Horror Movie Review: Yummy (2019)

No-one is expecting anything fresh from the zombie genre these days. All you can hope is that we at least get a serviceable if not enjoyable take on the classic shambling dead. Yummy, a zombie horror comedy, doesn’t even try to freshen up the stink of the rotting flesh. Instead taking what we all know so well and making sure it’s as good as it could be. The end result is a fun zombie-romp with a deliciously dark ending.

Alison (Maaike Neuville) has large breasts. Very large breasts and she’s had enough of pervy eyes staring at them. She, along with her boyfriend Michael (Bart Hollanders) and mother (Annick Christiaens), heads off to a seedy Eastern European hospital to have breast reduction surgery.

The early scenes are all about setting up the relationship of Michael and Alison. Her, strong-willed and him, a bit of a doe-eyed sap. His fear of blood (Hemophobia) meant he dropped out of medical school but that doesn’t stop him being unimpressed with the hospital facilities much to Alison’s frustration.

There they meet the sleazy orderly, Daniel (Benjamin Ramon) who tries to hit on Alison. The mysterious Janja (Clara Cleymans) and Dr. K (Eric Godon), who does the assessment on Alison for her surgery.

After being ushered out of the operating theatre, Daniel takes Michael into a closed section of the hospital. Michael wanders off alone while Daniel helps himself to some prescription drugs and finds a female patient tied down and in clear discomfort. He tries to help her but makes the shocking discovery that she is a zombie.

Free from her binds, she is able to attack and infect other patients resulting in a full-on pandemic. The survivors are trapped inside with the zombies and the question becomes just what has been going on at this hospital?

Alas that answer is neither that interesting or integral to the plot. We needed zombies for a zombie movie and we have them. Instead the main focus of the story is the survival of our characters and the relationship of Michael and Alison. Will he be able to deliver the proposal he has been hoping too?

They’re great. Both as actors and characters. What makes their relationship so different is that Michael is such a wet blanket that Alison’s frustrations with him spills over into our frustrations with him. Every time you think he might do some good, he inevitably screws it up in some way and this is consistent up until the very end of the movie.

Elsewhere Benjamin Ramon does a great job as the villainous sleaze-bag that is Daniel. The only flaw being the really dark direction his character goes at the end. Whereas the likes of Clara Cleymans and Eric Godon play their roles perfectly fine.

A strong cast is always a positive even if it’s not often the most important element of a zombie flick. You’re here for the gore and happily Yummy absolutely delivers on that. The zombies look great and the blood pours and the flesh flies. Chunky, gooey and grimy…it’s impressive stuff.

What’s less impressive are the comedic elements, some land and some fall flat on their face. Comedy is subjective and Yummy mixes blackness with slapstick moments (the frozen penis scene jumps to mind) but it never stops being fun.

Which is Yummy in a nutshell. A fun zombie flick that isn’t doing anything new or interesting but takes the well-worn formula and makes it memorable again.