Z
ombies! Like the title characters themselves, the subgenre of horror is one that refuses to die while “The Walking Dead” keeps reviving interest in the undead brain eaters. At this point, I feel like the dead horse is definitely being beaten with a stick, but I still enjoy giving independent filmmakers the chance to shine with their original projects; in this case John McKechnie’s Atomic Zombies. John contacted me about reviewing his feature film and I’m always thrilled to be introduced to new filmmakers like him, so I gave Atomic Zombies a full watch last night and here’s my review.
John McKechnie wrote, directed and edited Atomic Zombies and the film features special effects from Misery Productions and Digital Effects from Video Copilot. Cast members include Jackie McKechnie, Shadow Beatz, Ryan Hickey, Mercedes Luteman, David McKechnie, Evelyn Andersen, Dan Yowell, Patrick Hickey, Andrew Kinsey, Britta Otter and Rob Jennings.
“Two weeks after a local nuclear power plant explosion (which totally wasn’t an evil secret Nazi research laboratory), zombies have taken over the town! A small group of useless survivors have banded together to argue about what to do next, but with no medical skills, military training or common sense there doesn’t seem to be much hope.” – Free Water Productions
From the outside looking in, it’s easy to write off Atomic Zombies as nothing more than a bunch of friends who got together one weekend to film a b-movie zombie flick. This was my initial reaction while watching, but looking back on it now – I have to say that Atomic Zombies has much more to it than sentimental value within the cast and crew. I mean, from a production standpoint, the only big glaring error I could find was the audio is questionable in some scenes, with dialogue being too low or backing tracks being too loud. Furthering my point, a quick look at the Atomic Zombies Facebook page shows me that the film was in pre-production for months, filmed for even longer than that, and has been steadily promoted ever since. Effort was put into this flick, and that’s something that’s going to put it above the other b-movies in its category.
The plot of Atomic Zombies is somewhat different and enjoyable, too. Being that the film takes place fairly recently after the zombie apocalypse, the surviving townsfolk are – yes, a little dimwitted – in a constant state of denial as to the danger that lurks around every corner. I don’t think we’ve seen a zombie movie until this one where the characters are so out in the open, loud, rambunctious and doing things that leaves them wide open to becoming dinner. Characters wander off alone, characters go sun bathing, characters do a lot of stupid things, often with consequences, leading me to believe that Atomic Zombies is a horror-comedy of sorts. If this assumption is correct, then the humor lies in the dry dialogue and series of events that lead to each of their downfalls. However, the lack of seriousness and lack of suspense, does hinder the overall experience of the film to a small degree.
Now, I know that a lot of you will be wondering about the zombie action and gore because – let’s be honest – that’s the main reason anyone checks out a film featuring undead biters. I have to say that Atomic Zombies is filled with zombies, of various make-up quality, that do a good job at biting away at the witless wonders here. Action also comes in the form of rogue humans with an ax to grind, but the zombies roam freely in this movie, hungry for human flesh – and they always get what they want. The special effects department really had their work cut out for them here, and some make-up left a lot to be desired while other jobs looked pretty damn good. Due to budgetary costs, I understand why this needed to happen. Wherever they filmed, they were provided with wide open spaces where the zombies could charge in and destroy and not all of them could look picture ready up close. The most important thing is Atomic Zombies has blood, blood and more blood.
Is Atomic Zombies low budget? Yes. Is it a pile of crap? No. Aside for some shotty acting, audio problems and a lot of bat swinging that made me nervous, Atomic Zombies is an indie feature that brings you back to the gold old days of movie rentals, when you could go to a Blockbuster and find an undiscovered horror movie that you watch late at night with your buddies. That’s, basically, what you need to do with your friends here. Atomic Zombies is full of action, humor and enough zombie violence to swing a baseball bat at. The only thing is… you really need to enjoy low budget titles to like it, that’s the only catch. With so much effort put in, Atomic Zombies is effortlessly enjoyable to any zombie lover. It’s currently being distributed by R Squared Films and is available on Amazon Instant Video. Check it out. Final Score: 7 out of 10.
