This was a screener that I got the chance to see thanks to Justin Cook. I'll be honest, I'm not always the biggest comedy/horror fan. I prefer when those are reversed. It can also be a difficult blend to ensure that you have a good balance. Now I didn't realize until settling in that this was based on a popular, interactive play. I also didn't know that it was produced by Weekly World News, a magazine that I used to get when I was growing up.
Synopsis: the first-ever wedding between a human bride and zombie groom. The human guests need to learn how to behave. Weekly World News reporters cover the wedding - while trying to get out alive.
Now we start this at the wedding from the synopsis. Things are getting out of hand as the zombies are attacking. We then go into the past to show what led to this event. Our lead couple is Ashley Morgan (Deepti Menon) and she is dating Zack Porter (Donald Chang). She works for the local government where she presents information. Her boss is Mayor Fanucci (Vincent Pastore). He is ready to leave for the day so he wraps up the meeting. Also here is Ashley's friend Nikki Klein (Krystina Alabado). She scolds a guy who has had a crush on her since high school, Koko (Jay DeYonker).
Ashley gets picked up from work by Zack. He gets out to say hi to Koko, who secretly hates him. It should also be pointed out; a local mail carrier has become a zombie. He watches from across the street as this couple leaves. Something else to point out here, zombies are a thing. There is the Zombie Control Center who is aware of them. They developed a 'brain substitute' to keep them from attacking and spreading the virus. The outbreak here is thought to be created by bedbugs.
This shifts over to the WWN headquarters. There is a reporter, Elsa Wolf (Christine Spang) who is assigned to work with Frank Lake (Mu-Shaka Benson). They both seem to be award winning, before coming to work here. They also used to date, but it didn't end well. The two now take shots at each other. They're asked to go to Vineland, New Jersey, where this outbreak has started.
Zack proposes to Ashley, which should be a happy event. He asks her in a cemetery though which is weird. They also don't seem to be on the same page. He wants to get married and move to start their lives. She promised her parents that she'd stay in Vineland. It gets even worse when Ashley's parents, Buddy Bob (Kevin Chambers) and Betty (Siobhan Fallon Hogan), meet his mother, Cindy (Cheri Oteri). They don't see eye to eye on the plans. Buddy Bob is ready to pay for everything, but that means the ceremony will be at the local Elk's Club. Cindy is rich due to her husband passing away, so she's also willing to pay. That means she also takes over the planning.
There's another issue here. Zack and his friends are attacked at the bar by zombies. This turns them into one. The parents see this as a chance to call off the wedding, but Ashley still loves him. He feels the same way. He doesn't want to infect her though. They decide to continue with the ceremony, which then catches the attention of WWN. Elsa and Frank are asked to cover it. The ZCC also sends a unit to the town, led by Sue Wee (Heather Matarazzo), to keep the zombie population in line.
That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start would be that this movie is cleverer than I originally thought. There are allegories and comparisons being made with this zombie outbreak. We also get a good heart with things that develop and happen as this goes along. There were just problems that I had with this and how it was done unfortunately.
Let's start with the positives. The first thing is that this feels like it borrows from The Return of the Living Dead. Both are zombie comedies. The zombies in both films can think and reason. This would be even closer though to a movie that hit Screambox this year in We Are Zombies. They are easily able to coexist with humans. In the world of this movie, they have been for years. It is interesting that they're almost seen as a new 'race' of people that are still an extreme minority. Something funny is that in the world of this film, WWN tells real stories and the zombie fringe has been ignored where they're reporting on it. It is a fun riff on the 'fake news' idea.
Another good thing here is that the zombie outbreak has talking points that were used during COVID and the pandemic. That was a good touch there. Now clearly this outbreak is much worse, since anyone infected becomes a zombie. There is the idea that COVID changes things within people and makes certain ailments worse. That is in line with what we're getting here. I did find that creative for sure.
The last part of the story I wanted to touch on would be the heart this movie has. There's a commentary here about how parents take over wedding planning. A part of this is that when they're paying for it, I completely understand why they would want a say. If I'm paying for something that expensive, I would too. The message here though is stepping over your place and keeping in mind that this is the two getting marrieds' special day.
Where I want to shift to then would be filmmaking. I thought that this was made well enough. The cinematography and framing were decent. This did feel like a stage play. It doesn't have the biggest budget and it is reflected here. No glaring issues per say though. The effects were an issue. The look of the zombies was odd to me. I will give them credit though for doing their own thing with a subgenre that is oversaturated. There is also CGI here that wasn't great, especially with blood spray. The soundtrack was also fine. My last thing is going to be with the tone. Being a comedy, it didn't necessarily work for me. It made me chuckle at times so I'll credit that.
Let me then finish out with the acting. The big thing here was getting the likes of Oteri, Chambers, Hogan, Seth Gilliam, Matarazzo and Pastore. The comedy from this group is the best. Oteri and Hogan with their bickering was funny. Chambers is out to lunch which made me chuckle. Gilliam just going off the rails as Reverend Harry Crump was fun. I will then give credit to Chang and Menon. They bring good heart to the tone of the film. The acting is fine here. They don't have a large budget and it worked well enough.
In conclusion, as you can tell I came into this one with low expectations. I'll give credit that there were things about this that I enjoyed. There is good heart here. The comparisons to infectious diseases, allegories and the heart behind the message were good. I'll even give props with the world created. The acting is fine. This got me to chuckle at times, but on the whole, it didn't work for me. If you like comedy/horror, especially zombies I would say give this a watch. If not, avoid this one.
My Rating: 5.5 out of 10.
