‘Zombie Hunter’ Review
Stars: Martin Copping, Danny Trejo, Clare Niederpruem, Terry Guthrie, Michael Monasterio, Jarrod Phillips, Jade Regier, Marianne Smith, Jake Suazo, Jason K. Wixom | Written by Kevin King, Kurt Knight | Directed by Kevin King
Zombie apocalypse movies are ten-a-penny these days, so it takes something special to stand out from the crowd. Luckily Zombie Hunter is one such movie. Set in a post-apocalyptic Zombie wasteland caused by the mysterious street drug “Natas”, the film follows one man (the titular hunter) who runs down Flesh Eaters, hunting for sport and redemption, while also running from his past. After crashing into a small group of survivors, who are running low on resources, he decides to lend a hand. But a surprise attack by the Flesh Eaters forces them on the run and puts the Hunter’s skills to the test…
Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez have a lot to answer for. Ever since their drive-in inspired collaboration Grindhouse, filmmakers have been imitating the scratchy-prints and wild subject matter that marked New York’s 42nd Street cinema district – to varying degrees of success. Whilst the truly great “neo-grindhouse” movies are few and far between (you could probably count them on one hand), there are a hell of a lot of really, really bad movies using the format to cover up shitty production values and a lack of budget/plot. Thankfully Zombie Hunter resides firmly in the former camp.
Directed and co-written by first-time filmmaker Kevin King, Zombie Hunter not only recreates the grindhouse, feel it also harkens back to the neon-coloured, over-the-top cinema of the 80s in much the same way that Jason Eisener’s Hobo With a Shotgun did a few years ago. The film is also just as gory, with plenty of disembowelments, decapitations and flesh-eating a plenty – mainly rendered in glorious physical effects! Although the movie doesn’t shy away from CGI. In fact it embraces it at times, there are CG blood splatters which for once enhance the OTT nature of the kills and the film features large CG-rendered zombie monsters that resemble the Lickers and the Tyrant from Resident Evil.
Zombie Hunter is the kind of movie that is made for film fans. There are in-jokes, references to other movies and there’s even a nice nod to two more Arrowstorm Entertainment productions, Orcs! and Ozombie, in the backdrop of one scene. The faux-grindhouse stylings which only add to the film, work really well with the tone of the movie which perfectly balances satire with pure zombie ass-kicking action and even the use of dubstep on the soundtrack can’t stop this from being one hell of a superb movie. In fact this might just be my new favourite zombie movie!
Zombie Hunter is out now on DVD and Blu-ray from Signature Entertainment. Buy it!
