Horror Movie Review: Zombie Driftwood (2010)

Heavy metal, blood and guts, zombies and bagpipes…what’s not to like about Zombie Driftwood!?

Falling squarely into the ‘horror comedy’ genre, Zombie Driftwood opens with a newsreader talking about a missing cruise ship. This ship sailed into the Bermuda Triangle and disappeared. Something that has baffled authorities.

Elsewhere a group of heavy metal lovers (in particular the band October File) have arrived on the Cayman Islands for some rest and relaxation. They end up at the Driftwood Bar and Grill where a battle of the bands is to take place.

Unfortunately for the friends and the bar patrons the cruise ship has turned up just outside. Engulfed in a mysterious green fog, what ever happened in the Bermuda Triangle turned everyone on board into flesh-hungry zombies.

It’s a fight to survive now as the undead assault the bar all backed up to a heavy metal soundtrack.

Playing off the tried and tested formula of a group of survivors holed up under a zombie assault, Zombie Driftwood tries to vary things up by playing it mostly for laughs. Unfortunately, most of the humour falls flat. The biggest problem lies in repetition. What might have got the odd chuckle really won’t after you’ve seen the same joke five times over.

A good example of this is the zombie news takeover that gets old really quickly but the film keeps hammering the joke home to the point where it stops being funny and just becomes annoying.

The cast, a really mixed bunch, do the best they can with the bad dialogue and you can certainly see some really putting in their best efforts. If you’re going in expecting Oscar worthy performances then your disappointment is your own fault.

Zombie Driftwood is a really low-budget offering, something that is obvious from the start. So, you can’t fault the silly effects but there are some moments where the blood and gore step up and can at least be called effective.

Most of the fun comes from the heavy metal side of things and the cast have a lot of fun with it. From the bar owner’s obsession with his tour t-shirts to the infatuation with October File. The band themselves even play a part in the movie as they rock out with a zombie audience.

Zombie Driftwood tries harder than many zombie comedies and it deserves praise for that. Still, it’s not worth hunting down unless you absolutely must see every zombie film ever.

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