Director: Sean King
Year: 2025
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Zombie
Plot:
Traveling around for their wedding, a newlywed couple is stranded in a bizarre, strange small-town community that begins to point to something being decidedly off about the citizens, eventually forcing them to discover the truth about the town and their zombified problems.
Review:
Overall, this was a decent enough attempt at the genre. Among the better aspects found here is a solid and far more enjoyable setup than expected, which makes everything feel quite off as time goes on. The innocuous nature of their arrival and the subsequent means of integrating themselves to the other locals there, from the various comments about not wanting technology around, the series of interactions with the car mechanic trying to run them out of town, and the forced separation when they’re forced to stay at the one woman’s house, paint a solid picture of something strange and eerie going on in the community. The entire thing feels as if a secret nature of some kind is kept, and they’re not privy to sharing anything with the out-of-towners, being decidedly vague about what’s going on but doing plenty of gesturing or comments about something going on and not outright saying it.
Given that this all makes the group quite likable as the dual storyline involves them wandering the streets looking for each other with the locals, there’s a lot to like here involving the slow realization of the zombies running wild in the town. The nonchalant nature of everyone aware of the zombies, in addition to the strange energy of the town in general, helps make the burgeoning story all the more engrossing as they discover the history of the town and the experience that slowly becomes apparent, leading into a wholly enjoyable twist reveal which comes about. This does tend to unravel a lot of the horror and tension, but creates a great comedic impression when everything comes out and helps to be quite impactful at helping to establish their relationship with each other as a driving force in the story, where it creates more of a lighthearted tone than anything else, and overall creates enough to like here to hold it up.
There are some issues here that keep this one down. The main factor against this one is the wholly slow-going storyline that keeps everything far more low-key than what should be expected. This one manages to keep the zombie threat so hidden that it’s somewhat possible to believe there’s nothing actually there, with focus on the vagueness of the central setup more in league with keeping this one long on build-up but short on action, with it being nearly forty minutes before the zombie attacks start in earnest. Those looking for more of an over-the-top selection of encounters filled with ravenous scenes of the undead ripping people apart will be disappointed with there not being anything like that anywhere in the film, since the titular creation is designed to stop them without this turning into a gorefest. That might also be another big factor here, where the lack of big, spectacle-inducing content associated with the genre could be seen as off-putting and drag this one down overall.
Overview: ***.5/5
An enjoyably silly and likable indie zombie comedy, there’s a lot to like here with some unique elements that not only give it a great touch but might also be the one factor that keeps it down. Those with an appreciation for this style of genre fare, who are curious about it, or don’t mind the issues here, will have a lot to like, while most others turned off by these factors should heed caution.
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