Director: Pat Higgins
Year: 2022
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Zombie; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Struggling with a crippling phobia, a woman decides to go on a reality show designed to exploit the fear so that she can help overcome it, but when the experience turns into a zombie outbreak following a sacred ritual must bring her group together to stave off the undead hordes involved.
Review:
Overall, this was a fantastic entry with so much to enjoy about it. One of the better features of this one is the fantastic setup that provides this one with a far more heartwarming tale than expected. The initial reason to get the band of women together as cheerleaders and go on the show due to her phobia of the profession following the stories she’s been told about the grandmother that torments her into this situation makes for a fun and immensely cheesy set up to bring the group together for the show. With enough background work to showcase the group coming together and bonding over their professional ambitions the further they go in the competition which also manages to include some fun sidestories in their interactions with the other contestants.
Outside of this, the film’s sense of fun that comes about before and after the amulet comes into play releasing the zombie outbreak is immensely fun. Since the cheerleaders have spent as much as they have getting bonded together, the plight they share makes for a fun enough time here as the series of zombification of the opposing band spreads throughout the area turning everyone they come across into creatures just like them leading to encounters at the remote garage studio or the hysterical encounter at the cabin they’re rehearsing at which has some bizarre concepts alongside several insanely funny musical numbers that add a fantastically cheesy atmosphere to everything.
This all leads nicely into the wild finale where the various storylines turn into a lot of fun encounters. The initial reaction to the zombies arriving and taking over the crew into their own zombified followers sets this up incredibly well with the resulting comedy from trying to control them or the disgraced musical number they pull off trying to convince everyone they’re normal. Once the girls arrive and start to slaughter the zombies in a slew of comedic encounters playing off their bonding sessions together as well as some fantastic routines that enhance the carnage done to stop the horde from approaching them. These all come together to provide a lot to like here.
There are a few slight issues bringing this down. The main factor with the film is that it spends so much time getting to the finale where the zombies run wild that it can run a little longer getting to the more genre-focused material. Going through the bonding with the team, the interactions with the boyband trying to sabotage their rehearsals, and the other backstage politics that carry on with the competition that it can feel a bit too long in this part before getting to the zombie action which could be a factor that turns off some. Other issues, like the musical nature of the film which might not be appealing for all, and the low-budget origins found here, but these are just personal preference factors and not truly detrimental.
Overview: ****.5/5
A fun and generally charming musical zombie/comedy, there’s a lot to like here and not too many genuine flaws with most of the potential issues being personal preference keeping this down only slightly. Anyone interested in the concept or approach featured here, enjoy this type of indie effort, or are fans of the creative crew will have a lot to like with this one while only those tuned off by these factors should heed caution with it.
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