‘Zombieworld’ Review

Stars: Jamie McDowell, Noé Blancafort, Bill Oberst Jr., Trevor Snarr, Marc Velasco, Zack Price, Lauren Brady, Jeff Newman | Directed by Adam Myette O’Brien, Adriàn Cardona, Cameron McCulloch, David Muñoz, Jared Marshall, Jesse Baget, Jonathan Brown, Luke Giudici, Paul Shrimpton, Peter Horn, Tomy Woodard, Vedran Marjanovic, Zach Ramelan

Recent years have seen a resurgance in the horror anthology, from the likes of V/H/S to The ABC’s of Death – both of which have inspired many a filmmaker to create their own anthology, to vary degrees of success. The latest to join the ranks is Zombieworld,  a collection of 11 shorts, which was put together by Ruthless Pictures in association with horror website Dread Central. This film however has more in common with the “classic” 80s anthology film Groove Tube as TV newsreader Marvin Gloatt (played by the awesome Bill Oberst Jr.) – himself slowly turning into one of the undead – introduces news stories and PSA’s from around the globe including Ireland, U.S., Australia, Canada and Spain; cleverly hiding the multitude of short film sources.

Speaking of Spain, Zombieworld kicks off it’s first new report with the fantastic Spanish short Fist of Jesus – and frankly its all downhill from there! There’s nothing here, including the pre-credits short Dark Times, that matches David Muñoz & Adrián Cardona’s gory and hilarious Jesus vs. zombies flick. How can anyone top of short that sees Jesus made responsible for a zombie outbreak (thanks to his resurrection “skills”), eventually taking them on with the help of Judas and an endless supply of fish!

David Muñoz & Adrián Cardona also close out Zombieworld with their short Brutal Relax –  which tells the tale of Olivares, a man who is told by his doctor that he’s stressed and needs to find something to help him relax. Heading to the beach for the day Olivares finds himself in the middle of a zombie attack. Thankfully it turns out that killing zombies that have crawled out of the sea is just what the doctor ordered for Olivares! Yes, Brutal Relax is another gory, OTT zombie tale which, like Fist of Jesus, seems inspired by the works of Lloyd Kaufman and the Troma family.

It’s safe to say that with more blood, more guts and more laughs than any of the other shorts, David Muñoz & Adrián Cardona’s two films are undoubtedly the standouts in this 100 minute zombie anthology. In between their work we get a handful of forgettable shorts, including a Shaun of the Dead inspired short, I Am Lonely, which tells the story of the last man alive on Earth and his dead room mate; Dead Stop, a brief found-footage (well, security camera) film that shows a gas station under attack from zombies; Teleportal, which sees a gamer transported into the zombie shoot ’em-up gmae he’s playing before being killed by his girlfriend playing the very same game; the PSA How To Survive a Zombie Apocalypse, which is split into multiple parts and looks like it has suffered the most from re-editing and over-dubbing (though i may be mistaken) and Dead Rush, a second POV zombie short, which rehashes the same concept as Dark Times which opens the film – the two even share exactly the same scenes on gory zombie gratification.

Of the rest of the shorts, it’s Home, directed by Cameron McCulloch, which features no dialogue and tells the story of a young woman left all alone at a farm house surrounded by zombies, including her dead boyfriend; and Certified, directed by Luke Asa Guidici, which are the highlights. Certified, which actually doesn’t feature a single zombie, is actually a real treat – the film tells the story of a little girl with a huge imagination and a penchant for telling lies, who convinces the new mailman that her aunt is insane and her father and uncle are zombies!

For those looking for something new within the genre, the Zombieworld is what you’re after. Whilst not all the shorts work, they do all offer something for everyone: comedy, gore and even some thought provoking drama – it’s all here for the taking. I’d definitely like to see more of this “ABC’s of the Undead” in the future…

Zombieworld is released on DVD on June 8th, courtesy of Image Entertainment.