ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction (2009)


REVIEWER RATING: 
4/10


No relation to the comic with the same name, ZMD is described as a "political zombedy", something we see very little of (if at all) within the sub-genre. Does the film's political and social commentary actually work is really up to the viewer, but one thing's definitely clear and that director and co-writer Kevin Hamedani couldn't have made its statements anymore painfully obvious.

The story revolves around a small idyllic fishing island, whose residents are slowly turning into the undead, but that doesn't seem to be the pressing issue among our leads -- a gay couple visiting family and finally coming out to the mom and an Iranian women, whose over-protective father frowns upon relations with people outside their culture. We spend a good chunk of the film's running time (around 30-minutes) to get to know all the town's key characters before any zombie action occurs.

Luckily when the movie picks up it's a nice parody to several genre installments, and offers a couple obvious nods to Romero's early works. Sadly, the movie spends way too much time trying to get its silly messages across the audience and seemingly forgetting about all the zombie-killin' action that we really want to see. For instance there's a scene where the Iranian girl is held captive in a basement by some racist redneck -- a scene that lasted entirely too damn long. We get the point you're trying to make, move on already!!

When the characters aren't busy killing zombies, we're forced to witness drawn-out scenes that are supposed to be funny and also deliver a message at the same time. It's these scenes that I spent a majority of my time with the fast-forward button, because the messages that the filmmakers are trying to give us was already made obvious many times and the poorly written dialogue and gags just aren't funny.

The only redeeming quality this low-budget pic offers are its practical effects, as the zombies weren't bad looking and there was a decent amount of blood and gore, something even Romero's latest effort (Survival of the Dead) didn't have enough of. Yet we only get brief scenes where our leads are busy fighting off zombies, which means we have to sit through the rest of the film's unfunny and boring sequences. Top it off with unlikeable characters and bad acting and you've got yet another failed zombie effort and addition to After Dark Film's horrible horrorfest lineup.

A pic that spends entirely too much time trying to deliver a message than actually having any entertaining zombie action. We're given way too many drawn out and unfunny scenes, with addition to the bad acting and poor script. The film's only redeeming quality lies within its use of practical gore effects which is the only thing that kept me watching. I'd avoid this mess otherwise.
OVERALL: 
A pic that spends entirely too much time trying to deliver a message than actually having any entertaining zombie action. We're given way too many drawn out and unfunny scenes, with addition to the bad acting and poor script. The film's only redeeming quality lies within its use of practical gore effects which is the only thing that kept me watching. I'd avoid this mess otherwise.


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