Zombies of Mass Destruction

Horrorphile

follow this blog

983 followers

4441 daily readers

rank of 1

E-mail Subscription

Receive an e-mail notification of new posts on this site:

Zombies of Mass Destruction

August 25th 2010 05:44

It’s zombie snigger time! “A political zomedy” reads the tagline. It tries hard; it bites and tears a-plenty, but ultimately it shoots itself in the foot. I’d be tempted to shoot it through the head and put it out of its misery. Zombies of Mass Destruction (2009) isn’t the worse zombie comedy I’ve seen, there are puh-lenty of those crapozoids out there littering the DVD shelves. But ZMD is nowhere close to the calibre of Shaun of the Dead (2004), it’s not even on the same level as Zombieland (2009).

Janette Amand as Frida

ZMD is an indie flick, the debut feature from former boom operator Kevin Hamedani who directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Ramon Isao. The movie is a essentially a satire (but not a very good one) on American foreign affairs and homophobia dressed up in zombie shenanigans as a metaphor for all the conflict and prejudice imposed upon the gay folk and Middle Eastern immigrants who proudly call America their home. The majority of the jokes are pitched at homosexuals and Iraqis and Iranians. The other gags are indirectly referenced to zombie movie culture, like when son reminds dad that a zombie bite will lead to infection, “Haven’t you seen any zombie movies?!”, and dad replies, “You know I’m a vampire man!” … Mildly funny.

Doug Fahl as Tom and Cooper Hopkins as Lance

What did impress me was the high level of gore, even though much of it wasn’t actually horrific, but over-the-top: geysers of blood from chomped necks, arms being torn off at the slightest yank, zombies chewing on their own eyeballs, a guy having his face peeled off like a cheese wrapper, impalement, dismemberment, and the proverbial gut-munching. Special effects supervisor Tom Devlin even gets the movie’s opening credit. Other credit – zombie gore and effects – goes to Kristoffer Larsen. It’s a solid mix of CGI and gooey prosthetic work, and the blood is a convincing hue and consistency too!

Linda Jensen as Tom's mother

ZMD’s main problem is the acting. No one delivers a convincing performance. It’s a pet gripe of mine because too many filmmakers seem to think they can get away with mediocre-or-less performances from their actors. But on the contrary, the acting is one of the most important elements to any horror movie, regardless of whether it’s a high-brow, sophisticated thriller, or it’s a low-budget, indie comedy. It’s imperative the cast’s acting skills cut the mustard. If you’re gonna skimp in that area then you’ll be in serious trouble. Why is Shaun of the Dead so good? It’s not just that the screenplay and direction are excellent, nor is it that the special effects and set-pieces are impressive. It’s because the acting from the whole cast is so on the money.

It's Armageddon as far as the mayor (James Mesher) and the church is concerned

Janette Armand plays our heroine in jeopardy, Frida, a spunky American girl of Iraqi heritage living in Port Gamble, Washington. The camera likes her, but she’s not the sharpest actor in the house. Nor are any of her co-leads or support cast. Cooper Hopkins, who plays Lance, and Doug Fahl, who plays Tom, are the two gay boys determined to return to the East Coast having successfully outed Tom to his conservative mother (Linda Jensen). They came across about as bent as a Gaytime icecream. And the gay jokes wore very thin.

Hungry mother shows her son a lil' zombie lovin'

The zombies shuffle and groan like classic Romero undead, and the score is of the cheesy 80s synth variety, which actually works rather nicely. The movie’s thematic content plateaus very quickly, with Frida and her father being mistaken as the root of the township’s problems (a tenuous rationale that the Middle East has exacted terrorist bio warfare on America resulting in the zombie outbreak). Frida spends much of her time defending herself, not only against zombie mayhem, bur conservative redneck attitudes and imprisonment. Religion and sinners gets a fair whack of the comedy too with much of the latter action taking place in a church where Tom and Lance are holed up with the high and mighty locals.

Redneck (Russel Hodgkinson) with a headache

Despite ZMD’s shonky writing, dud gags, director crossing the line with camera (a real no-no), and a surprisingly lame ending, the movie still manages to entertain on a basic level. I’m not sure how, but it does, probably the consistent level of gore set-pieces and half-decent cinematography. But really, any movie that was included in After Dark’s 8 Films To Die For US festival program is usually of the mutton-dressed-as-lamb variety. ZMD is one of the better entries. But only just.

Here's the trailer:

Zombies of Mass Destruction DVD is released through Hopscotch Films' Other label.

106

Vote

subscribe to this blog

follow this blog on Orble

start your own blog

[ Link ]

Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

Related Posts:

Relate This Post

[ Previous - Piranha (2010) ]

[ Next - La Horde (The Horde) ]

Comments

3 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by JMD

August 26th 2010 02:16

When I first saw this on the home page, I remembered the acting in this. When I got the 4 paragraph about the acting, I gave myself a silent "I knew it". The scene with Frida and the other guy in the car talking was just horrible. The gore is pretty much what got me to finish watching it. Glad to hear you got at least some entertainment from this.