Sometimes when I review bad films I think to myself – “I watch these films so that I can make sure that other people don’t have to.” While this film isn’t quite THAT bad its really damn close.
The Zombie Farm is by no means the first film that Ricardo Islas has written or directed though at times it would appear that it could be. Not the entire way through. Don’t get me wrong it did have enjoyable moments and any zombie film these days willing to go with the voodoo theme has courage in today’s infection based undead. It does suffer from combining too many genres into one film which is a strong weakness that harms what could have made a rentable film into one you’d want to own.
The film begins by introducing us to Ana Maria who is searching desperately for help from her husband who has been abusing her. The problem is though she goes straight to someone who is selling the lie of help and not actually helping the majority of customers who are coming to him; just giving some of them hope. When she is turned away by him she ends up going to a voodoo priest for help and gets it though nowhere near the form in which she is expecting it from.
A documentary maker gets involved as she looks into the charlatan who didn’t help Ana and from the abusive tone towards the wife in the beginning of the film we are suddenly turned into a movie that tries to mix comedy and self-loathing to set a strangely humorous tone. Some of the humor is pulled off and the back and forth banter between the two work though it doesn’t feel right when they suddenly come across the undead. Yes zombies are afoot and the two must find a way to stop the voodoo priestess from spreading the plague of voodoo zombies she has created
These zombies, while voodoo zombies, are also slow flesheaters straight out of the world that Romero built. Yes Voodoo zombies that are in fact flesh eaters. Odd. At least they are being used as slave labor by the priestess who has plans to use them so that isn’t too much of a stretch on what Voodoo zombies can be thought of as. The special effects on the zombies show through the lack of a special effects artist above all others that I’ve seen as of late and it was just painful to watch how badly they were done (and how easily they were dispatched.) Fortunately the special effects won’t bother you for too long as they appear to have about fifteen minutes of total screen time in the film.
Honestly if you are looking for a film to rent you could do worse but it should by no means be on anyone’s must watch list. In fact I would recommend not buying it as it would truly just gather dust after the first viewing if you had any intention on keeping it.
