Horror Movie Review: Ibiza Undead (2016)

Ibiza Undead is a horror comedy about zombies… unsurprisingly. It puts a group of young people in the middle of a zombie outbreak on the party island of Ibiza.

Zombies are a fact of life in Ibiza Undead, the virus spread & we’ve learnt how to live with it. No-one gets across a border without being checked for signs of infection. Ibiza club owner Karl (played by Matt King – Super Hans for all you Peep Show lovers out there) attempts to smuggle a large contingent of zombies to the island to be podium dancers but the ‘cargo’ ends up in the sea near the island.

Meanwhile, Alex, Az & Jim are heading off to party hard on the island. The trio are effectively led by Jim, an over-weight & obnoxious git who thinks every girl really wants to sleep with him. He’s both the worst & the best character throughout the movie. Annoying & very difficult to like but the only character you’re going to remember by the end.

At the same time, we have Zara, Liz (the older sister of Alex) & Ellie also going to the island. Ellie is the ex-girlfriend of Alex & the two aren’t on good terms as he desperately wants to win her back. Something that constantly annoys the hell of Jim…when he’s not trying to get in Liz’s pants.

The two groups arrive at the island & set about having a wild time…sort of. Unsurprisingly the three lads struggle to make an impact with the female population. It doesn’t really matter though as the ‘cargo’ has crawled ashore & started chowing their way through the party-goers.

Unfortunately for Karl, things also go badly in his club as the zombie podium dancers he does have start attacking the crowd. Suddenly getting laid is the last thing on the minds, instead it’s just a desperate attempt to survive…while possibly getting laid.

Ibiza Undead wants to be so many different things. It wants to be Shaun of the Dead mixed with The Inbetweeners with a little of Gavin & Stacey’s heart thrown in but it manages to get most of it wrong. For starters, it’s just not funny. Sex jokes mixed with the undead has been done to death, literally. It’s puerile at times & mostly groan-worthy stuff.

As horror comedies go it is severely lacking in the actual comedy department. It does make up for that with the zombies though. The make-up is good & there are some nice gross-out moments involving them. The blood flows freely & no character is safe (although a few more being bumped off would have been nice).

The main cast do a decent job but a lot of the secondary characters are cringe-worthy with their dialogue delivery. The gun-toting cab driver is a particular low point & a ‘show me your boobs’ scene goes on for far too long.

The side story of Karl getting his comeuppance is kind of fun & it’s interesting to see Matt King play a proper bad guy. Ibiza Undead is hardly the worst zombie comedy you’ll ever see but it’s so far from what it thinks it is.

(Maybe worth watching to see Alex Zane become a zombie…well, even more of a zombie).