Zombies of Mass Destruction

In 2009, as part of the After Dark Horror series, Zombies of Mass Destruction was released, directed by Kevin Hamedani, written by Kevin Hamedani and Ramon Isao, with no major stars. This movie is a steaming pile of epic proportions.

As the movie starts, I was intrigued by the music. It reminded me of a 60's/70's zombie movie, you know, where they take themselves seriously. But within the first few minutes I was disappointed, and I realized I was in for a long ride. My first problem is that the movie doesn't take itself seriously, which is typical for zombie movies today, but when dealing with heavy themes such as racism and racial profiling, one would hope they'd take at least that seriously. The idea for this movie came up after a discussion about how after 9/11 people of Middle Eastern descent were looked at differently. The idea of this movie is that the zombie disease is actually a weapon from a Muslim terrorist. Throw in some old fashioned rednecks and some religious nuts, and you've got this movie.

Not one moment of this movie can be taken seriously except for when the rednecks are blaming the one girl of Iranian descent of being a terrorist, and the religious nuts who are torturing the two gay guys for fear of turning into zombies. The fact that it selectively points out which groups it's going to be sympathetic to really bothers me. There is no real character development in a normal sense since all the people are caricatures and not real people. The gays, the American-Middle Easterners, and the liberals are the good; and the rednecks, the religious conservatives, and the in-between types are the bad. As much as I enjoy teaching rednecks and religious conservatives a lesson, at least if you're making a movie, try to mix it up a bit. This movie makes the race card a little too obvious. But then again, there's a message about racism in there, but without a serious movie backdrop, how can anyone take it seriously?

Many have compared this movie to Shaun of the Dead. There are similarities, for sure. But Shaun of the Dead is an all out comedy, and meant to be so. This movie isn't sure what it's supposed to be. Comparing it to Shaun of the Dead, in my opinion, is an assault on Shaun of the Dead. In this movie, the acting is poor, the special effects are marginal, and the blood factor is over the top. Is it really necessary to see a face ripped off? Does that really add to the movie? And once again, my least favorite act in a horror movie: why do people go into the dark scary place? They will just die. It's too obvious that you're just trying to get rid of the character. I find it much more interesting if the dumb are enlightened, then die in a noble manner - like trying to save the others. I like it to be a no way out kind of scenario. I don't like my movies predictable... which is all this was.

Survey says: skip this movie if you want to avoid a steaming pile of crap. If you want to torture yourself, then have at it. Seriously, with a tagline like "They're just like you ... only dead", how good could it be?

Here's a link to the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUFjHjU0bK8