Review: Zombies of Mass Destruction

 Man, do I love a good zombie movie.  Some of my favorite horror films of all time come from this decaying subgenre, including the original Dawn of the Dead or the ferocious and funny Return of the Living Dead or even the Italian Zombi 2, complete with eyeball-popping goodness.  Sadly, the subgenre has fallen into disrepair of late, as every knucklehead with a camera and a dream seems to have decided they can make their own zombie film.  This leads to movies like Zombies, Zombies, Zombies or those godawful Return of the Living Dead sequels, movies that one strains to defend on even the basest, most prurient level.  So, it's nice to see a zombie film come along like Zombies of Mass Destruction, which, at least, one can defend on thematic grounds.

Set in the remote town of Port Gamble, ZMD weaves together the story of American-born but foreign-looking Frida (Janette Armand) and newly-returned Tom (Doug Fal), who has arrived with his boyfriend, Lance (Cooper Hopkins) in an effort to come clean with his mother about his sexuality.  Other stories rear their heads, like a mayoral battle between hippie-ish Cheryl (Cornelia Moore) and the more conservative Hal Burton (James Mesher), as well as the inner working of the Frida-obsessed Brian (Andrew Hyde) and his neo-con family.  On this day, family dramas and back-handed xenophobia are the least of the town's problems as the dead have risen and are, as usual, intent on eating the living.

As you might have guessed, ZMD uses the backdrop of the zombie outbreak to comment on modern American politics, whether it's the knee-jerk belief that the zombies must be borne of a terrorist threat, or the implication that Tom and Lance must be "cured" of the homosexuality lest they become zombies themselves.  It's nice to see that this movie has something to say, and my own politics align neatly with those of the film.  For conservatives among you, you may bristle at the cartoonish depiction of Brian's father, Joe (Russell Hodgkinson), who instantly believes that, not only is the zombie outbreak the result of terrorism but that Frida must know something about it she's not saying, or the super-fundamentalist church doctrine presented in the film.  I would point out that the more liberal characters are equally cartoonish and broad, particularly the depiction of Tom's boyfriend, Lance. 

The film aims for comedy, and occasionally lands a good joke (one of my favorites being Joe's assertion that he isn't Canadian anymore when his patriotism is questioned), but a lot of the jokes land flat on their rotting faces.  And, though I do agree with the message of the film, the politics of the movie often feel so blatantly represented, one wonders if a brochure handed out in the East Village wouldn't have been more subtle.  Still, it is a movie of ideas, and there is something o be said for that.  The zombie effects are middle-of-the-road, serviceable but nothing that's going to leave you scratching your head over how they accomplished anything. 

Zombies of Mass Destruction is a great attempt at what makes zombie movies good in the first place - a chance to comment on modern life by highlighting the best and worst of ourselves during such an extreme situation.  Unfortunately, some of the acting, the effects and the over-generalizations weigh it down from being the movie that it wants to be.  Still, for those who enjoy the zombie film as allegory, this is worth a look, if only to see the glimpses of the movie that might have been.