Zombieworld (Review)

Director(s) – Jesse Baget, Adrian Cardona, Rafa Dengra, Luke Guidici, Phil Haine, Peter Horn, Jared Marshall, Cameron McCulloch, David Munoz, Adam O’Brien, Zachary Ramelan, Paul Shrimpton, Vedran Marjanovic Wekster, and Tommy Woodard
Starring – Bill Oberst Jr (Coyote), Noe Blancafort (Losers), and Marc Velasco (Fibers)
Release Date – 2015
Rating – 3.5/5

Tagline – “The end is near here!

Now, I know what you guys and gals are thinking.  Why is he reviewing yet another zombie film?  Well, my answer for that is very simple and if you watch the trailer before reading my review then you will understand why I am reviewing this one.  A month or so ago another writer at Horror Society shared news of the upcoming zombie anthology filmZombieworld.

I will show my ignorance when I admit that I thought the announcement was for the sequel toZombieland.  I am a fan of ZL and was looking forward to the sequel but when I looked into the film I quickly realized this film had nothing to do with ZL.  Instead, it was an anthology film that looked insane.  I had to see it and was lucky enough to get a review copy of it before it was released.

**Spoiler Alert**The film follows news reporter Marvin Gloat (Oberst).  The world is going to hell as the undead begin to rise and take over the world.  Gloat then starts to refer to the world as Zombieworld.  Gloat was also bitten by the undead while trying to defend the news station.  He is able to fight them off so he could get back to reporting the news.

He covers different stories about zombie outbreaks including one of a man running through the woods while the undead is chasing him before he is overtaken by a zombie wearing a Santa uniform.  We are shown a video of the first zombie outbreak where Jesus tries to raise Lazarus from the dead only to fail and bring him back as a zombie turning everyone into the undead.  Jesus and Judas then fight zombie Pharisees, Romans, and cowboys using fish.  We then jumped to Ireland where a man rushes to check on his friend who was bitten only to turn and attack him.

There is also a segment featuring a woman that lives alone trying to survive only to keep reliving her former love who has since passed away.  We are also given news coverage of an unusual man who liked to cover his entire body with mud while listening to music.  However, when his batteries die he takes his frustration on zombies that are attacking the beach.

In between each segment we are shown clips on how to survive the apocalypse and “live” footage of people being attacked including a cop who is attacked by a woman and her boyfriend.  After all the segments are shown, Marvin finally succumbs to his bite and turns into a zombie.**Spoiler Alert**

Most of you reading this know my stance on the current zombie craze.  Sure, I watch The Walking Dead every Sunday and still try to read the comics and novels whenever I get the chance, but the show has ruined the state of zombie films.  So many films now try to pit survivors amongst themselves while dealing with the undead.  Very few try to give the viewer anything new or entertaining.  However, after watching the trailer for Zombieworld I knew this film would be nothing like the dozens of zombie flicks littering the shelves at Wal-Mart.

The acting in this one is hit or miss.  There is way too many segments for me to pick apart but when dealing with a film that has segments from different directors this is very common.  Some have a terrific cast that is truly shocking by how much talent they have while others have some that need more experience to make their roles believable.  With all that being said, holy fuck was Bill Oberst Jr, awesome.  I have yet to see a film where he did not steal the show.

The stories for this one vary in degree while held together by the newscast story.  Most are nothing new but are fun for the most part.  The highlights of the film is the segment involving Jesus and the other involving the man covered in mud.  Both are bloody and fun as hell.  The rest vary in quality.

My biggest complaint with the story is that some segments did not fit the zombie apocalypse newscast angle.  One did not involve a zombie at all and another involved a young man getting drawn into a video game that is very similar to House of the Dead.  Both were good segments but did not fit the film.  Most of the stories offer up some humor as well which really makes light of all the gore that we are given.

Finally, this anthology is the bloodiest I have seen in a very long time and I doubt another one will surpass it anytime soon.  Most of the death scenes use practical effects while a few others use some visual effects but they are not bad.  In fact, they add to the gore.

Overall, Zombieworld is a violent film that really does deliver on the blood and gore.  This is a film we will not forget about anytime soon.  Fans of anthologies, horror comedies, and gore should really check this one out!