The perpetrators responsible for the frequently hilarious and utterly mind-boggling ILLEGAL ALIENS are threatening the Earth again with ZOMBIE TOWN…
Produced by the team behind ILLEGAL ALIENS and written and directed by that film’s DP, Damon Lemay, ZOMBIE TOWN is another fairly amusing twist on an oft-exploited sub-genre. This time, instead of remodeling the ‘hot chick action-Sci-Fi’ flick, they skewer the good ol’ American Zombie flick.
Starring newcomer Adam Hose and fiesty ingenue Brynn Lucas (the upcoming Vampire flick LAST CALL BEFORE SUNSET), ZOMBIE TOWN tells the tale of a, well, town full of… zombies. When small town mechanics Jake and Denton LaFond (Hose and Phil Burke) stumble onto a mountaintop cabin massacre, apparently caused by rampaging cannibal hillbillies, they unwittingly speed up the advance of some kind of crazy space slug that causes the perfectly lovely townsfolk of their little town to become blood-starved zombie hordes. Eventually, Jake, his scientist ex-girlfriend (Lucas) and a sarcastically funny townie gun-nut (Dennis Lemoine, stealer of scenes in ILLEGAL ALIENS and the fantastic short film JACK MILTON: FAIRY TALE DETECTIVE) end up being the only thing standing between the parasitic outbreak and total annihillation!
While the plot is standard backwoods Zombie outbreak, mixed with liberal smatterings of SLITHER and CABIN FEVER, the bizarre setups and jokey script make all the difference. When Hose and Lemoine bust into an infected bingo hall and face down a swarm of zombified grannies, Lemoine snarkily remarks “Its like a goddamn Grandma massacre in here!” then proceeds to unload his shotgun into an old lady. It’s that kind of dry roasted humor and irreverent spirit that seperate ZOMBIE TOWN from the other 8,000 straight-to-disc zombie flicks out there. The leads are decent, with Hose and Lucas showing some chemistry and, Lucas in particular, some real charisma. Lemoine steals the show from the moment he appears on-screen (hustling pool) through massacring half the town with a grin and a swagger. He’s destined to be a phenomenal character actor and, hopefully, we’ll see him again soon.
It is certainly more RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD than 28 DAYS LATER, but it is still rooted and restrained by the limits and conventions of the low-budget DTV feature. Some of the effects are cheezy, the supporting acting is pretty stinted here and there, the carnage is small-scale and, while it is very funny, it’s not a straight-out comedy like SHAUN OF THE DEAD. That having been said, this is still worlds better than most DTV crap on the shelves and a definite treat for Zombie fans, B-movie fans and anybody looking for something different at the VHQ on a Saturday night.
ZOMBIE TOWN is available from our old pals at MTI Home Video in original full-screen with 5.1DDS audio, a making-of and effects featurette, trailers and more.
Check out the trailer right here, right now.
