the toast inserts to be stuck with a silver metal fork while being just elevated the surface of soapy bath water. In short, it’s insane! Nousias rapid fires into many multi-faceted directions in a story co-written between himself, Claudio Bolivar, Christos Houliaras, Themis Katz, and Petros Nousias.

“Evil 2” starts off nearly where the first left off. Aside from the introduction of when this particular evil reared it’s ugly head last, the modern day story starts off with Melitis (Meletis Georgiadis), Marina (Pepi Moschovakou), Jenny (Mary Tsoni), and Lieutenant Vakirtzis (Andreas Kontopoulos) bloodied, exhausted, and in mourning over their falling comrade Argyris (Argiris Thanasoulas) – I apologize if this is a spoiler for you, but to be frank, this is where the sequel starts right off the coattails of the first. They’re joined by a whole new lineup of characters to form a motley crew of heroes consisting of actors Ioanna Pappa, Hristos Biros, Eftyhia Yakoumi, Drosos Skotis, Thanos Tokakis, and Billy Zane as the Messenger. And, yes, Billy Zane has Greek ancestry. Each character has their specific talent and persona and each actor pinpoints and exposes those traits to the detail that flourishes the comedy amongst the gory content.

The gory content becomes the aortic life line. If there was no vast amounts of gore, then “Evil 2” slips into a slumber of conventional means, but Nousias pulls no punches splattering the viscera and the blood by going over-the-top with comic book illustrated hemorrhaging. A concoction of spouting decapitations, dangling entrails, and so much death and decay are strewn throughout that not one scene stands out amongst the masses. To my surprise, “Evil 2” works well under a manifold of production companies that, in most usual cases, don’t mingle into a working element of fruition when shelving out a hard rated film as too many a time particular producers shell out strong suggests to go with their strong cash flow, but Audio Visual Enterprises, Boo Productions, Ekso Productions, Graal, Greek Film Center, and Strada Productions work in perfect harmony allowing Nousias to build upon his brainsick banter.

“Evil – In the Time of Heroes,” or “To kako – Stin epohi ton iroon” in the native Greek tongue, wastes no time reveling in recalling the first film and can stand solidly alone. Presented for the first time in the USA, “Evil 2” lands a DVD distribution deal with Doppelgänger Releasing and exhibited in an none cropped widescreen 1:85.1 aspect ratio. The quality gleams in the detail, but not in the night time segments that become a soft and blotchy. The vivid color palette defines the range of vast colors across Athens and the boldly bright red blood with each and every brutal death. Though with English subtitles, the Greek 5.1 Dolby Digital ups the game for the surround sound, balancing between ambient, soundtrack, and dialogue through the five channels with such clarity and that proverbial oomph. Extras include are unfortunately slim with an original film illustrated storyboards. “Evil – In the Time of Heroes” encompasses a smorgasbord of horror and comedy through an enticing misadventure of rampaging anarchy. Aside from starring Billy Zane in a kickass role and a gargantuan amount of really neat effects, this zombie film is high on the likably repetitive list and is conjugally attached to bring entire story to an epic finale toward a satisfying close.

Amazon has “Evil in the Time of Heroes!”