Review: Fast Zombies with Guns. By Brian Kirst
Taking the strangers trapped together motif of Night of the Living Dead and giving it a modern, nihilistic squeeze, writer-director Bennie Woodell’s entertaining Fast Zombies with Guns is a major improvement upon his eclectic debut, The Chauffeur – especially where the performances are concerned.
A poisoned mob informant finds his night of celebrating radically altered when the liquidy death-substance used to off him, turns he and his wife into the swift footed titular creatures instead. Soon da’ zombies are armed and raging and a well rounded group of survivors (the wise, the cranky, the cowardly, the youthful and the extremely violent) are gathered together in one stranger’s house – and ultimately make a desperate break for a nearby harbor and a new life. But will their hopes drown in bloody annihilation before they get close to the freedom of the water?
As with The Chauffeur, Woodell skillfully combines mob drama, action film pacing and horror film themes to create a well rounded, low budget ride. With focused energy, Woodell also gets well rounded performances out of the majority of his cast. Of particular note, two rising horror personalities, Tony Swansey (moodily vibrant as a dangerous rebel-type) and Sofiya Smirnova (surprising potent and reliably camera friendly in a supporting role as a doomed trophy wife), deliver standout performances. (Swansey wrote and directed the enjoyable hick horror effort Squeal and was art director on Tim Sullivan’s upcoming 2001 Maniacs sequel. Smirnova, a popular model, has appeared in several productions with horror goddess Amy Lynn Best, including Feast of Flesh.) Will Cummings III also connects with a humorous, down to earth turn as the hesitant leader of the shaken survivors. In fact, while Woodell provides the buckets of exploding blood and tricky forward momentum of the piece, it is Cummings who ultimately delivers its heart.
