Director: Jason Lei Howden
Year: 2026
Country: New Zealand
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Zombie; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Still struggling to get through life, the young musician decides to get everything back in order the way he had earlier and decides to resurrect his former bandmates from the dead to do so, forcing them to bring their skills in dealing with the dead back to help them stop the zombie outbreak.
Review:
Overall, this was an immensely likable and enjoyable follow-up. One of the better features of this one is the incredibly silly and intriguing storyline that manages to continue the storyline from the original and expand on some of the wildly over-the-top moments throughout here. Spending the kind of time it does to spearhead his change in fortune since the previous festivities, where half of the band has been horribly killed, his relationship with his girlfriend has soured to the point of her leaving for another band altogether, and his dead-end life is a never-ending cycle of cheap beer, money woes, and general disappointment. The need to get back to what he was like when he was happy by bringing the former bandmates back and entering and entering a Battle of the Bands to get everything back together the way it used to be gives this a solid and reasonable enough setup.
That allows this to work through the same type of outrageous humor and comedy that had been employed previously and gets featured here as well. The constant nature of trying to bring the zombified band members under control, with their zombified nature constantly requiring them to consume human entrails to keep going, his constant complaints about how terribly his life has been, and taking the shortcut into bringing the dead back to life to right everything makes everything feel just as outrageously silly and goofy as the original. Offering up the kind of heartwarming moments as well, with the repeating of the couple coming back together that features the duo trying to rekindle everything despite the differences in their life since they broke up, makes all the surrounding sight gags, spilled bodily fluids, and general chaos that takes place feel all the more earned later on.
This comes to a head with a series of outrageously silly sequences showing the zombified band members ripping up random strangers and devouring their entrails in the background of numerous scenes of them rehearsing or just out on the town. This is all immensely fun, with the way it all creates the same energy and over-the-top gore in the gruesome, bloodsoaked kills, with the way it’s presented here leading into the wild finale where the reanimated zombies come back to life and attack everyone there at the festival. This allows for even more carnage to take place, with the inability to grasp what’s going on until it’s too late, and focuses on ripping everyone to pieces in exceptionally graphic ways that retain just enough effective effects work to pull off, and combined with an exceptionally enjoyable metal soundtrack, come together to give this a lot to like.
There isn’t much to dislike here at all. The main factor against this one is the generally weak series of motivations used to keep her away from the group and in the band of the other musician that is in competition with the main guy and his group. It takes way too much to try to believe that this is something she thinks is better than the reunion that’s supposed to take place here with the way it’s all presented as her being with the better option due to how the lives of each other have gone since. The difference in their musical aspirations and the change in style makes it stand out, as all it does is try to make a one-note joke last longer. On top of that, the forced remembrance of the original to recreate a lot of the call-backs and homages that take place here is quite obvious that so many of the jokes and situations are designed to do that specifically, but as these aren’t that detrimental, they don’t impact this one too much.
Overview: *****/5
An absolutely spectacular follow-up to the original, there’s so much to like here that continues the same sort of energy and style as the original that there’s enough to offset the few drawbacks present. Those with an appreciation for this style or approach, who are fans of the type of style featured here, or who enjoyed the original will have a lot to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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