When it's "April Apocalypse" (2013). Don't let that dissuade you from watching it, though, because despite being a derivative zombie movie, it's still quite good. (THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS.)
To be honest, it actually borrows more heavily from "Zombieland" (2009), with its tone and narrative style. But I actually think I like this more than "Zombieland," because the humor of that popular movie often fell flat with me, and I walked away feeling that it was a little overrated.
"April Apocalypse" actually has a smart, funny script, with a likable kid as a protagonist (capably played by Reece Thompson, who reminds me a little of Ryan Reynolds). There are a lot of genuine laughs, depending on off-beat, quirky characters and dry line delivery. The family scenes are extremely funny — who would have thought that the prison rapist from "The Shawshank Redemption" (Mark Rolston) could be a hilarious dysfunctional Dad? I'd give this movie an 8 out of 10, and I cheerfully recommend it to fans of the genre.
I don't always respond so well to horror-comedies, so some of the truly black humor was a turn-off for me. We see a church full of desperate people perish in a manner that is supposed to be funny; one character dryly shrugs them off as expendable "Jesus Freaks." If you ask me, that's disturbing, not funny. Ask yourself this, secular friends — what if the script was different, and those sacrificed (in grisly fashion) were attendants at an American Atheist Convention? Most of my close friends who enjoy "The Walking Dead" as much as I do are also Christian. Which makes this joke, at the very least icky, in my opinion.
We also see a running gag that I've seen pop up from time to time in zombie films and fiction. Otherwise good-natured characters gleefully enjoy killing the zombie versions of people who they disliked when they were alive. That's some pretty dark humor, and maybe it's transparently pathological. I like survival stories of people coming together to fight an insurmountable threat — not murder-by-proxy jokes.
Finally, I would have gone with a different ending. I won't say more because I don't want to make this post too spoiler-heavy.
Anyway, sorry to over-analyze and be a grumpy old man. Do give this film a chance and watch it. It was surprisingly good and made me laugh a lot.
To be honest, it actually borrows more heavily from "Zombieland" (2009), with its tone and narrative style. But I actually think I like this more than "Zombieland," because the humor of that popular movie often fell flat with me, and I walked away feeling that it was a little overrated.
"April Apocalypse" actually has a smart, funny script, with a likable kid as a protagonist (capably played by Reece Thompson, who reminds me a little of Ryan Reynolds). There are a lot of genuine laughs, depending on off-beat, quirky characters and dry line delivery. The family scenes are extremely funny — who would have thought that the prison rapist from "The Shawshank Redemption" (Mark Rolston) could be a hilarious dysfunctional Dad? I'd give this movie an 8 out of 10, and I cheerfully recommend it to fans of the genre.
I don't always respond so well to horror-comedies, so some of the truly black humor was a turn-off for me. We see a church full of desperate people perish in a manner that is supposed to be funny; one character dryly shrugs them off as expendable "Jesus Freaks." If you ask me, that's disturbing, not funny. Ask yourself this, secular friends — what if the script was different, and those sacrificed (in grisly fashion) were attendants at an American Atheist Convention? Most of my close friends who enjoy "The Walking Dead" as much as I do are also Christian. Which makes this joke, at the very least icky, in my opinion.
We also see a running gag that I've seen pop up from time to time in zombie films and fiction. Otherwise good-natured characters gleefully enjoy killing the zombie versions of people who they disliked when they were alive. That's some pretty dark humor, and maybe it's transparently pathological. I like survival stories of people coming together to fight an insurmountable threat — not murder-by-proxy jokes.
Finally, I would have gone with a different ending. I won't say more because I don't want to make this post too spoiler-heavy.
Anyway, sorry to over-analyze and be a grumpy old man. Do give this film a chance and watch it. It was surprisingly good and made me laugh a lot.