- Directed by Rodman Fletcher
- Written by Mike Herro, David Strauss
- Stars Jake Cannavale, Angelique Rivera, Sarah Yarkin
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 27 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK611womtOU
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A gross-out comedy with horror elements or a horror movie with comedy? This one is kind of in between. It’s got buckets of blood, excellent practical effects, a strong cast, and decent script. An overall win.
Synopsis
We are told by our narrator that a zombie virus has spread around the country. A small, covert force was deployed to contain it. They were recruited due to their special skills. No one knows how the virus started. It’s sexually transmitted.
We cut to a pair of young people who are about to have sex. Neither of them looks like a zombie, so it’s OK, right? Jake then eats his girlfriend Amanda– nope, just a dream. Jake wakes up to be tormented by his sister.
He goes to school and we see that Amanda has no real-world interest in Jake, she’s into Chazz. We soon see that Amanda is good at picking locks. They have to watch a “safe sex” video in Health class. The film is called “Jake’s Mistake,” and Jake is the star of the film. What did he smoke this morning? They get notices about a bunch of missing dogs lately. He then watches Amanda tear off another girl’s face with her teeth. Jake gets all red-eyed and does the same thing. It’s a bad day in the school cafeteria– unless you like human meat. Suddenly Amanda sees Jake, and they have lunch together.
Cass is our narrator, and this is where she comes in, part of an elite unit called the “Necrotic Control Division.” Tom is her partner. They call zombies Necros because it makes them sound smarter. Cass’s eyes turn white in a psychic trance, and she watches a flashback of what happened.
Jake and Amanda wake up, covered in blood. They steal a car, but they’re spotted almost immediately by Cass and Tom. Tom shoots Jake, but Amanda bites Cass. Jake asks Cass if she’s OK– he’s not the typical zombie, which confuses Cass. Suddenly, two girls in a car drive up and rescue Jake and Amanda. They are Summer and Grace, and they’re zombies too. They explain that hunger and fear are what usually triggers the zombie-action. Eating live meat puts it into a brief remission. “It just comes and goes like Herpes of the undead?” asks Jake. Yep, that’s it. Summer and Grace explain how it all works, and they have a rapist and pedophile tied up in the closet for snacking on later. The four zombies eat the pedophile like a really messy Thanksgiving dinner.
We see that Cass can read minds, and also make them forget. She changes all the witnesses’ memories to make them think the zombie outbreak was only a school shooting– because that’s OK. When she interrogates Chazz, he turns into a zombie and attacks them. She stops him with her mind. Dr. Alastaire looks her over and says she’s a very powerful telepath. Alastair is dissecting and experimenting on Chazz now. Cass seems to be protecting Jake because she knows there’s something unusual about him. Plus he’s cute. Tom warns Cass not to lie to Alastair again.
Alastair explains that he’s developed a way to train and control the Necrotics. He shares DNA with Chazz now to allow him to control the zombie. He offers to do the same with Jake for Cass to use as she pleases. He knows she’s lying to him, and he forces her to divulge Jake’s location. She does manage to warn Jake to leave psychically.
Amanda wants to leave and find her brother, who claimed to know all about zombies in Iowa. She thought he was crazy, but now she’s a believer. The team goes to the house and kills Summer and captures Grace; Amanda and Jake are already gone.
Jake and Amanda have an ethical discussion about who they should be eating. They become zombie bounty hunters, eating pedophiles, nazis, and clowns; only the worst of the worst. Meanwhile, Cass wonders if her crush on Jake makes her a necrophiliac. Jake and Amanda try to have sex, but Cass mentally makes Jake puke all over Amanda.
They soon make it to Amanda’s brother Kyle’s house. He knows a guy who claims to have found a cure in Iowa. Cass finally agrees to help Tom capture Jake. Alistair and Chazz come along to assist. As Amanda and Jake actually finally have sex, Chazz bursts in on them.
There’s a big fight; Amanda kills Tom and is captured; Jake gets away; Chazz gets beat up. Alistair tries to mind-control Cass, but Kyle stabs him in the foot. Cass and Jake run into each other in the woods and team up to save Amanda.
The pair then have to break into the NCD base. Cass uses her abilities to fool the guards. Jakes wants to use one of Grace’s finger bones to pick the lock, but Amanda talks him into using a lockpick instead. They release the other zombies from their cages to battle the NCD guys. Cass turns Chazz against Alastair.
Jake, Amanda, and Cass make plans to continue to Iowa to look for the cure. On the way, they run into a whole zombie gang and– end credits.
Commentary
There’s a lot of really funny stuff here, but there’s enough action and gore to make it more than just a dumb comedy. It was based on a novel, so I have no idea how that story goes, but there’s certainly room here for a sequel.
The production values are very high, the actors are good, the plot flows well, and the jokes aren’t too cringeworthy. Overall, I thought it was pretty good.