Zombie Town tries to have its cake and eat it too. It’s a horror comedy that isn’t too funny nor is it too scary. It tries to be for kids but thinks if it throws in just enough potty humor, adults will like it too. Neither works.
Even worse, the movie boasts the talents of Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase but neither really appear much in the movie. Chase appears in two scenes that were probably filmed in one day. Aykroyd has the more prominent role of Len Carver, a horror director who went into retirement, but he’s planned to release his latest movie which has caused a lot of excitement in the town of Carverville, where he lives reclusively.
Unfortunately, Mike Broadstreet (Marlon Kazadi) isn’t much of a horror fan and can’t see the big deal. Actually Kazadi isn’t much of an actor and seems more of less just reading his lines. It’s almost like he read the script and couldn’t believe how bad it is but someone paid him so he’s obligated. Mike works at the local theater that is set to show Carver’s latest movie the next day. His somewhat girlfriend, Amy Maxwell (Madi Monroe) is a horror fan and when Carver drops off the film cannister, he tells her about it and she comes down so they can watch a private viewing. I’m told Monroe is an internet personality which is why I think she was hired. She has potential but there’s no chemistry between her and Kazadi.
Carver is injured when a prop that theater proprietor Richard Lando (Henry Czerny) had set up accidentally knocks him out. And Lando follows Carver to the hospital, leaving Mike alone to run the box office, projection, and concession mainly because this is a very low-budget movie and they didn’t want to hire another actor even as an extra. Anyway, somehow, the film is haunted and when it rolls, it sets out a force or something that turns the townspeople into zombies.
But they’re not the zombies that eat flesh or brains. No, this is based on a R.L. Stine book and unlike the Fear Street movies, the filmmakers didn’t have the guts to show some guts. The zombies turn others into zombies by shooting a beam of light from their mouths into others. And since local cop Officer Jenkins (Bruce McCullough) is the only one this happens to, there’s really not much more in the movie except Mike and Amy running around town.
Since Carver was unconscious, I guess he wasn’t affected, but Lando was but he’s not as sinister as the other zombies in town. There’s not much violence and therefore, there’s never really an indication of much threat. And for some reason, there’s a running gag of Mike going to the bathroom to urinate, because he can’t do it outside.
But aside from the toilet humor, this might be one of the most wholesome zombie movies ever made. Some genres shouldn’t be family movies. Pornos, war movies, body horror and especially zombie movies shouldn’t be made for everyone. Other than being produced in Canada with a mostly Canadian cast and crew, part of the reason this movie has flew under the radar isn’t because it’s from the Great White North. It’s just because it’s not that good.
Today is Canada’s Thanksgiving. I don’t think they would be thankful for this.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 