Customer Reviews

Zombies Anonymous

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. The first half of the film and the last 15 minutes were absolutely excellent. In between those two times, the movie got lost in itself and its attempt to make an action sequence.

The movie is about Angela and her life after...well...dying. Angela is killed at the hands of her abusive boyfriend and must deal with the fact that she is "mortally challenged" (aka a zombie). She attends support groups (kinda AA but ZA) to try to comprehend her new life and deal with the new discriminations she is facing.

Reminiscent of an era where lynching was the norm, this movie manages to confront social issues and intolerance perfectly. Bypassers seem to ignore what is happening and continue with their daily lives. Angela also has to deal with the temptation for human flesh, her stalker ex-boyfriend and intolerance groups (very KKK) that have banded together to torture and kill zombies. Now, the zombies in this movie are still conscious, have feelings, thoughts, etc and work just about the same as any other living person, except for the fact that they are supposed to be dead. So, it is pretty hard to watch what the living "humans" do to the zombies. Indeed, the film beautifully juxtaposes the dead with the living and then back again. There is no black and white, no good and evil, in the end, this morality play is refreshing and interesting. Having watched this type of treatment during the original "Night of the Living Dead", the action took on a new dimension because you could see that these functioning human zombies had feelings and were in pain. This movie proves to be both intelligent and thoughtfully critical of society.

The cinematography is pretty good for a B movie and the storyline is excellent. The only problem with this movie lies in the part where it attempts to make an action sequence near the end. Said action sequence fails miserably.

The DVD includes several deleted scenes.

See Charleen's review below for the gory details. I'll simply add that I was also very pleased with the film. The lead zombie/actress did a very good job of invoking sympathy for her situation and those of her fellow undead as they try to re-integrate themselves into society and make a "living". Her acting was just flat -out very, very good and brought a great deal of credibility to the whole story. *caution-plot spoiler* I in particular, liked her final solution to her KKK wannabe ex-boyfriend. The actor played him so well, you wanna stand up and do a full cheer with pom-poms when he gets.......well, what YOU wanted to do to him from the start (LOL). Overall, well worth buying versus renting and will be a film you'll pull out and watch again and again.

I was expecting a fun, campy b movie. Instead I got a well filmed low budget chick flick version of a zombie movie that took itself way too seriously. This movie had huge potential considering the story line. It seemed more like a lecture about the bad people who are wrong to hate others. Even going so far as to have the people speaking out against the zombies quote the Hitler. Most of the things they tried to make humorous failed to be funny. I would suggest saving your money if you are looking for a fun b movie. If you are looking for a zombie social commentary, than this is for you.

"Mortally challenged..."

Interesting...


1) ACTING: The acting here is very well done. Aside from the actors portraying The Commandant and Solstice, everyone was excellent. The two mentioned really made it difficult for me to stay in the scene, as they really caught my focus of attention when onscreen. I don't know if they needed more rehearsals or what, but the last thing a director wants is something that distracts the viewer.

2) PRODUCTION: Again, a job well done. I had no lighting or continuity issues, and the only real sound issue was that the occasional background music was overpowering and louder than the actors. Everything is kept very tight. The blood and gore was plentiful and well handled. The character development is nicely done. The "big finale," to me, was kind of a let down, as I thought it didn't really fit into the tone of the movie.

3) ZOMBIES: Here is the big difference. The zombies in this movie are the risen dead, but continue to go on about their daily lives. Whatever caused then to die, (murder, illness, etc.) they then have a "re-birth." But only the recent dead return. Those already dead and buried stay that way. Reminiscent of the movie 'Fido,' but with the zombies having complete control of their mental capacities.

4) THE CAUSE: Unknown.

5) NUDITY: None.


FINAL: Overall, I found this to be a very interesting, thought provoking movie. Sadly, it deals with a serious subject that we are all too familiar with; our own intolerance of others. Whether it be gender, race, sexual preference, or now, undead, this movie's message hits the nail right on the head. I think Romero would be proud of this "message movie."


RATING: 4 out of 5

Feeling a little cold? Slow? Lifeless?
There is hope for the walking dead.
Zombies Anonymous.

This low budget chomp-a-thon is totally genius. I had super-low expectations, but this is just great stuff for the zombie fan.

The setup reminds me of the TV series TRUE BLOOD. Instead of vampires, it's zombies trying to coexist in the land of the living. This reaffirms just how much most real people suck.

It starts off with a pretty intense domestic disturbance. A controlling psycho boyfriend shoots his woman in the head when she tries to breakup with him. But, she doesn't completely die.

She becomes a confused member of the undead. I know, this makes no sense in the realm of Zombiedom, but get over it. Allow the rules to be bent a little, K?

This gal goes to a zombie support group to talk with some other flesh eaters. Too freakin' funny! They try to eat doughnuts(because thats what people do at these meetings) but quickly barf 'em back up. Oh well, they're not good for anybody anyway.

There are some other ways these dead folk try to fit in and avoid being crucified by the living. There is a popular skin cream called "Look Alive!" that helps cover up hanging flesh wounds and hideous scars.
Each one of the zombs do their best to look "normal" and integrate themselves back into society.

But unfortunately, this is no easy task. Jobs are hard to come by. Imagine getting served at the local diner by a waiter that shambles and coughs up blood into your food. Not too appetizing.

Plus, there are plenty of angry people that make it impossible for the dead to make a living. How would you like to be the employee that gets replaced by a corpse that will work for half the wages? Tempers flare, and a spectacularly gory war ensues.

Besides the great twist on the genre, Zombies Anonymous has nice doses of humor mixed in but not overdone. Plus it has the mandatory sick gory human devourage. No CGI, just plenty of real looking blood and guts. Excellent.

But there are some slight issues too though. It is very low budget, the camera work is below average and the acting is perfunctory, at best. Nudity really has no place in making a nice cohesive zombie story, but for some reason I'm always disappointed when it's not squeezed in. These zombies sometimes shamble, other times they walk normally or even run. Plus, they talk, think, and can function adequately? Yeah, it's a stretch. Finally, the reason people become zombies after a car wreck or whatever fatal incident is never explained. That might turn off some viewers.

Still, I'll take this over DIARY OF THE DEAD anyday. A surprisingly solid film to bite into.

Like the terrific Canadian zombie film FIDO, Marc Fratto's film ZOMBIES ANONYMOUS tries to offer us a refreshing new twist on the tired old zombie story. In Fratto's world the zombies are only the recently dead, they possess all their mental faculties although both their minds and bodies do deteriorate with time, and most importantly they are NOT flesh eating monsters intent on gobbling your grey matter. All these poor souls want is to continue "living their lives" as they had been before they had been so rudely interrupted by undeath; go to work, pay the mortgage, walk the dog, etc. Society however, has major problems accepting them. Most folks just pretend not to see tham at all, while others engage in more overt acts of discrimination such as firing them from their jobs simply because they are "mortally challenged", and still others react as do ZA's chief antagonists by forming hate groups resembling the KKK and the American Nazi Party. As you can see ZA is VERY similar to FIDO in the respect that both deal with the concept of zombies representing a lower caste of humanity that was used as slave labor and/or forbidden entry vis a vis a huge fence in the case of FIDO and in the case of ZOMBIES ANONYMOUS we've got young punks banding together under the leadership of woman known as The Commandant for the sole purpose of making the undead a little less "un".

Sounds like a great premise doesn't it? Well, it is. And the fact that it was supposed to be a black comedy made it all the more enticing to me, but the sad truth is that these film makers simply bit off more than they could chew, pun intended. Not only do they take on the issue of racial and/or ethnic prejudice they also tackle domestice violence in one of the stongest opening scenes I've ever seen in a zombie flick (especially one that promised it was going to be a comedy), a scene that is echoed in the finale. Normally I'd say Bravo, nice take on a difficult subject! But now we have two major story lines going, prejudice AND domestic violence and its going to take one heck of a film maker to pull all this off. Especially since Fratto decides to link the domestic violence to an thread of female impowerment.(Trust me, here its a bit odd) Three out four of the most important characters in the film are women; there's our protagonist Angela (Gina Ramsden) who is murdered by her rat of a husband Josh (Joshua Nelson) in that first scene I mentioned, then there's the evil Commandant Christa McNamee who's one nasty piece of work, and of course the big zombie leader known as Mother Solstice, plus this other zombie chick who's hanging with Josh for some reason we're not privy to. I hate to criticize a film maker for attempting too much but that's exactly what happened here. They started with a comedy that really isn't very funny, added several messages, and for good measure they tacked on an orgy of zombie mayhem with everyone trying to kill everyone else. There were a lot of ideas for some great flix in this movie, but sadly there were just too many ideas for one movie.

I was pleasantly surprised at this movie, being in recovery myself. So I was able to understand its humor. Unfortunately the one thing that I thought was a bit overboard was the excessive swearing. My GF is not a prude but when I got it to show her (it had been sometime since i had seen it, & being blessed w/ADHD i sometimes miss out on certain elements of a movie), we maybe watched about 15 mins or so & she finally said enough. It was almost like being in a regular AA mtg at times. If you could remove every other word you can make out something close to what a person is trying to share. I am not judging them. Pls don't get me wrong. I used to swear as much as anyone. When I'd come home from the Marines on leave my mom would always be saying "What did you just say?!" & then it would hit me that I needed to watch my mouth (as an adult she could no longer use the ivory soap on me...i can still taste that stuff & my stomach starts to turn when i near the soap area...i have vivid flashbacks...much like the teargas chambers in bootcamp... :- b/c it was like a 2nd language to me. But now that I don't, I find I am able to say much more in a shorter span (which is always a challenge for us ADH'ers) & people can understand...somewhat...what I am trying to say.
Anyways I thought the heroine Angela (Gina Ramsden, who I thought was Holly Hunter at 1st until i took time to put my glasses on & see more clearly, plus once I heard her voice knew it wasnt her, did an excellent job. I thought, for what they had for budget, actors/actresses, etc, I think it is a movie that was good. And maybe I am too idealistic about cutting the swearing, but it is just too prevalent. And for that matter, I am tired of hearing little kids swearing on the screen. They have enough challenge just being allowed to grow up as a child w/o being made to sound like adults. There are countless movies, excellent, where nudity & swearing were not needed to try & sell it as they were great on their own accord.
Alas I digress. The boyfriend just never got it, until he finally got it. Bravo for Angela walking away from him in the end. There are a lot of little things that make this a great little movie. The mix of prejudice on both sides of the coin, along w/the extremes of how sides are taken within each side (ie pacifism vs force, within each camp-the living & the...mortally challenged).
Pls know that even tho I wish the film did not have all the swearing, I do not hold it against anyone who doesnt hold the same ideals. I do think it is a great little movie w/a very original theme. Have a great day.

This movie is just plain bad.

Don't get me wrong. I wanted to like it. Having come off watching American Zombie, which also sucked, I was hoping for some needed zombie respite. Not happening here.

What dialogue and acting there is seems forced and badly delivered. Frankly most lines and acting seemed like they belonged in a bad porno rather than a good zombie movie (neither of which is this movie).

It seems like whenever there was a lack of dialogue for a scene, it was simply replaced with profanity of all sorts.

I ended up turning this movie off half way through it, which I very rarely do. I felt the movie bored me, offered nothing and basically wasted my time and money.

If you want a "good" zombie movie, I don't think this is it. See Dawn of the Dead, Zombieland, Fido, Shaun of the Dead, Resident Evil, Dead Snow. Pretty much anything other than this movie.

This movie had an original idea, but lact so much for being a zombie movie. At times it was just stupid! Another zombie movie id pass on. Doubt I'll be re-watching this movie any time soon!

After seeing Insane-O-Rama's earlier vampire movie, Strange Things Happen At Sundown, I had high hopes for this entry in the world of Zombie flicks.

In Strange Things, Marc Fratto and crew gave a new take on what life would be like if you were a vampire in 21st century America. You would still need rent money, gas money, a car, and rather than buying food at a grocery store, you have to hide your socipathic, homicidal tendencies for your craving for human blood. In short, it's not easy being dead.

And there's a tendency that this sort of life would drive you insane. Not exactly a romantic notion of vampires, is it?

In addition Fratto, on a B-movie budget, was able to produce a well written, original movie, and get surprisingly good performances out of amateur and semi-professional actors in Strange Things. So, I was understandably excited about Zombies Anonymous coming out.

Past Zombie movies from the likes of George Romero were little more than monster movies, and had become very formulaic. Zombies Anonymous is an original take on the Zombie genre, telling the story from the Zombie's point of view. If you are a fan of the genre, stop reading now and get this movie!

Like in Strange Things, being dead doesn't mean you don't need rent money. So, the heroine in this story still goes to work and tries to live her life as normally as a murdered person can. But blending in with the living isn't easy, as the living have a natural aversion to the dead; so there are interesting themes on discrimination and living a double life. Zombies Anonymous follows our heroine's attempts to get along in a world that treats her as a second-class citizen, and her inner struggle to accept what she has become.

There are so many subtleties and possibilities with the concept of the movie that one can't help but be disappointed when those possibilities aren't fully realized. Maybe it's a victim of its own high aspirations, or a victim of its budget, but while Zombies Anonymous entertains, it falls short on many levels.

And that's a shame. Fratto had a great vision, but somehow he just didn't get it to gel on this one. In summary, it's worth watching, but it's not as great as it should be.