I’m struggling to write an introduction to this review. Sometimes I just buy movies without any rhyme or reason or even viewing the trailer. Zombie Killers: Elephant’s Graveyard is one of those titles. Due to the insanely popular AMC series, “The Walking Dead,” the zombie genre is getting beaten to death and over-saturated. Someone, somewhere needs to spice things up a bit. Does this title add anything new to the genre? Read my review to find out!
Zombie Killers: Elephants Graveyard is written and directed by Harrison Smith (Camp Dread, The Fields) with David Agnew Penn. Cast members include Mischa Barton (The Sixth Sense, The L.A. Slasher), Billy Zane (Back to the Future, Critters), Dee Wallace (Cujo, The Howling), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp, Satan’s Playground), Brian Anthony Wilson (“The Wire,” The Fields), Gabrielle Stone, Brian Gallagher, Ashley Sumner, Joe Raffa, Davy Raphaely, Dan McGlaughlin and Mark Behar.
“The rural town of Elwood is a “bubble” against the backdrop of a suspected global infection that appears connected to natural gas fracking. A small band of young adults under the training of ex-military soldier Seiler (Billy Zane) keeps the town safe while patrolling the fence line that locks the residents inside. There is something wrong with the town, with more dread and fear penned up inside than what awaits on the frontier. Young Ian Sommers realizes he needs to get free, no matter what lies beyond Elwood’s fence and tries to convince others to do the same.” – IMDB
For some reason, I purchased this title expecting a horror-comedy much in the same vein as “Z Nation.” I guess it was the Elephant’s Graveyard subtitle that confused me because Zombie Killers is a serious zombie flick. Like, really serious. If you take Stakeland and insert zombies instead of vampires, add The Governors crazy way of upholding Woodbury, and add in elements of The Mist and The Dead Next Door, then you’ll get Zombie Killers. It’s an interesting mix of concepts and made for an intriguing viewing. Except Mischa Barton’s pregnancy subplot. I didn’t care for it as it didn’t add much to the story, as did Dee Wallace’s cancer subplot. In hindsight, I assume the subplots were written in to hit you right in the feels and show how civilization and morality is crumbling… but I would have liked to see more action instead.
Speaking of Mischa Barton and Dee Wallace, Zombie Killers: Elephant’s Graveyard has a pretty impeccable cast. Could you ask for anything more? Billy Zane, Felissa Rose and Brian Anthony Wilson fill out the rest of the starring cast and they each do a fantastic job of representing a particular aspect of the human dilemma when pinned against the undead. It took me until after my viewing to realize this, that each actor represents an idea, a struggle, an emotion that’s possible in the walking dead apocalypse. When I realized this, it added an extra layer of depth and perspective to the script and made Zombie Hunters a little more than just “some zombie movie.” It’s great to see that the cast had the opportunity to work in a non-traditional film of this subgenre and their brand of expect acting chops really helped to bring the characters to life and push the plot along. Even the lesser known actors pulled off extremely professional performances and that should be commended.
When I look back and try to find details to criticize, I only come up with two points I would consider negatives. First, the film quality is a little low budget. It’s not cheap or amateur or grainy at all; more-so it just looks a step or two below the mark of quality you’d expect in such a budgeted feature. A better camera would have increased the overall appearance of this movie a notch or two, but if that’s the only production critique I have, then you know the crew worked hard and worked well on Zombie Killers: Elephant’s Graveyard. Secondly, the film is a little too light on violence and action for my taste. There was such a big build up around the youth militia and the herd of zombies not too far from the city, and the level of action and the level of suspense was never brought all the way to perfection. A couple more minutes of action, a couple more head-shots or any kind of crazy death scene would have been enough to satisfy the gore-hounds or adrenaline junkies, myself included in both.
Zombie Killers: Elephant’s Graveyard wasn’t bad at all. It was actually pretty awesome, a slow burn story with a supremely talented cast and expert crew. It just wasn’t what I was expecting and it didn’t add anything new to the subgenre. Fun, but nothing to really write home about. Final Score: 6.5 out of 10.
