20141001: Horror Review--Kill Zombies

Kill Zombie! (Zombibi)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Dutch live action feature length film, 2012, NR, 85 minutes, horror, zombies, comedy.  Spoken word is in Dutch; subtitles in English.
2. IMDB: 4.9/10.0 from 825 audience ratings. Estimated budget: 500,000 euros.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No score yet,' and 24% liked it from 47 audience ratings.
4. Directed by: Martijn Smits, Erwin van der Eshof.
5. Starring: Yahya Gaier as Aziz, Mimoun Ouled Radi as Mo, Gigi Ravelli as Kim, Sergio Hasselbaink as Jeffrey, Uriah Arnhem as Nolan, Noel Deelen as Joris.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Aziz works in a grinding office job in the Netherlands.  His boss is a pain, but tall and attractive Tess seems to like him.  Perhaps life is OK on the balance, or is this the high point for Aziz?


2. Aziz loses his job due to his brother Mo, then considers starting a new business with the same brother.  At that point, six minutes into the film, my respect for the protagonist dropped to zero.  Since the film is purportedly a comedy, I kept watching.


3. The fired Aziz goes to the party from which Mo got him fired.  Mo proceeds to anger the host of the party, a black drug dealer.  The host sets two of his lackeys on the brothers; a fight ensues and all four are arrested.  In holding cells, they witness some of Officer Kim's dexterity.


4. The next morning, the cell doors open.  The four jailed ones venture out to discover a landscape littered with the outcomes of fights between zombies and normals.  Aziz starts into his voicemail, and notes a couple of calls from Tess.  She implores him to come rescue her from the building where the space station fragment stuck that started the zombie outbreak.


5. That is the end of the setup that might be different from a few other zombie films.  The bulk of the film concerns the attempt by Aziz to rescue Tess within the zombie apocalypse.  The ending was not worth waiting for.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: A bad, unfunny zombie comedy from the Netherlands.
2. One of ten.  Two black holes for SFX and acting.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 4/10 I have seen worse.  However, the SFX were truly poor.


2. Sound: 0/10 Pointless.  The subtitles, I think, were roughly accurate.


3. Acting: 0/10


4. Screenplay: 2/10 Derivative at best.  Substitute USA (or UK) for Netherlands, and you've got any of a hundred or so other zombie films.  Also, if I am watching a comedy, I like to laugh at least once; this did not happen.