Review of ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction (2010) by Tim M — 26 Sep 2010

Loved this flick; it has found a home among my top ten favorite zombie movies. It's smart, well-made, funny social satire with plenty of gore to boot. Writer/director Kevin Hamedani has made something in the vein of Romero's best and clearly gets the genre. Hamedani, an Iranian-American, has clearly put a lot of himself into the film in the person of the film's heroine, Frida.

Frida is taking some time off from college and living with her father, an Iranian immigrant who owns a diner in the small town of Port Gamble, WA. Even before the zombie outbreak, one senses that the locals don't know how to deal with her because of her ethnicity, even though she was born and raised in the town. Most of them can't get straight that her father is from Iran, not Iraq, and that she's American. Also arriving on the island are a gay couple from New York, one of them preparing to come out to his mother. There's about to be an election, too, and the very conservative current mayor, backed by the local evangelical preacher, faces competition from the liberal Cheryl Banks. Port Gamble is a quiet town, but one gets the sense of a lot of secret awkwardness at every turn.

When the zombie apocalypse comes, the thin veneer of civility unravels at once. Frida winds up being tied up, interrogated and tortured by a family that's known her all her life because an Arab terrorist has claimed responsibility for the virus that's reanimating the dead. The gay couple wind up trapped in the church with Rev. Haggis, the mayor and Banks. Haggis believes that he can turn the gay couple straight by making them watch films and giving them a nausea-inducing drug; he also believes that he can "save" the zombies; the scenes of Haggis showing the "homoerotic" films and trying to witness a zombie are among the funniest in the movie. Banks and the mayor go from being in a civil race for office to physical confrontation... but not with a gun, because Banks is so dedicated to her principles that she won't use one (until one late scene in which she loses it and uses up all of her ammo shooting at the wrong target). Meanwhile, the survivors are so busy attacking one another and worrying about a foreign threat that they consistently fail to see the dangers from their own former neighbors. It's all a great metaphor for American social self-absorption, disconnection from the world in favor of local politics, and the Tea Party, ably portrayed by the mindless zombies who unthinkingly devour their own.

Lots of funny moments, copious flesh-chomping gore, overall solid production values, good acting and some emotionally touching moments delivered by Frida and the gay couple. Great stuff here; those who appreciate the social commentary of George Romero's Living Dead films shouldn't miss "Zombies of Mass Destruction." If Jon Stewart made zombie flicks, this would be the product. DO NOT MISS!