Horror Movie Review: Zombie Town (2007)

No-one could blame you for seeing the title, the synopsis and the first few minutes of this movie and deciding that it just isn’t going to be worth the time. An uninspired title, a synopsis that reads like every zombie horror ever and an opening that reveals a cheapness that could make you believe it was decades older.

Yet, through an impressive level of commitment to squeezing every inch of gold out of it, Zombie Town turns out to be a fun and entertaining zombie horror flick. An energetic blast of gory horror that is filled with bad, but amusing, jokes.

Written and directed by Damon Lemay, Zombie Town takes place in a very small town, somewhere in Vermont. The opening sees a group of hunters having a drink in a cabin in the woods when the remaining members of their party arrive zombified. Cue bad acting, a mish-mash of gore and the strong sense of ‘seen it all’ before. It’s not a good start and no doubt, a fair new people will stop here.

Stick with it though, as Zombie Town is about to get good.

Jake (Adam Hose) and his brother Denton (Phil Burke) are brothers who inherited their garage from their recently deceased father. Denton wants to make something of the business, which is already in dire straits, but Jake could care less. His lack of knowledge about cars only matched by his lack of interest in working on them.

They get a call to tow an abandoned truck up in the woods, running into Jake’s ex-girlfriend Alex (Brynn Lucas) on the way. Of course, this truck just so happens to belong to one of the hunters from the opening and before you know it, the brothers are having to deal with zombified hunters.

This is the snowball effect that will see the whole town infected and getting out of alive becomes near impossible.

In an interesting twist, Zombie Town doesn’t really explain how its zombie infection story starts but does do it differently. Even if the similarities to Night of the Creeps are notable. This is because this zombie infection comes about through slug-like parasites. A parasite that reproduces inside the human body and turns it into a slave, hungry to bite into flesh so it can continue to reproduce.

Unlike Night of the Creeps though, these zombies are far scarier and way more intense. The comedy doesn’t come from the infected, it comes from how the survivors act and deal with them. It’s not hilarious, laugh out loud, comedy but a lot of the jokes will elect a chuckle.

Add this to likable characters, decent zombie make-up, just enough gore, a fun resolution to the event, and Zombie Town ends up standing out for a lot of good reasons. Sure, there’s nothing award winning here, but considering the budget and the cast of unknowns, it turned out way better than anyone could have expected.