I thoroughly enjoyed this low-budget flick. It's a zombie movie with a human twist, centered on Angela. She's been murdered but can't die like a lot of other people who find themselves now as the undead. She, like them, wants to have a life but she has to figure out where she fits into the world. She goes from joining an unrealistic, touchy-feely self-help group for zombies that sits around and talks and gets nowhere to being kidnapped by a radical zombie group.
Meanwhile, vigilantes bent on wiping out all zombies intrude, with her murderous ex-boyfriend along for the ride. It all culminates in a blood bath, of course... but while the gore goes over the top, it's not without a good deal of emotional impact. Angela will finally learn how to stop being a victim and stand up for herself. The writing is good and the acting is as well through most of this.
I came close to loving ZA, but the acting of Christa McNamee as The Commandant detracted a little too much from the rest of the film for that. Joshua Nelson is quite good; this seems a better vehicle for him than "The Blood Shed," for instance. Gina Ramsden turns in what I thought a strong performance as Angela.
I like the way that the zombies themselves were handled in this, too. They're neither lumbering reanimated corpses nor supercharged high-speed killers. They can think and feel and even act like normal people. They're nearly impossible to truly kill, too, which the film shows has its good points and a LOT of bad ones.
While there are some humorous moments, calling this a satire isn't a fair label. Most of the humor is quite dark and the movie seems more concerned with making a point about abusive relationships, people's prejudices and vanity. For a low-budget flick, there's a lot here for the viewer if he's not entirely distracted by the gore, but still enough of that to keep a gore-hound happy, too.
Meanwhile, vigilantes bent on wiping out all zombies intrude, with her murderous ex-boyfriend along for the ride. It all culminates in a blood bath, of course... but while the gore goes over the top, it's not without a good deal of emotional impact. Angela will finally learn how to stop being a victim and stand up for herself. The writing is good and the acting is as well through most of this.
I came close to loving ZA, but the acting of Christa McNamee as The Commandant detracted a little too much from the rest of the film for that. Joshua Nelson is quite good; this seems a better vehicle for him than "The Blood Shed," for instance. Gina Ramsden turns in what I thought a strong performance as Angela.
I like the way that the zombies themselves were handled in this, too. They're neither lumbering reanimated corpses nor supercharged high-speed killers. They can think and feel and even act like normal people. They're nearly impossible to truly kill, too, which the film shows has its good points and a LOT of bad ones.
While there are some humorous moments, calling this a satire isn't a fair label. Most of the humor is quite dark and the movie seems more concerned with making a point about abusive relationships, people's prejudices and vanity. For a low-budget flick, there's a lot here for the viewer if he's not entirely distracted by the gore, but still enough of that to keep a gore-hound happy, too.