THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

First came Zoombies, then Zoombies 2 - now it's time to get fishy as a batch of infected medicine from Eden Zoo has made its way to the Shining Sea aquarium. When used to treat an injured Octopus, the downed animal soon re-animates into a flesh-eating Zombie. Slinking its way around the aquarium, it infects more water-loving lifeforms and its not long until a very damp hell is unleashed on the aquarium's human inhabitants.

MY VERDICT:

This is, to state the bleeding obvious, a very silly movie, placed firmly in the 'so bad it's good' category and, while it is a surprisingly decent picture, it fails to achieve its full goofy potential. The acting does actually show merit, a lot more than the standard for these types of throw-away films. Most of the characters - the VIP nurse and the Shark area tour guide especially - play well off each other and provide genuinely funny moments with humorous comradery and sly references to other films. The set is also very high-quality for such a low-budget production - often, you cannot tell if it is a purpose built set or real-world location - which is definitely cool, making the film that much more watchable. Ok, there are a fair few flaws too. The Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) of the Zombified animals is shoddy at best and, occasionally, where the film tries to spice things up, it includes actual physical models, cleverly (but obviously) obscured through camerawork to hide their static, and probably incomplete, nature. The biggest let-down though is the fact that this movie simply does not have the budget to be what it wants to be; there are many occasions, especially early on, where the characters reference things, mostly Zombified creatures, that are, so infuriatingly, never seen on-screen. Now, I just wish I could come up with a good fish pun to end this review but I'm Flounder-ing. Maybe my brain is not in the right Plaice. I better give up before I give myself a Haddock.