Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Aaah! Zombies!! (2007)

aka Wasting Away

After a failed military experiment whose purpose is to make super soldiers, a barrel of toxic chemicals falls out of a truck on the way to the disposal area. It ends up behind a bowling alley where several teenagers mistake it for part of the nights deliveries and end up consuming the toxin which has been mixed with ice cream.

The teens get sick and become zombies, but they don't realize it because from their point of view, nothing has changed. So they can't understand why everyone runs away from them.

They meet a Private who tells them that the other people who are running are infected and that he has become a super soldiers. The Private is looking for a cure and seeks out a top military official.

The concept of a movie told from the zombies point of view is interesting. When the film is in color, it is what the zombies are seeing, and when it is in black and white, that is what the uninfected see. The group doesn't know that they are zombies and there is some humor in seeing them talking among themselves while all everyone else hears is typical zombies sounds.

While it has comedic overtones, it's not very funny. The only time I laughed out loud was when the Private decided to infiltrate a Mexican restaurant disguised as a waiter saying, "I've been trained in espionage." Seeing a zombie wearing a sombrero, shuffling along with a tray of food, interspersed with the footage from his own point of view where he thinks he is blending in made me laugh.

Once the zombies decide to find a place to be free, that is when the film totally lost me. The dialogue was very contrived and like any other movie where a minority is trying to overcome persecution. So the ending was not satisfactory and it wasn't all that funny, but I liked the idea and did enjoy the first two thirds of the film.

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