Zombie Town – In a town dedicated to and named after ‘the best horror movie director’, cinema worker Mike seems to be the only one who can’t stand zombie films. Yet when the reclusive director delivers his first new film in decades an ancient curse is unleashed. Can Mike and Amy survive where everyone has been turned into zombies long enough to rescue the town? 

Zombie Town (2023) – Director: Peter Lepeniotis

Rating: 12

Running Length: 92  minutes

Starring: Marlon Kazadi, Madi Monroe, Dan Ackroyd, Chevy Chase

Genres: Horror, Comedy

REVIEW: ‘ZOMBIE TOWN’

Writer R.L Stine is known for a large output of books, most famously the ‘Goosebumps’ series. While ‘Fear Street’ on Netflix got stuck into some gnarly adult horror, ‘Goosebumps’ has always been a cackling and mostly child-friendly franchise (and made into successfully movies, check out our reviews here and here) and trawling his extensive back catalogue for more horror comedy seems like a no braaaaaaains-er.

Sadly, ‘Zombie Town’ is barely horror nor comedy. Following pretty much the same format as Goosebumps (author of successful fiction must fight against his own fiction brought to life’), ‘Zombie Town’ is let down in virtually all areas: the characters are dull and one-dimensional; the plot has nothing approaching any tension or excitement; and the actors involved are either bland or embarrassingly wooden. Kazadi (Mike) tries to work with his generic ‘put upon teen with a crush’ character but has little to work with besides an unexplained constant need to pee. The less said about Dan Ackroyd and Chevy Chase (both of which are barely in the film and who are barely present when they are) the better.

There are a few chuckles to be had throughout. The zombies barely constitute a threat but do mug the camera for laughs at times, with cinema owner Richard (Henry Czerny) a particularly polite treat. Although the humour is generally insipid and lacking in character chemistry you could make a for ‘Zombie Town’ being a movie for children if it wasn’t for the averagely frightening ‘soul suck’ scenes which put the movie beyond pre-teens.

With a movie that is not scary or funny enough for older audiences and a bit too scary for younger audiences ‘Zombie Town’ is left garnering about the amount of attention that went into it: a slow shuffling shrug.

CONTENT: IS ‘ZOMBIE TOWN’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

An introductory voice over states that ‘zombies aren’t real’ and ‘it’s just a movie’. We switch to two teen girls running through a graveyard at night away from slow moving zombies. The image is very ‘filmic’ with screen scratches and flickers. They flee into a mausoleum. A zombie grabs one of the girls. We see the shot from behind her head (and facing the zombies) as its eyes and mouth light up, she screams, and a wind blasts her hair everywhere. Once the screaming and lights stops, she slowly turns around and we see that she has been transformed into a zombie. The scene cuts to a news piece to camera where the anchor explains the scene we just watched was from a movie. This scene sets the tone and if you are watching with someone who doesn’t like it then it is not advised to watch the rest of the film.

A cheesy zombie movie trailer plays. There are quick shots of zombies with clearly fake blood on them and some quick but not gruesome zombie special effects work.

After Mike appears to have damaged the movie theatre’s projector, Amy says, “You are so f”d” (we haven’t censored this, she says the letter ‘f’ followed by ‘d’ but the implication of the word she means is clear).

A character has been turned into a zombie although Mike and Amy are unaware at first. As they approach it, it growls in a low moan at them. Three teens who are the ultra committed Len Carver fan club have also been turned into zombies. They shuffle into shot before a police car pulls in front of them. The cop is the father of one of the teens who chastises him. However, he is grabbed by his zombie son who roars as his eyes and mouth glow, like in the scene from the film at the start. The cop’s ‘soul’ is sucked from his mouth and consumed by the zombie teen, until the cop is also turned into a zombie. This part of the scene is loud and lasts around 10 seconds.

There is a jump scare in the bike shop where a zombie lunges out of a back door. It is hit on the head with a spanner. The zombie reacts in a comical ‘ow’ manner before falling, knocked out.

There is another zombie jump scare in the back of a police car.

A character goes home to check on a loved one. However, they are upset to find out that person has also been turned into a zombie. The zombie’s eyes and mouth glow as they attack the character although this scene ends quickly. The upset is not lingered upon.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘ZOMBIE TOWN’ FOR KIDS?

Whilst ‘Zombie Town’ is hardly scary, the few ‘glowing eyes and mouth’ zombie attack scenes could be frightening for younger viewers. As mentioned earlier, as there is an example of this within the first 5 minutes you will quickly get a gauge for whether or not to continue. This is a movie generally aimed at a pre-teen to teen audience despite being a bit dull for that age range. Due to a handful of mildly scary scenes we would recommend ‘Zombie Town’ as suitable for age 8 and up.

• Violence: 1/5 (comical in nature throughout)
• Emotional Distress: 1/5 (a character is upset that their loved one has been turned into a zombie)
• Fear Factor: 2/5 (the zombie attack ‘soul suck’ scenes are infrequent but could frighten, there are general ‘horror movie’ posters all over the place with mildly scary faces and scenes)
• Sexual Content: 0/5
• Bad Language: 1/5 (two uses of ‘piss’ to mean urination)
• Dialogue: 1/5 (mild threats)
• Other Notes: deals with themes of teenage crushes, overcoming childhood fears, obsessive fandom, not meeting your heroes, and protecting those you care about

Words by Mike Record