April 28, 2009
Zombies, Zombies, Zombies
And now, a movie about Zombies and Strippers. Didn't we just do this? Yeah, we did. But Tron sez you can never have enough Zombies. Or Strippers.
Starring: Jessica Barton, Hollie Winnard, Lyanna Tumaneng, Anthony Headen, Tiffany Shepis
Rating: 6.5/10
Directed By: Jason Murphy
Runtime: 79 minutes
Starring: Jessica Barton, Hollie Winnard, Lyanna Tumaneng, Anthony Headen, Tiffany Shepis
Rating: 6.5/10
Directed By: Jason Murphy
Runtime: 79 minutes
Now this is more like it. Filmed on probably a quarter of the budget of Zombie Strippers (2008) and going for the same comedy-horror niche, Zombies, Zombies, Zombies delivers everything it's bigger-budget competitor did not; clever script, capable actors across the board, quirky characters, serviceable zombies, guns, hot chicks (tho Zombie Strippers had more nudity to be fair) and the more entertaining premise of strippers versus zombies rather than a giant zombie strip-off. Of course the budget being lower means no name talent and really shitty CG effects but we've watched waaaay worse and this film has less to forgive. Plus, it gives us the phrase "Pimp down!" and teaches us that even during a crisis there's always time for a lap dance.
The story begins with a complete swerve but when it gets going a doctor is developing a cancer reversal treatment but has an occasional sideline of selling crack to a local scumbag. During a transaction, the scumbag scrapes up a little of this "rock" when the doc's back is turned and splits. The ball is now in play so we have to introduce our strippers. Vet stripper Dallas (Lyanna Tumaneng), along with the gang, induct Harley (Hollie Winnard) into the life and banter the ethics of strippers and ho's vs hookers in some funny exchanges that are designed, much like Jenna Jameson reading Nietzsche in Zombie Strippers, to portray our ladies as far more than just dumb naked girls. See, the strippers are down on hookers since Dallas' former BF started seeing notorious pimp Johnny "Backhand" Vegas (Anthony Headen), the best character in the film. Johnny is a mistreating prick; he puts cigarettes out on the girl's hands, calls them fat pigs, makes his pregnant girlfriend hook twice as hard "before she's fat" and exhibits a survival tactic known as "Johnny first." He's the kind of guy who wants to name his baby "Shaft." It seems our drug-stealing scumbag owes Johnny some money so guess who ends up with the experimental "rock?" Guess who's hookers get into that shit? Panic, of course, ensues and the survivors take refuge inside the strip club, spending the rest of the film fending off a hoard of rampaging undead.
Where Zombies, Zombies, Zombies succeeds is the witty script that contains ample swerves and fresh ways of looking at this rather overused set-up, enough that this surprisingly brief recommendation would have SPOILER written all over it if it were any longer. ZZZ at several points, including the first five minutes, sets you up to believe the movie is traveling one path while it insidiously creeps down another. You can tell director Jason Murphy and screenwriter Anthony Steven Giordano are genre fans as they take great pains within their limited budget to defy expectations and deliver as many fresh bits as they can - largely with good results. Ok, the CG sucks, as mentioned before and a few places they skimp on the zombie makeup, but not as bad as Zombie Lake (1981). The nudity is not nearly as omnipresent as in Zombie Strippers, which I feel in this case is detrimental, as all the chicks in this film are smokin' hot as well and deserve their chance to shine. How to make up for that: Gore, and lots of it. Biting, rending, ripping, exploding, dismemberment, gristle, everything someone who wants to see a zombie stripper movie really wants. Unlike Zombie Strippers, ZZZ's comedy and laid-back irony is not forced and the film is entirely aware of it's shortcomings and offers chances to laugh with it rather than at it. 
Zombies, Zombies, Zombies is a fun romp through a slice of the Adult Entertainment world with a huge helping of zombies. Very much a comedy, though not skimping on the gore, ZZZ is an eminently watchable film that delivers more surprises than one would expect in an 80 minute low budget film yet it remarkable outperforms not only it's peers but contends as a mid-level zombie film in the vein of Severed, Forest of the Dead (2005) or Dead and Breakfast (2004), both of which ended up being far better than at first glance. Smart and self-aware, Zombies, Zombies, Zombies is definitely worth seeking out for a night's entertainment.