MV5BMjIyMTk2MTYxNV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMDA2Mzc4MzE@._V1_SY317_CR6,0,214,317_AL_Zombieworld
February, 2015
Reviewed by Stuart Conover

I’m going to preface this by saying that I love zombie movies (obviously), I love anthology movies, and I love Dread Central. All of that being said, I did not love Zombieworld. Now don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all bad. However, the pieces that I loved all had their flaws and those that I didn’t vastly outweighed them.

So what is the breakdown? Well, there are two ongoing themes to the film in between the variety of shorts.

The first is where we follow Bill Oberst Jr. as Marvin Gloat who is a news reporter that was bitten and is covering the outbreak to his bitter end. While I am a HUGE fan of Oberst I don’t believe he was used particularly well here. Yes, some of his moments were entertaining but the more he turned into a zombie, the less he was truly providing a good lead in for films. If they had made him darker and tried less for humor (and actually had him give the right kind of introductions to each of the short films which made more sense) this would have been one of my favorite parts of the anthology.

The stories he covers are “on scene” though the way he describes them mixed with how they are shot doesn’t necessarily work in most of the instances. I don’t know if that is the fault of the writing for his portion or the short films which were included but it could have been more enjoyable. (I don’t hold Oberst responsible at all for the direction his character went.)

Secondly we also have a ‘How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse’ survival guide running throughout the films. This guide starts off strong and actually works for the most part though some of the later segments feel a little strained on the guide portion. Still, entertaining and visually excellent this part is also a plus.

So where does it go from there?

First up is a first person styled short called ‘Dark Times’ by Peter Horn & Jared Marshall. It’s a fun romp though I wasn’t overly sold on it being the strongest piece that they could have started off with.

The next one was Adrián Cardona & David Muñoz’s ‘Fist of Jesus’ which I actually would have preferred lead things off because it was an insanely fun short that was over the top in ridiculousness.

Third up was ‘I Am Lonely’ by Phil Haine which was another miss in my book. It was about a rather annoying man narrating to his dying friend about his day, his dreams, his vision of the future. It all comes together to make even more sense on why his friend was dying and not bitten by the undead but the lack of threat or interest had me not caring at all about the character.

Tommy Woodard gives us ‘Dead Stop’ which was about a policeman who finds bad things while at a gas station. This is one that was good, but because of the time setting of the outbreak according to our director and what was clearly the beginning of the outbreak on screen, it just didn’t feel like it fit in.

Now on to one of my favorite films is Cameron McCulloch’s ‘Home’ which told us about a young woman who is surviving the apocalypse on her own in the middle of nowhere. There is a slight twist that comes up which is beautifully handled. While like the previous installment didn’t fit in with the concept of the anthology it was still so well done it didn’t matter.

Zach Ramelan gives us ‘Dead Rush’ which is another first person piece and my favorite one in the bunch. Visually well done with just the right amount of action to keep you interested.

Paul Shrimpton and Alex Chandon’s ‘Teleportal’ didn’t fit with the theme or tone of the anthology as we got a subpar first person shooter experience where a man was sucked into his Wii to fight the undead.

My other favorite short in the collection? ‘Certified’ by Luke Guidici which isn’t in any way shape or form a zombie film. They make it look like some of the actors are undead in a single scene but it really didn’t fit from both the time period to the lack of zombies. I loved this short and again stress that this is one to check out but it doesn’t belong here.

Finally we have ‘Brutal Relax’ which is by the creators of ‘Fist of Jesus’ and has zombie pirates invading a beach holiday. Another gore fest that works great but not in the confines of the anthology.

Overall, I went into this flick having high expectations and having avoided reviews so far. My expectations on the whole were not met. I think the concept was strong but if these were shorts made specifically for the film or if ones were used that could better be tied in, I would have left this feeling a lot happier about what I had seen. The best films seen here just didn’t fit with the theme and made the entire piece not flow together with the concept changes.

Is it worth checking out? Well, if you need new zombies in your life, yes. If you want a piece that seems to fit together and not just a bunch of zombie shorts thrown at the wall, I would have to say pass on it.