A Surprisingly Somewhat OK Zombie Flick

So, there are certain zombie movies which, at first glance, would appear to have no chance in heck of being anywhere near "good"....
In fact, even though I'm a devoted fan of the genre, I'd say that MOST zombie movies are total crap. Made by amateurs who aren't serious about the art (or especially talented), such films crowd the Netflix library and waste hours of my time.


One way to tell if a zombie flick is gong to be terrible is often its title. Does the movie have a goofy name? Then, it's probably got a goody plot, as well (and in a BAD way). I know it sounds overly simplistic, but it's true.

Now, here comes Ahh! Zombies!, a film from Matthew Kohnen. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking something like, "A movie called 'AHH ZOMBIES'??? It can't POSSIBLY be worth half a darn!" Am I right?

And that's not unreasonable of you. I mean, why would a filmmaker give his project such a ridiculous title if he wanted anyone to take it seriously on any level? CERTAINLY, Ahh! Zombies! will be a load of crap. For goodness sake, it's got exclamation points in its title!


But, amazingly, I found this picture to be somewhat OK. Let's take a look.

Ahh! Zombies! (2007)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1027762/



Netflix description:
Finally, a film emerges with the courage to tell a zombie story from the perspective of the undead themselves. Wasting Away focuses sympathetically on a group of zombies just beginning to grasp the implications of their horrific new existence. Writer-director Matthew Kohnen's comedic nightmare combines wit and absurdity in its novel approach to the zombie genre, revealing the suffering of a neglected monster minority.


In one sense, Ahh! Zombies! is a standard zombie tale -- it's got a military experiment gone wrong; a horde of undead overrunning a small community; a ragtag gang of victims struggling to make it through the chaos....

Of course, in THIS case, the ragtag gang of victims is actually the friggin' ZOMBIES.

Indeed, this flick takes on the zombie genre by telling its story from the perspective of the zombies themselves.

See, the story begins on an army base. Some scientists inject a random private with a glowing green serum that's been engineered to create the perfect "super soldier." Needless to say, the experiment goes awry, and this serum ends up turning the test subject into a rampaging, bloodthirsty zombie. He attacks some doctors; other soldiers shoot him; the situation is apparently contained; yada yada yada....

(You gotta hand it to these movie military guys. They sure are persistent with the "genetically altered super soldier" concept.)

STILL, it's little surprise when that deadly serum somehow winds up finding its way outside of the military base's confines. One thing leads to another, and a foursome of college-age revelers in the town nearby consumes it by mistake. See, these folks (Mike, Vanessa, Tim, and Cindy) are committed party animals -- typical young American binge drinkers with little regard for the consequences of their actions. In fact, they've got SO little regard for the consequences of their actions that they casually drink a mysterious, neon green liquid when it falls in their laps on the off-chance that it will get them intoxicated! Pretty hard core, eh?


The kids are immediately are transformed into (you guessed it!) zombies. However, there's a catch: they don't KNOW that they're zombies. See, the fact that they mixed the super solider serum with beer somehow alters its effects, and instead of becoming mindless, shuffling corpses, they become totally sentient, reasonable, and rather wacky, half-human, half-undead zombie hybrids. Get it?

Basically, these four kids look and SEEM just like dangerous, run of the mill zombies to everybody except themselves. Therefore, when regular humans see them, they freak the heck out and open fire.


Our heroes eventually realize what's happened (when they start losing body parts, etc), and attempt to rally all of the other local zombies for a sort of rebellion against the world of the living. I mean, they're under attack at all times; what did you expect them to do?!? The military has fanned out across town to take down the undead menace, and area yokels are assembling hunting parties. The zombies have little choice but to fight back and try to escape.

So....

WILL our zombie friends outsmart their human hunters? CAN they find a secluded place deep in the wilderness to start their own undead colony far away from their living tormentors?? WHAT will they do when decomposition sets in???


Above all, Ahh! Zombies! is a comedy. Really, it's a character-driven, shtick-laden sort of comedy that merely uses the whole zombie concept as a plot device. Our four main characters have distinct personalities and personal issues to work out when we meet them. One of the dudes has a crush on one of the chicks; one of the chicks has a dispute with her overbearing parents, etc....Truth told, these folks could probably have been the heroes in a movie that didn't involve zombies at all. I kind of...LIKED them...even the obnoxious class clown sort of guy who never stops cracking wise. He sort of reminded me of the hilarious web comedian Michael Swaim, and despite his annoying mannerisms, I wished him well (until, that is, he jumped the shark by getting decapitated and becoming a mere talking, severed head -- that was just going too far).

Not only is the banter between these characters somewhat amusing, but Ahh! Zombies!, AS A FILM, is occasionally innovative. For example, when normal humans come across our heroes, the movie switches to black and white and shows the undead as the living folks see them -- moaning, and not talking; stumbling, and not walking; hideously rotting, and not more-or-less in tact and attractive....It was a fairly effective technique.

And the film LOOKS decent, too, which is rare for something of its ilk. I mean, usually, a crappy, half-baked zombie comedy will be shot on some low-grade digital video. It will look so bad that a viewer couldn't possibly take it seriously. Ahh! Zombies!, however, almost appears to have been shot on real film! Combine that with the fact that the sound is perfect, the effects are passable, and the lighting (for once) doesn't suck, and you've got yourself a zombie flick that's technically above the grade.


Now, all of this isn't to say that Ahh! Zombies! is perfect. In fact, far from it -- this film only SEEMS worthy of praise because...well...it's a lower-end zombie picture that isn't absolute crap. It beats the standard set by others like it; it's helped by a bell curve. Without that going for it, the film would be merely half-OK. I'm judging it based on what it is here, friends.

So, in the end, Ahh! Zombies! is a mostly watchable, vaguely charming, and even slightly intelligent, little zombie tale. I liked that it tells its story from the undead perspective (kinda like the fantastic novel, Zombie, Ohio), and I really wish it had stuck with its alternate title, Wasting Away. Maybe if that had been the case, this motion picture would have received the modest amount of attention that it probably deserves.

Give it a rental, why don't ya?

3 out of 5.

b.