Revenant, walking dead, the undead, zombie, whatever you wanna call them, they populate our towns and are here to stay.
Ivan is a zombie who works at a mini-mart, writes a zine, and lives with his zombie friend (friend spoken loosely), Glenn, an uptight artist. Ivan has a human girlfriend, Monique, who works at a pharmacy and gets him his daily dose of the blue cocktail, a liquid-filled vile that isn’t fully explained, but seems to help suppress the urge to feed.
John Solomon, a filmmaker, and Grace Lee, an acclaimed documentarian, decide to make a film on the zombie population in their L.A. community. John wants the grit and grim of zombie life, while Grace takes a more compassionate and heart-felt approach.
Judy, a high-functioning zombie, works for Healthful Bounty, a company that makes health bars and energy drinks. She likes cats and has plenty of feline memorabilia, but is allergic to the real thing, so doesn't own one. She obsessively loves scrapbooking, and does it to commemorate almost every event in her life. She doesn't see herself as part of the walking dead, and wants nothing more than to get married and be accepted as a human.
Joel, the founder of ZAG (Zombie Advocacy Group), helps fellow zombies during their transition, and then their re-integration into society through job placement. His organization fights for zombie rights and acceptance.
Lisa is a very eccentric zombie who works at a floral shop and dearly wants to remember her past. She continually looks for happiness and a “quiet place” through her string art, zen gardens, and walking through graveyards.
Frank Valesco, a private investigator and zombie exterminator, is often hired by families to search for missing loved ones. In doing so, if he finds them to be part of the undead, he's often asked to "take care" of them too. The most humorous part of the movie is when Frank shows his extermination techniques. A bat, a shovel, a car, almost anything will do as long as it does the job quickly.
Joel and staff are permitted to attend Live Dead, an annual all-zombie get together, and although it looks like a fairly normal event, some things just don’t add up. On the final night, they witness what they believe to be a human sacrifice fed to the zombie mass, so they pack their stuff up and haul ass outta there. When questioned about it, Joel and Ivan pawn it off as a stage performance, but fearing for their lives, John wants to quickly wrap up the project. Grace, however, would like to get some closing shoots, and when they visit Judy one last time, she attacks and bites John. Not knowing what else to do with the body, but knowing that he'll probably turn, Grace leaves him on ZAG’s doorstep.
This is a nice angle on the zombie genre, which sets it apart from the normal Romero-inspired crap I see month after month. Remember, I didn’t care for Diary of the Dead, and although I have respect for what George has done, I think he may no longer have anything to offer the genre he helped create. American Zombie doesn't use blood and gore as it's focal-point, although there's a small glimpse of it in there, but is more along the lines of the movie They Came Back, focusing on character depth and zombie integration, rather than containment and annihilation. Don't get me wrong, I do like zombie "kill" films, but have seen so many crummy ones that my expectations are pretty low when a new one comes out.
So, watch American Zombie AND They Came Back (highly recommended), but be on the lookout for two films which I highly anticipate, Shock-O-Rama’s Necroville, and one that deals with other kinds of monsters, Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer.
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OVERALL RATING--3-- |
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