Zoombies

Ahhh, Zoombies. Not a great movie per se, but a fun one at least. When I want to see zombified zoo animals, bad CGI, and from the company The Asylum, I will always turn to Zoombies. There are zombie giraffes in it. Who doesn’t like to see that?

<img src="zoombies.jpg" alt="Zoombies.">

Photo Credit: The Asylum

Released: Oct 3, 2016

Runtime: 87 mins

Director: Glenn Miller

Writer: Scotty Mullen

Actors: Ione Butler, Andrew Asper, LaLa Nestor

PLOT

When a strange virus quickly spreads through a safari park and turns all the zoo animals undead, those left in the park must stop the creatures before they escape and zombify the whole city.

MY THOUGHTS

It’s hard to rate Zoombies on blood and gore when The Asylum is notorious for bad CGI. We do get a decent amount of human and animal kills. At the start, a woman gets her eyes gouged out. Yikes! We also get the typical crushing, beating, and torn apart. Though I do have to mention one death scene reminiscent of the chest bursting scene in Alien.

Acting is good for Asylum. We have Ione Butler (known for Black Widow and Call of Duty: Vanguard <Sorry, I play COD> ), who plays Lizzy. It’s her first day as a security guard there. Andrew Asper (known for a bunch of non-genre tv/movies) plays Gage, an intern who starts off as nerdy and ends up kicking ass. Kim Nielsen (known for The Amityville Terror, Zoombies 2, and Aquarium of the Dead) plays Dr. Ellen Rogers, who is in charge of the zoo.

It’s the first day for a group of interns at The Eden Wildlife Zoo. Unfortunately for them a monkey dies and is resurrected by a mysterious shot. This monkey quickly infects other monkeys who then spread the contagion throughout the zoo. 

Each of the interns are sent to different animal areas. Sadly, they are dispatched by the animals. A couple were killed by hungry giraffes, one’s head was slammed into the ground by an ape, and we also have lions killing them off. 

Thrown into the mix is the fact the doctor brought her daughter to work that day and now has to protect her. Though, for a little girl, she is able to protect herself when she encounters an infected koala bear.

The surviving interns and zoo employees discover what is going on and must stop the spread before the birds can spread the disease outside of the zoo. Of course we have the bird keeper not wanting to hurt or even release the birds but that obviously goes wrong.

Overall, Zoombies has an interesting plot with decent acting (for an Asylum movie). I had fun with this movie (though there was a lot of cringing with the bad CGI). If you have some time to kill and like cheesy zombie and animal attack movies then check out Zoombies. If you like this movie, then check out the prequel Zoombies 2 and spin off Aquarium of the Dead.

And now for your Forever Final Girl Exclusive…Did you know?:

  • The administration building they used is the same building from the movie Bio Dome.

  • At one point a giraffe hand puppet can be seen biting one of the interns. This puppet was operated by Matthew Lillard who was invited to set by director and close friend Glenn Miller.

  • Intended to be a fan sequel to Jurassic Park, Dr. Ellen Rogers is supposed to be the granddaughter of Hammond.

  • Late in the film, a map shows Dolphin Point. The screenwriter Scotty Mullen originally wrote a scene with Thea fighting against undead dolphins there, however the scene was cut due to the actress’s fear of water. The 3D models for the zombie dolphins were repurposed for Five Headed Shark Attack.

  • During the opening scene as the newspaper clipping appears on screen, at the far right of the page is quoted as saying, "This film was a bloody hell process during post production. It might as well be as gruesome as the wretched as the workload of the jaw-dropping, cgi-bloated Sharknado"

  • Dr. Ellen Rogers (Kim Nielsen) is the only character that appears in Zoombies, Zoombies 2, and Aquarium of the Dead.

Have you seen the other Zoombies movies? Check out my other reviews here: Zoombies Franchise.

Let’s get into the rankings:

Kills/Blood/Gore: 4/5

Sex/Nudity: 0/5

Scare factor: 2/5

Enjoyment factor: 5/5

My Rank: 3/5

IMDB: 3.3/10

Rotten Tomatoes: critics:  –/10  audience:  1.7/10

Letterboxd: 1.6/5