Zombie Town (2023) by Peter Lepeniotis

Director: Peter Lepeniotis

Year: 2023

Country: Canada

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Zombie; Horror/Comedy

Plot:

Preparing for a massive premiere, a teen who works at a theater where the rest of the residents are obsessed with the director of the upcoming film finds himself and his friend the only ones unturned when a zombie apocalypse springs and forces them to uncover dark secrets to stop the zombies.

Review:

This was a fairly fun and generally likable genre effort. One of the finest features here is the rather involved first half that brings together the setup for what’s going on quite nicely. As we’re given a wholly intricate starting point that features not just the town’s fascination with the director and his work but the kid’s relationship with the figure who lands him in hot water with the rest of the locals at school who worship the ground he walks on for his past films, the relationship he has with the girl that paints them as the bonding couple to form a romantic friendship throughout the film, and the reasoning for what sets everything in motion, the film gets quite a few storylines out and in the mind rather quickly. Since this becomes quite heavily focused on his disdain for horror films giving him a distinct disadvantage in the situation the wilder it gets and must rely on her to help him survive the zombie plague they find themselves in.

As a result of this setup, the zombie encounters are incredibly fun and frequent due to getting them out early on. With a few minor bits throughout involving his past works showing the previous zombie films in his career, it starts to pile on the encounters far more frequently after that point as the screening of the film to get the curse started is a great touch at featuring the creatures swarming the town and making them go on the run to stop them. Although the film’s origins won’t let them defeat the zombies for good, the idea of containing or outsmarting the creatures to get away alive still leads to a great selection of confrontations within, from the theater lobby, the streets outside the theater, or the library trying to find a way of stopping everything from happening. There are a few other rather fun scenes here in the finale where the attempts to finally bring an end to it all involve several other intriguing confrontations involving the quest to stop the creatures.

That goes along nicely into the finale where this one picks up the action rather nicely. Featuring the main zombie encounters including the attack at the house where the party takes place involving their friends which comes about by the opportunity to tie into the concurrent storyline that brings about some rather enjoyable action. With this focusing on getting the zombies to be their most aggressive and threatening, there’s a lot to like here by the time it goes to feature the main overarching theme of him building up himself to be a better person. As this goes along with the series of intriguing personal choices that have to be made during this section that make for a more involved and heartwarming finish to everything, this all comes together to make for a highly effective and enjoyable kid-friendly genre effort. 

There are a few minor drawbacks on display here. The biggest issue here is that this one manages to make no sense as to why the main character goes through a distinctly unnatural and unrealistic behavior change towards the end. As the whole film had been about trying to find a way to stop the zombies and how to prevent his friends and family from turning into them, but for no real reason he switches sides to prevent that from happening simply because of his hatred for the town. While it was established he felt that way, to do so when the resolution was presented at that particular point is wildly inconsistent which forces an unnecessary diversion to then bring him back minutes later when it all could’ve been ignored if it hadn’t gone down that route.  As well, the entire toned-down feel with the kid-friendly atmosphere not allowing any of the usual genre thrills by default that some might find fault with even though it’s not a genuine flaw here.

Overview: ****/5

A fantastically fun kid-friendly genre effort, there’s quite a lot to like here which manages to hold this one up as a shining modern-day entry in the genre that does get brought down slightly by several minor drawbacks. Those who are looking for that kind of gateway-style effort or don’t mind the style will want to check this out while those who can’t get past that starting point should heed caution.