by Nathan Tyler
(Reprinted from Rue Morgue #32, April, 2003)
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by Nathan Tyler
(Reprinted from Rue Morgue #32, April, 2003)
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Screw Survivor and The Real World - the most entertaining reality television viewing has always been Cops, what with its glorious spectacle of feces-splattered crack hoes and other shining images of po' trash culture ("I isn't drunk Ociffer..."). Oh, and those cool "caught on tape" shows in which curious folk are always getting torn to shreds by ferocious beasts, too. Looking at When Zombies Attack, a half-hour spoof and satire of both featuring flesh-eating zombies, it's safe to say first-time filmmakers Chad Waters and Matt Rose feel the same way.In When Zombies Attack, we ride along with Officer Frank Hadely (Frank Rydberg, in a deliriously deadpan turn) and his crew of diehard peace officers, the P.M.A.C. (Post Mortem Animation Control), an agency dedicated to ridding communities of the undead. The task force tracks down the pesky "wakers" as they mindlessly stumble through swimming pools and public parks, then are promptly taken care of via a bullet to the cranium - all the while the cops spout discourse such as "Pops like a cherry tomato!" and "There's one thing I've learned about these things: you don't put up with their bullshit."
What makes Zombies so much fun is that - even with scenes of "zombie tipping" - it's all executed with a poker face; the fact that they're not laughing makes you laugh even harder. There are some damn good scenes here with some hilarious gags, so much so that this would've been wonderful as a full-on feature film - just add a couple of subplots, a crazy character or two and you're there... then again, the movie's carbon-copy structure of what it is spoofing would've been all but lost. That said, I think the writer/directors made the right choice here. And it's a brave one.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of When Zombies Attack is the fact that it doesn't wear out its welcome; the joke doesn't get old, which is more than can be said for most indie horrors, even ones shorter than this. Also notable - to us horror geeks, anyway - is the film's thematic connection to George A. Romero's oft-rumored fourth Dead movie; the zombies here are portrayed as more of a droll hindrance than some horrific epidemic. It's a fun take on things, a fertile canvas for satire and social commentary, however facetious the film is. It's also one of the most original (and successful) parodies the genre has seen in quite some time.
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