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We Are Zombies Review
Image Credit: Screambox
Loading...Directed by: François Simard, Anouk Whissell & Yoann-Karl Whissell
Written by: François Simard, Anouk Whissell & Yoann-Karl Whissell
Starring:
Alexandre Nachi – Karl Neard
Derek Johns – Freddy Mercks
Megan Peta Hill – Maggie
Vincent Leclerc – Seth Mckenna
Benz Antoine – Hannity
Carlo Mestroni – Don
Guy Nadon – Bob Coleman
Patrick-Emmanuel Abellard – Stanley
Marc-André Boulanger – Rocco
Rosemarie Sabor – Jane / Zelvirella
Clare Coulter – Mrs. Neard
Stéphane Demers – Otto Maddox
Running Time: 80 minutes
Not Rated
The zombie comedy is so prominent at this point that it’s a subgenre with its own subgenres. From the ever-popular rom zoms of Warm Bodies and Lisa Frankenstein to the “versus” movies like Cockneys vs. Zombies and Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (aka Boy Scouts vs. Zombies), there is no shortage of variety if you’re looking for a zombie film intended to make you laugh. It speaks to the malleable nature of the risen dead that they will fit any concept an aspiring filmmaker wants to create, which frankly is one of the reasons they’ve become such a big part of horror cinema.
We Are Zombies fits into the ever-popular slacker/loser zombie comedy exemplified by modern classics like Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland. The latest film from the Canadian trio known as RKSS centers its story (based on Jerry Frissen and Guy Davis’ comic book series The Zombies That Ate The World) on three misfits trying to make an illegal living in a post-zombie society, only to wind up in over their heads. Premiering on Screambox on Tuesday, the film offers familiar story beats livened up with numbskull humor and an abundance of splatstick.
Set in a near future where zombies are not ravening hordes and instead a protected class of marginalized people, We Are Zombies focuses on a trio of losers — Karl (Alexandre Nachi), a socially inept nerd; Freddy (Derek Johns), a lunkheaded wrestling fan; and Maggie (Megan Peta Hill), Karl’s sister and a computer expert with a gear to grind against her former employer Coleman Corporation. The megacorp offers retirement services for the living impaired, taking them off families’ hands for a fee with the promise of a comfortable place for them to live.
Karl, Freddy, and Maggie have found a way to make a living off this situation, as they use Maggie’s connections to pose as retirement collectors and then sell the zombies to Otto Maddox, a rich weirdo who uses zombies in his elaborate performance art. Unfortunately, this plan goes awry when the Coleman employees they’ve been posing as kidnap Karl and Maggie’s grandmother (Clare Coulter) and demand $50,000 to make up for their losses.
Left without a better option, the three agree to a job for Otto that involves getting a zombified celebrity from Coleman facilities. In the meantime, Coleman has its own internal conflicts that will intersect with the trio’s plans with bloody and jokey results.
There’s a lot of plot in We Are Zombies for an 80-minute film, but the filmmaking trio of François Simard, Anouk Whissell & Yoann-Karl Whissell do an admirable job of coalescing it all together into a streamlined story that never seems unwieldy. The three streamline the story in a way that provides plenty of world-building; we get a strong notion of how the zombies have integrated into society through little visual jokes and asides.
There’s plenty of social commentary here, but the filmmakers handle it all with a light touch and allow it to sit in the background so that it never gets in the way of the fun. The core of the story is the humor, which stays a constant driver as we get a parade of nonstop jokes that mixes in bloody action in the back half when things get out of control.
For the humor, RKSS are taking tonal cues from Zombieland and Superbad as these three losers try to get theirs at first, and then just stay alive against the forces conspiring against them. The jokes tend toward the sophomoric but are never groaners, and it’s all delivered with plenty of charm by the cast. Nichi, Johns and Hill make a great team, and Rosemarie Sabor melds in perfectly when she is brought into the story as a zombie sex worker who Karl has the hots for.
Of course, not every joke lands, but that’s to be expected when you’re casting your net every chance you get for a laugh. The humor isn’t likely to work for everyone; it’s of the well-worn variety, hitting beats that you’ve heard many times before. But there are a couple of genuinely laugh out loud moments, and RKSS are adept at using their very practical, good-looking gore to comic effect.
The directing trio move things along at a brisk pace; it’s only when we shift back to the corporate dealings at Coleman when things bog down. Fortunately, those scenes are brief and just there long enough to get through the story beats they need to in order to set things up for our zeros-to-heroes. It all leads into a violence-heavy final setpiece that goes wild in all the best ways. There’s nothing revolutionary going on here, but the collective makes the most of their familiar elements (and low budget) for a wild finish to what is ultimately a very fun little flick.
