That’s actually the title. And I can’t get enough of zombedies, so I had to check out this low-budget indie flick, which I guess you could also label an “urban horror” flick.
In general terms, the plot is sort of like a black Shaun of the Dead. Two guys, Mike and Franklin, are at home just doing their thing one day when the undead come calling. The city has been overrun with zombies and now Mike and Franklin have to band together with other survivors to stay safe—and avoid guys with guns who have been sent in by a big pharmaceutical company to find an antidote and get rid of any loose ends.
Starting with the zombie action, there’s plenty of gory gut munching, but the numerous scenes of the group of survivors running from and fighting zombies is pretty routine. And the zombie makeup is very basic and non-threatening. Nothing new or inventive here, but there are plenty of zombie heads being blown away!
Plus, there’s plenty of self-referential material for zombie lovers to appreciate. Take, for instance, when an army man is asked what happened and dismissively responds, “A failed experiment, blah blah blah, the dead came back to eat the living.” And some of the characters know all the clichés of zombie movies and predict what the next typical zombie scenario will bring them. Best of all is the twist as to how exactly the zombie outbreak began.
Weighing the zom with the com, Not Another Zombie Movie…About the Living Dead is more about the comedy than the zombies. Most of the comedy gold comes from Jay Davis, who plays Mike and wrote the screenplay. No wonder he gets all the good lines! But seriously, if there’s one downside to the comedy, it’s that Mike and Franklin, a perfect comic duo, don’t get more of the focus as the film progresses.
Mike’s deadpan delivery and flippant attitude about their situation is perfect, and Franklin (Jack Johnson) is the ideal straight man to play opposite him. He’s also fricking sexy. They deserve their own zombie-fighting web series!
Instead, so many characters are introduced that the interplay between Mike and Franklin is watered down quite a bit and gets lost in the zombie shuffle by the end of the film. But there are a few other notable funny men, including the white guy heading the drug company, who only really gets his moment to shine when he shows up on the scene at the end. And a personal favorite for me is the character of Peanut, a stoner who is so lit he doesn’t really even understand that there’s a zombie apocalypse. He deserves more camera time because he’s so good.
This isn’t particularly exploitative, crass, or offensive humor—especially considering I just watched both of Marlon Wayan’s A Haunted House movies the other day. This is a pretty light zombie comedy that avoids derogatory stereotypes, although there is a character with an intellectual disability that is regularly called the “r” word. The guys actually think he’s a zombie when they first meet him. So wrong!
The film runs less than an hour and twenty minutes and is definitely a good example of what can be done with a wickedly low-budget, a funny as hell writer/star, and a cast and crew passionate about making a stupid fun film. Interestingly, the final moment of the film is very inconclusive and abrupt…do I smell another zombie movie sequel?
