Queens of the Dead review
Tina Romero offers up an enjoyable time at the club…even during a zombie apocalypse.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Queens of the Dead
Directed by Tina Romero
Written by Erin Judge and Tine Romero
Starring Jaquel Spivey, Katy O’Brian, Quincy Dunn-Baker, Tomas Matos, Nina West, Jack Haven, Margaret Cho and Riki Lindhome
Queens of the Dead Review
When you first hear that Tina Romero, daughter of legendary godfather of zombie films George A. Romero, will be making her feature film directorial debut with an “of the dead” movie…your mind races in a lot of directions. Is this an attempt to cash in on George’s most famous works? Will it be set in the same universe…a continuation from bloodline to storyline? Will there going to be the same cynicism about the institutions built to protect us that George wove into his projects? Mostly…you’d probably ask yourself…will it be any good?
The answers to those questions are no, no, no and yes…but we’ll go ahead and break those down in more detail. Queens of the Dead may contain zombies and a title that evokes George’s series…but it is welcomingly different in pretty much every other regard. This becomes clear right from the start. Not only is Queens of the Dead not set inside an already built (and rebuilt a few times over) George Romero landscape…his films exist inside of this one. A quick namedrop and a reference to his zombie films lets us know right away that this is its own thing. The first half hour of the movie makes sure that you get that point by doing something that George’s films never really did. See what people are like before the zombie apocalypse.
That may seem like a small thing…but it’s instantly interesting for fans of George’s series. Aside from Barbara and her brother driving up to the cemetery at the beginning of Night of the Living Dead…there isn’t a lot of focus on life (or characters) before there was no more room in Hell. We’re talking about maybe five minutes out of six movies. Tina Romero opens with a zombie attack…and then waits out the rest of Act 1 introducing the film’s characters and getting to know them before bringing the danger back to the forefront. Aside from the opening…it takes 20 minutes for the zombies to reenter the scene. It takes another ten for the main characters to be confronted with what’s happening. George’s Dead series showed us who people were in the most difficult times…but it didn’t show us much about them before that. This is different. And different is good.
The most interesting thing to me about the Dead series is how much cynicism the elder Romero found in his stories. People are worse than monsters. Institutions will fail you. Humanity keeps scraping by…but its constantly flying off into the unknown in its most hopeful moments. Tina Romero’s world is filled with good people. People who care about each other and want to survive together. It helps that it’s a horror/comedy. That’s enough to tell you that she is taking the story in a new direction. There are many funny moments in Queens of the Dead. A scene where the group tries to figure out if a friend of theirs is actually a zombie or just “on something” was my personal favorite.
While most of Queens of the Dead takes place watching the main group inside a now empty club…there is a subplot that takes place in a Hospital. It involves a character connected to the group attempting to make her way across town. It’s nice to have something to break the otherwise one-setting story…but the story in that one setting is what makes Queens of the Dead work. It’s about the people more than the apocalypse. Something that it does have in common with George’s work. The story involves a group of drag queens and their friends trying to survive a zombie outbreak. I probably should have gotten to that in the first six hundred words of this review.
Character is key in Queens of the Dead. While there is some light zombie action and plenty of comedy…it’s the characters that win the day. There are personal journeys both big and small, both metaphorical and physical, that take place within the story. Tina Romero (who also co-wrote the script) places a big emphasis on these people and their stories. They are the focus of everything…and it pays off in the end. The climax is filled with moments where Romero’s camera cuts between the different characters we’ve been watching…and you realize how much you like all of them. There isn’t an antagonist just for the sake of having one. That’s not the point of this movie. Cynicism isn’t welcome here. That’s the most refreshing thing about this next generation Romero outing.
Scare Value
When your father is George A. Romero and you name your feature film debut Queens of the Dead you’re inviting all kind of comparisons. What’s most impressive about the finished product is how unafraid it is of that fact. This isn’t your father’s Romero zombie movie…and it isn’t Tina’s father’s Romero zombie movie either. It’s something fun and refreshingly hopeful. You may not want that in your zombie film and that’s fine. I know a guy who made some of the best and most influential zombie movies of all time. His daughter made a good horror/comedy that delivers an enjoyable night at the club. Even under horrible circumstances.
3/5
Queens of the Dead Links
Get it on VOD from Fandango at Home and Amazon
