I am one of those horror fans that have completely lost faith in the zombie film; especially over the past year or two. If I need to think back over the past two years I can’t say that I have even seen a zombie film worth mentioning. My feeling toward the genre is that only George Romero can make a good zombie film, and once World War Z and The Rising; two good zombie novels, are turned into films. Either the genre will rise once again, or people will be turned off because of all the poorly made zombie films of recent and send these two great stories into the abyss.
In the case of Zombie of Mass Destruction, it is better than most of the independent zombie films as of late. It still has that cliché storyline of survival, but it also starts very slow, tries to be funny like Shaun of the Dead and Dead Alive (Brain Dead) and takes from just about every other zombie film you have seen or heard about. The story is about a island community that is under attack by zombies. A group of people which include a girl named Frida, an Iranian collage student whom everyone think is a terrorist. Tom, a gay businessman who came home with his partner to let his mother know he was gay and a group of others try to kill each and every zombie they can, while trying to survive and make their way off the island to get some help.
I’ll give this film credit for trying to be clever and funny, and relating a lot to the other type of zombie comedy films. It is nowhere are funny as Shaun of the Dead or Dead Alive, yet it does have its moments. The film does start off very slow and the script at the beginning promises to be nothing more than just another bad zombie film, where nothing good happens until the end, yet after about twenty minutes of character development, out of nowhere zombies start to attack, and the action cooks up rather quickly. The problem with the story from there is that it is nothing that we all have not seen before; Zombies eating people, so crazy preacher going on about the apocalypse and of coarse a small group of people who are just trying to survive.
The film has surprising good acting and some decent production value. While the film looks as if it was mainly shot on location, the way in which the locations were dressed and the use of props and make-up effects really gave the film it’s unique feel. I’m almost positive that this film was shot on HD and not film. The filmmakers must know their lighting, as the film was not only lit very well, but the look of the film looks almost like film. I have to give the filmmakers credit on how well they produced the film.
The DVD has a few special features, which include a featurette of the making of Zombies of Mass Destruction. The disc has a widescreen presentation of the film with 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio and English and Spanish subtitles.
Overall, Zombies of Mass Destruction is a genre film that has great production value and is well made, yet it’s story is of one that tries to be different, yet it can get past the clichés of riding the coat tales of Night of the Living Dead, and trying to be comical in the respects to Shaun of the Dead. Its not as good as either of those films, and despite it’s great special make-up effects and zombie gore, it falls into line as being just another borderline decent zombie flick. If you a big fan of zombie films, you probably find this one to be decent, yet if your like myself and think the sub genre needs some new life breathed into it, then you probably give it the same respect I did, but not be impressed by what it has to offer.
– Horror Bob
- 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
