The After Dark Horrorfest is often hit and miss, but like a train wreck I have to keep watching. Thankfully they were smart enough to give us the little gem Zombies of Mass Destruction.
The production value is acceptably high from a very low budget film. There is an appropriate amount of gore for the average zombie flick. In fact, visually this is a very average zombie film. Since there are already hundreds of average zombie films, why am I wasting more time than it takes to type “AVERAGE” or “MOSTLY HARMLESS”? It’s because of the script. I laughed my ass off. I haven’t enjoyed out of place lines this much since Shaun of the Dead or Black Sheep.
Let’s start with the typical setup. Big town girl returns to small town to help her father with his restaurant. Another big city guy returns with his boyfriend to tell his mother that he’s out of the proverbial closet. Boring, boring cliche. Stir in Zombie Holocaust. Then everyone boils down to raw stereotypes in a way that I haven’t enjoyed in years. You almost feel dirty laughing at some of this.
There is an over the top minister that is convinced that the zombies are the impure getting what they deserve. A redneck family whose abusive patriarch decides to capture the local Iranian woman to torture her since this is obviously terrorism. Let’s not forget the genius of the dialog. One man is asked why he doesn’t know how to handle the zombies. Hadn’t he ever seen a zombie movie? His response: He’s more of a vampire guy.
This film is not without its faults. To truly enjoy this film the viewer must leave a certain, quite large, percentage of their intelligence at the concession counter. While the film makers tried to capture the social and political satire given by Romero or Edgar Wright they fall well short. If taken solely as a political statement and not as escapist entertainment you will be disappointed. There was supposed to be a point, but the crew couldn’t decide what it was. It seems that everyone was a target at some point. The deeper message is about as clear as if one were to watch, and try to understand the deeper meaning of, an entire season of Saturday Night Live. Much like SNL, though, you get the satire in little packets while still being able to mindlessly enjoy the comedy and action.
This film will not win any awards, nor raise the social conscience, but as mindless escapist fare this is a diamond in the rough. There are better zombie films out there, but Zombies of mass Destruction gets bonus points for the greatest senseless line in modern film history “Don’t shoot I’m gay!” For the price I think any comedy horror fan of a B film level will find something to enjoy.
