When Zombies Attack

We have a guilty pleasure: we love Zombie films. No excuse except early exposure to George Romero's very good "Dawn of the Dead," which manages to be scary, gory, funny, satiric, ironic and a commentary on modern life all at once. "When Zombies Attack" over at iFilms.com is so deriviative of Romero's original "Night of the Living Dead" and sequels that it should maybe acknowledge the inspiration right up front.

Here's a hint about making zombie movies -- the viewer needs a few people to care about, apart from some narrator who's just chief zombie-slayer.

iFilm describes it thus (with some editing)

When Zombies Attack!! is a mock video documentary that follows heroic officer Frank Hadely of the Post Mortem Animation Control as he attempts to protect Burke County residents while trying to rid the community of the threat of zombies.

Despite our criticism, we did like the zombies themselves, the occassional surprising moments (not enough of them) and homage to Romero aspects of this. Still, coherence is a too much dispensed with value in short films and this one suffers from that what-the-hell-is-going-on incoherence so many of them do.

It stars Frank Rydberg and is directed by Chad Waters and Matt Rose. It runs a rather long 25 minutes.

Rating: 12 of 24 frames.