Director: Pablo Parés and Hernán Sáez
Year: 2001
Country: Argentina
Alternate Titles: Plaga zombie: Zona mutante
Genre: Zombie
Plot:
Learning of the governments' intentions, a group of survivors from a strange alien infection in their home-town finds themselves stranded back in the infected town with hordes of zombies and are forced to band together once again to defeat the creatures and get out alive.
Review:
This one was quite an improvement on the original and has a lot to really like. Like the first one, there's a lot to really enjoy here about the film's absolutely fast-paced and frenzied pace which really works quite well for this one. Almost immediately, it drops into the trio being inundated within the town borders and forced to confront the creatures out in the streets as the brawling and chasing throughout their small-town streets and into the abandoned house which starts this one off quite nicely. The scenes of them coming across the swarms in the playground or around the train-yard which all features the early mixing of the high-quality splatter with the introduction of genuinely funny comedy together which comes from their reactions to the zombies around them as well as the great swarming tactics to battle them off that gives this the kind of high-quality feel that's quite enjoyable.
The scenes of the hordes running after them through the street's buildings of their town all follow through with some nice action and enjoyment, while the scenes of the group encountering the zombies inside their house before they're captured by the government agents and are taken to the zombies' work-farm with the other survivors that becomes a great deal of fun with the series of battles occurring throughout the compound as there's a great deal of dismembering and battling that require all sorts of rather fun confrontations throughout here which makes this not only a thrilling time but also a grand showcase of some inventive and wholly gruesome gore-gags that come off exceptionally well here. Given this is all done with a much bigger and more impressive budget that doesn't look like a hindrance at all here which makes the gore and the zombies look much better and more realistic, this is enough to hold this up over it's few minor flaws.
The biggest issue here is the rather overlong and somewhat more involved storyline that makes no sense for their inclusion here beyond that extra running time, as there's no need for the film to run with the gag of them running around with the body-bag throughout the first half as that's utterly ridiculous and holds up the fighting trying to keep that secured, and that it manages to introduce the utterly lame angle with the superfan later on that's painfully obvious stretched out time that has no place at all in the film. Those segments just drag on endlessly and serve no purpose here, being quite easy to cut it all out without really affecting the movie much. As well, there's also the issue of its clumsy handling of the finale which is quite rushed and feels like way too many elements were attempted here without really making it clear what was the initial attempt here. Overall, though, there's not as much to complain about this one.
Overview: ***/5
An improvement in most technical regards over the original while still keeping the same relentless sense of fun and creativity present, this is a worthy follow-up despite it's few flaws. Give it a look if you're a fan of the original, looking for a high-energy indie zombie effort or just curious about it, while those turned off by the original should know it's a technical upgrade in every aspect before taking a chance.
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