Attack of the Radioactive Zombies (2023) by Michael Leo Centi

Director: Michael Leo Centi

Year: 2023

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Zombie

Plot:

After a worldwide apocalypse, a group of survivors are brought into a secretive organization with the potential to develop a cure for the whole scenario, but as they travel through the facility trying to make sense of everything a zombie outbreak causes them to try to escape from the facility alive.

Review:

This was a decent enough indie genre effort. One of the better features here is the general setup involving the creation of zombies and other undead creatures from the radiation that’s covering the planet causing the need for a society to try to find the potential cure by keeping the creatures as subjects to be experimented on so that it can continue. This encapsulates the majority of the first half where the inner workings of the facility where they conduct their research on the new recruits are shown what’s going on that features several impressive setups showing the increasingly out-of-control nature of their plans while dealing with the comically zany guests that go along with everything. With cursed tours through graveyards, incompetent scientists trying to study the effects of their mission, and the aftermath of the tour when the zombies are set free to rampage through the facility in massive swarms, there are plenty of enjoyable factors to be had with the silly action taking place throughout the house which features some fine action and effects work for what type of film this really is to give this some enjoyable factors.

There are some factors present here that bring the film down. The most obvious and overarching aspect of this one is the wholly cheap and flimsy low-budget tone present where the whole thing looks exactly like the ultra-low-budget feature it really is. With inept effects-work trying to overcome a plot that’s more ambitious than the budget, inappropriately comical reactions to what’s taking place, ineffective props, bizarre lighting, and a guerilla-style approach to everything, there’s no escaping what’s on display as it carries on throughout the whole film hitting this over the viewer’s head at every opportunity. Regardless of how much that impacts a viewer’s preference for the film, it being overlong and somewhat dull is a much more prominent and impactful issue as this one slows to a crawl at points where it focuses on more conversations than action and highlights the unnecessary length this one runs at which could’ve been trimmed down considerably to be the real issues here.

Overview: **.5/5

A solid low-budget genre effort that might not always work for everyone, there’s still enough to like here that it comes off fine as a goofy low-budget genre effort with this not being much more than that due to its issues. Those who appreciate low-budget genre efforts like this or are fans of the creative crew will be the main ones for the film as most others will be turned off by the flaws and should heed caution.