BEFORE: Well, I said I was going to watch zombie movies, but I never said they were going to be very scary ones. Linking from "Pet Sematary Two", Edward Furlong was also in "The Green Hornet" with Analeigh Tipton.
AFTER: This is a film that doesn't get all hung up on the technical aspects of zombies - where they came from, how they function, how to kill them - which turns out to be both a good and a bad thing for the film. Bad because it feels all kind of hazy and half-formed, there was some kind of virus or apocalyptic thing, but the zombies don't remember it and the humans don't seem to talk about it. I guess everyone just takes it as written and is dealing with it in their own way, but it's still very convenient from a screenwriting point of view.
But it's good because the film has other objectives. Since the story's told mostly from a zombie's point of view, and that character has limited brain function and memory, it makes sense to a certain degree - that character died because of the virus or disaster, so he wouldn't remember it. The only memories he gets to experience come from eating a human brain, and then he gets flashes of that person's life. OK, this is a bit of a stretch because people in some cultures eat cow brains and don't get to experience memories of standing around in a pasture eating grass.
But you have to take a leap in logic with zombie movies, I guess - something's keeping these creatures alive without a heartbeat or without flowing blood, so they're walking anomalies (OK, lumbering anomalies). Still, there are contradictions because the main character talks slowly and seems to process information slowly, but at times his internal voice-over monologue is at normal speed. ("Why are we walking so slowly? What did that guy do before he was a zombie?") Because I guess the movie wouldn't be as interesting if his internal thoughts were just "Uhhhhhnnnnn! Brrrrrainsssss!"
About halfway through I glommed on to what this was really riffing off of, and it's Shakespearean. The lead male character is "R" (that's all he can remember of his pre-zombie name) and the lead female is "Julie" - get it? Like Romeo and Juliet they come from two different worlds, only instead of two Italian families, one comes from the world of the living and the other, not so much. But it's sort of a reverse Shakespearean tragedy, because instead of an impossible love leading to the death of the two main characters, it's an unlikely love that causes one to start living again. Take that, Bard of Avon.
There's even a balcony scene that drives the point home, in case you missed it. Julie's friend is Perry (Paris) and R's friend is M (for Mercutio). But that's about where the similarities end - another new twist on zombies is having different kinds of zombies, some are more skeletal in nature (the "bonies") and are also more fierce. But they never say whether these are corpses who have been zombies for longer, or if these are the original zombies that infected the others, or aliens or demons or what. Again, short on technical stuff in order to focus on other things.
Also starring Nicholas Hoult (last seen in "X-Men: Days of Future Past"), Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich (last seen in "Shadows and Fog"), Rob Corddry (last seen in "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry"), Dave Franco (last seen in "Now You See Me").
RATING: 4 out of 10 Polaroids
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