Last Updated on November 15, 2020 by rob
A film crew shooting a low-budget zombie pic in an abandoned WW2 facility suddenly come under attack from real zombies.
Cleverly conceived movie-within-a-movie which kicks off with the zombie movie proper before flashing back to show how the crew and project came together and then reruns the whole movie again. This time showing us all the behind-the-scenes shenanigans as the crew are forced to improvise desperately during what turns out to be a live broadcast for a zombie themed tv channel and we get to see just why certain moments came out the way they did. It’s a highly entertaining mixture of scares, family drama and – once we see behind-the-scenes – laugh out loud hilarity. My favourite being the drunk cameraman who gets so insensible the increasingly desperate crew pitch him into the action as one of the zombies!
Although this seems initially like just another zombie survival horror what it is more than anything is a heartfelt tribute to the ingenuity of low budget filmmakers everywhere. Also refreshing to see a genre entry that is actually at its strongest in its last act rather than its first. The cast are all game with Harumi Shuhama the standout as the movie director’s wife, self-defence hobbyist and wannabee actress who gets a bit too carried away by her role. On the strength of her performance here I really hope Shuhama gets more opportunities to show what she can do because she’s got a real screen presence.
