2025 Queens of the Dead

• Directed by: Tina Romero
• Written by: Erin Judge, Tina Romero
• Stars: Jaquel Spivy, Kay O’Brian, Quincy Dunn-Baker
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-x1SLdFwgM

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s drag queens, with their friends and family, versus a zombie outbreak. Holed up in a club against the backdrop of a larger apocalypse, there’s a lot of humor with a body count that racks up. The pacing is a little draggy in places, and the zombie action is pretty low for most of the movie, but it’s a fun watch.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on an over-the-top drag queen walking down the street on the way to church. When she goes into the church, her Grindr alert goes off. She finds the man’s phone, but it’s covered in blood. Then she finds him, but he doesn’t look quite alive anymore. She’s bitten by the zombie priest. Credits roll.

We cut to a musical number interspersed with scenes of a dancing nurse, Sam, at the hospital. Sam talks to Jane, a patient with issues, who wants to leave.

On the stage, Kelsey and Ginsey argue with dancers in the show. Yasmine phones Dre that she’s too sick to do the show tonight, but she’s obviously faking it. Jax and Nico are dancers, and they’re elevens on the gay scale. Jane watches their livestream and tells Sam about it. Sam knows Yasmine and Dre, but that was another time. Jane wants to meet all of them and tell them they’ve got bad drugs. Nurse Lizzy tells Dre that Barry is coming over to unplug her toilet. There’s a lot going on.

Everyone’s ready for the big show, and Dre breaks the news that Yasmine’s not coming tonight, so Ginsey will have to headline the act. Nico’s more than willing to step up. They’ve pre-sold a ton of tickets, but hardly anyone has shown up. Barry gets all the pronouns mixed up. When Sam shows up, just as a guest, everyone knows him. Sam used to be “Samonsay,” a major drag star.

Barry finds a dead rat in the toilet and takes it out to the garbage. As he’s out there, we see that a pre-credit drag queen stumbles in.

Sam tells Ginsey why he’s been out of action for a while. It was stage fright, and he just couldn’t do it anymore. He starts to change into his costume, but then chickens out again. Barry gets a bit of news on his phone about disturbing events in Manhattan. Out on the dance floor, the zombie queen starts looking for people to eat. Barry grabs an axe, but it’s Kelsey who gets hacked. Things go South from there.

Sam goes into nurse mode and works on Kelsey’s chopped-up leg. Dre tries to call an ambulance and gets a busy signal for 911. Then a shelter-in-place alert sounds over all their phones. Everyone argues about what’s going on, but it’s all over the news and social media, so they don’t argue long. Jimmy, the bar owner, has some weapons hidden. The Mayor, Tom Savini, comes on and tells everyone to stay home, “This is not a George Romero movie!”

At the hospital, Jane and Lizzy see that it’s happening there as well. A man in a bloody bunny suit attacks them.

At the club, Jax the dancer is clearly a zombie now, and the others all see what he’s become. They all argue some more about what to do about him. They lock him in a dancer’s cage. Next, they catch Yasmine sneaking in through the window. Jimmy is pulled out the window and bitten.

The front door is cut open, and new people come in, led by Pops, Kelsey’s girlfriend and fiancée. She mentions a boat waiting for them. Dre wants to wait for Lizzy to arrive, but most of the rest want to go to the boat. A zombie stumbles in, and she drills him through the head.

Sam and Dre put Jimmy in the freezer and talk about how he’s changed. After consulting a paper map, several of the group decide to go for a truck, but first, they all change their outfits. Nico, Sam, and Ginsey all dress up to go out on electric scooters.

The group makes its way through the horde of zombies, who are mostly interested in their phones. Sam and Ginsey talk about acceptance and the need for approval. They’re attacked, and with her dying words, Ginsey encourages Sam to be himself.

Back at the club, there are now zombie rats, and they get Pops. Dre turns on the music to distract everyone, and they dance. Lizzy and Jane have been trapped in a car, Nico’s trapped outside as well, but all the zombies hear the loud music and head toward the club. Meanwhile, Barry tells Dre that Lizzy is pregnant, which she did not know.

Sam returns to the club, and he’s got a plan. We get a montage of the group doing various things that might have something to do with the plan. When they’re ready, they open all the doors and let the dead in. Once the dance floor is full of zombies, Samonsea makes her return to the stage with Yasmine and Barry’s backup.

Everyone makes it out the back door just as Lizzy, Jane, and Nico drive up in a parade float. They all drive away to the boat, trailed by the zombies.

Brian’s Commentary

As you might guess, it’s full of gay, trans, and drag queen jokes, and some are really good. Most of the good laughs are in listening to the various characters’ reactions to the weirdness going on. All the characters get good scenes, and the dialogue is mostly hilarious.

The zombie makeup is fun, although nothing serious. There’s surprisingly little gore involved. It never slows down, and it never gets boring. The jokes mostly drop away in the final half hour as the zombies start getting more serious, but it stays entertaining throughout.

Fun!

Kevin’s Commentary

Director and co-writer Tina Romera is a daughter of George A. Romero – zombies run in the family. The one liners are abundant in this, and the humor is one of the best parts of the movie. The zombie action is actually kind of low-key for much of the movie, with it more of a thing in the background. I thought it was a fun one.