Zombie Town review.
Based on an R.L. Stine story, Zombie Town is mostly what you think it is. A gateway horror film with a strangely convoluted story by the end.
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Zombie Town
Directed by Peter Lepeniotis
Written by Peter Lepeniotis, Michael Samonek and Michael Schwartz
Starring Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Marlon Kazadi, Henry Czerny, Madi Monroe, Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulloh
Zombie Town Review
You try not to grade these things on a curve. That’s a reminder for me…not you. It can be difficult to remember, you see. Not every movie is made for everyone. When you press play on a movie like Zombie Town you know exactly what to expect. It is based on an R.L. Stine story…which means we are firmly in the realm of gateway horror here. It can be tough to separate intention from execution. The best we can do is to fuse the two together and discuss whether Zombie Town is a well-executed version of what it intends to be. It isn’t.
Reclusive director Len Carver (Dan Aykroyd) is set to release his latest zombie opus. He selects a local theater and wants the whole town to attend. When theater employee Michael (Marlon Kazadi) decides to run a special screening for his friend Amy (Madi Monroe) …the film unleashes a curse that turns the entire town into zombies. Michael and Amy seek out Carver to put an end to the zombie outbreak.
The central concept of Zombie Town is perfectly fine. Not really a surprise given Stine’s success writing the genre. The movie even attempts to pay some respect to zombie films in general. Carver is a total Romero type…a man who perfected the zombie movie and is rightfully revered for it. So much, in fact, that the town was renamed Carverville. Which…Romero never got…but he should have.
The secret to Carver’s success is that his movies are real. It’s all a part of the very convoluted lore of Zombie Town. The more that the story attempts to explain itself, the worse it gets. Chevy Chase cameos as an actor trapped in Carver’s old movie. Or something. I can guarantee you that Chase didn’t know either. The truth is that whatever Zombie Town is trying to do with its backstory doesn’t work. At all. It’s a means to an end at best…a long way around to a resolution that needs to come. I can not imagine younger audiences enjoying this aspect of the story either…so I’m not sure who it’s for.
What Zombie Town does have going for it is a decent pair of lead characters. Michael is the one person in Carverville who doesn’t care about Carver or his zombie legacy. Amy is his only friend…and he desperately wishes they were more than that. Kazadi is great in the role. Amy is a more confident character and Monroe brings that to the role. Michael and Amy manage to largely overcome the script’s weaker impulses. Their relationship is the heart of the film…and, frankly, the only aspect worth watching.
Aykroyd gives you a standard modern Aykroyd performance. He’s game for it. Chase…gives you a standard modern Chase performance. Which means he phones it in. Henry Czerny plays the theater owner turned zombie and steals every scene he is in. To be fair there is little resistance…but he’s great. Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulloch have small parts and do what they can with them. They don’t have much to work with.
You get the basic zombie scenes you expect out of a zombie movie. In that way it’s fine as a gateway horror film. Young viewers may find the classic setups interesting enough to seek out better versions of it. For anyone who has seen a zombie movie before…it’s all basic stuff aside from Czerny’s fun portrayal. The lore drags it down too. A film that turns people into zombies is a strong enough concept…they should have stopped there.
The other problem that Zombie Town has is that it is too long for what it is. It’s understood that a movie like this isn’t going to be very scary or gory. It also doesn’t have enough ideas to fill its barely over an hour and a half runtime. It runs in circles too many times. The jokes almost never land. Outside of Michael and Amy’s relationship…nothing really works. That’s not enough to make a feature out of. I’m not convinced it’s something that would keep novice zombie watcher’s attention either. Another in the long line of gateway horror movies that leave you wondering who it was made for. Will pre-teens enjoy their first taste of a zombie story? Maybe for a while. By the time Aykroyd starts explaining what’s happening, however…viewers of all ages will be ready to tap out.
Scare Value
Too slow and repetitive to hold young viewers attention…but, perhaps, a decent enough effort to attract younger viewers to a zombie story. Pacing is an issue with a slow first act and a repetitive second act. Overwritten lore dooms the third act. The cast is having fun and there are some good characters in the lead roles. You could do worse than putting Zombie Town on in the background for your kids this Halloween. You could also do a lot better.
2/5
Zombie Town Links
Streaming on Hulu
Rent/Buy on VOD from Vudu and Amazon
