Arguably, a prison cell is a worse place
to find oneself than a hospital bed during the initial days of a zombie apocalypse.
Fortunately, one of the surviving detectives realizes killings that landed Luke
behind bars were not really killings. Yes, it all looks and sounds familiar,
but at least the energy level is cranked up throughout Hamid Torabpour’s Zombies (trailer here), which opens today
in select theaters.
Eventually, Luke and Det. Sommers fight
their way out of the station, holing up in a shelter with a rag-tag band of
survivors. Luke becomes their best scout and forager, regularly venturing out
in search of more survivors. He is particularly keen to find his girlfriend
Bena, since she is played by former America’s
Next Top Model contestant Raina Hein. However, it will be Bena and her
surly pal Tala who find Luke when he most needs help. This is quite a small
town. He had just encountered Haley, another former girlfriend (or something),
who has suffered a nasty psychotic break. Rather bizarrely, she seems to have
some sort of symbiotic bond with the shuffling hordes, which allows her to lure
unsuspecting survivors to their deaths.
Right, the rather generically titled Zombies could be described as three parts
Walking Dead and one part Wyrmwood. Perhaps Torabpour recognized
the Haley sub-plot does not make much sense, because he chokes it off
relatively early in the second act. Regardless, he delivers some bounteous helpings
of hack-and-blast zombie killing action. To give a feel for where the film is
coming from, everyone basically admits the big climatic zombie battle involves
a crazy plan and it’s probably avoidable in the first place, but they are going
to do it anyway, because why not?
Why not indeed? Zombies are nowhere near as gripping or inventive as Train to Busan, the breakout zombie hit
of the year. However, it delivers the raw meat. It is also cool to see horror
legend Tony Todd playing a good guy, the world weary Det. Sommers. Steven Luke
is respectably hardnosed as his namesake, while Hein shows some solid action
chops as Bena.