This
year, the road to the Academy Awards surely starts in Tribeca. Leslie Nielsen
also suddenly has stiff competition for the best on-screen beaver joke. The
dam-builders are indeed restive in Jordan Rubin’s Zombeavers (viral
trailer here), which
screens midnight tonight during the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.
Right,
so a den of beavers get zombified just before Mary and her two sorority sisters,
depressed Jenn and catty Zoe, arrive at her family cabin for a weekend getaway.
Do you think they get cell service up there? Dude, please. At least their
respective horny significant others crash the party, making things real awkward
for Jenn and her cheating dog boyfriend. However, they will not have much time
for recriminations before the zombie-beavers attack.
This
year, Tribeca’s midnight programmers are determined to discourage viewers from
vacationing in the woods. Whether it be the work of homicidal hunters in Preservation, alien-abductors in Extraterrestrial, or zombie-beavers, bad
things just seem to happen when you try to get back to nature. Their cautionary
warning is duly noted.
So
seriously, Zombeavers is just a thing
of beauty. It is easily the funniest zombie comedy since Red Snow: Dead vs. Red, which admittedly just screened at Sundance
this January, but is still high praise. Rubin delivers plenty of comedic gore,
but rest assured, the nudity is strictly gratuitous.
As
Mary, Jenn, and Zoe, Rachel Melvin, Lexi Atkins, and Cortney Palm are
impossible long legged and admirably good sports. The corresponding guys act
like they are in a competition to see who can be the biggest meathead idiot,
but that is about right for the zombie-beaver sub-genre. Of course, the wildly
over the top furry undead creatures are the real stars and they do not
disappoint. They’re resourceful little buggers. For extra random cult movie
points, Zombeavers also features CSI: Miami regular Rex Linn as Smyth,
the grizzled grizzly hunter.
