In a movie that also features “Dueling Banjos”, Van Halen, Velvet Underground and Blue Oyster Cult, the stand-out musical moment is an opening title sequence full of uber slo-mo bloody zombie action (in fact, the bloodiest stuff in the whole movie is here) set to Metallica’s “For Whom The Bell Tolls”. If it were not for that Bob Dylan title montage to WATCHMEN, it would rate as the year’s finest movie intro.
From then on in, ZOMBIELAND, already a significant sleeper success in the US, proves to be a droll, breezily paced road / buddy movie take on the zombie apocalypse genre. It riffs on the fast moving virus victims and deserted landscape of Danny Boyle’s influential 28 DAYS LATER while successfully capturing the witty banter and unforced pathos that so distinguished SHAUN OF THE DEAD. It owes as much to non-horror fare like MIDNIGHT RUN as it does to its zombie movie predecessors, however, and comes into its own more than enough to mark it as a precious gem.
Jesse Eisenberg, who perfected angst-ridden, big-hearted teen awkwardness a la Michael Cera in this year’s similarly named ADVENTURELAND, does much the same thing here. But he does it with such charm, wit and appeal that you don’t mind. Eisenberg is our narrator, and he initially believes himself to be the lone survivor in a world overwhelmed by ravenous zombies after a mad cow-like disease engulfed the country. He reflects initially on how his new predicament makes him no more lonely than when he was an agoraphobic, friendless, neurotic virgin in the “normal” world with irritable bowel syndrome.
Back then, the one and only time he got close to a hot girl (Amber Heard), she turned into a flesh-eater immediately after. Now, Eisenberg is coming into his own as a zombie-killer thanks to the skills and knowledge he has built up. And he’s not alone either. He runs into a gun-loving Twinkie-obsessed bad-ass (Woody Harrelson) who turns out to be his total opposite, along with sibling criminal double act Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin. It’s them against the zombie hordes.
“I haven’t cried like that since TITANIC” laments Harrelson in a disarmingly poignant moment that, typical of this movie as a whole, brings depth to a character who initially seems like another riff on his numbskull brutish redneck NATURAL BORN KILLERS persona. There are many winning touches in ZOMBIELAND, starting with the delightful recurring on-screen captions. Inventively incorporated into the onscreen action to reflect the “zombie rules” Eisenberg has established (be careful in bathrooms, always “double tap”, etc.), these often win big laughs, notably with the announcement of Zombie Kill of the Week – a spry bit of grisly business involving a falling piano.
Confirming the comic talents that have been apparent since his CHEERS days, Woody has his best role in years in ZOMBIELAND, and he’s part of a small but perfectly formed cast. Director Fleischer is more interested in the character interplay than in the zombies themselves – who, taking a cue from the Romero DAWN OF THE DEAD, are often rendered as either minor annoyances or totally redundant. As in that movie, the undead are here largely played for lightly gruesome slapstick laughs, though the action scenes they dominate are imaginatively handled, especially the amusement park finale. There are also haunting visions of a ruined world : streets packed with cadavers, highways marred by crashed cars and downed airplanes.
It’s a pacey, very endearing movie with a lot to enjoy and homage’s (including to Sergio Leone) that aren’t hammered into the ground. It does peak, however, during a memorable, hilarious detour in Hollywood, where the only surviving celebrity turns out to be a bewigged Bill Murray. In pretending to be a zombie to stay alive, he ends up shot dead by our hero in the kind of darkly humorous ironic moment Romero has always revealed in. This gives Murray a wonderful death scene, following some awesome nods to GHOSTBUSTERS and a unique get-stoned-with-Bill-Murray set piece.
-Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
