https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9765144/

Run time: 1hr 52

‘When a pharmaceutical company’s illegal experiments inadvertently create a zombie, the strange Park family finds it and tries to profit from it.’

Wow, the south Koreans have done it again with an awesomely terrifying, and this time, hilarious zombie comedy! From a country that has pumped out really imaginative and innovative zombies movies that frightened the life out of me, like #Alive on Netflix and Train to Busan (and the 2nd movie, Peninsula) comes something of a fairly creative yet effective take on the zombie genre. It has all the aesthetic one could want, huge Romero and Shaun of the Dead vibes, and decidedly knows how it is going to play out. It’s half comedy, half horror, by the time the scary dead arrive you’ll be fairly connected to the cast of characters.

Meet the Odd family. They run a small gas station, which I think provides a fantastic set piece, among the acres of hills and mountains that surround them and the small town where the dead take over. It all starts with a zombie, that zombie happens to be a lone wandered and nobody knows what he is until suddenly, after failing to kill him, this Odd family take him in, let their own father be bitten, and then turn it into a business. A zombie that eats lettuce by the way and is semi aware. That’s what they were into before, scamming people by setting traps to cause damage to vehicles. Now, they want to bite you and give you the thrill for a fee. Absolutely absurd, stupid idiotic and silly!

That’s what I love about this movie, it’s silly. Silly humour, yet manages to pull of the seriousness of the situation with comedy perfectly. I can’t count how many times I laughed, because say someone sets off fireworks at a gas station to distract the zombies, or the fact the family are so disjointed at times it is hilarious.

Of all the things in this movie, the way it took the focus off the negative and focused on the positive was a big plus. I enjoy movies that have an arc that ends upbeat. After we see the father biting people for money it is not long before the entire population is zombified and back for flesh. The father vanishes, returning at the end of the movie supposedly immune, he came back in Hawaiian shirt and hat. Yes, there is the immune survivors.

Considering this is a foreign movie I expected it to be of lower quality. This is most certainly not the case as I mentioned above, south Koreans really do a great job of zombies. They know have to choreograph and use their artistic and directive skills to make them realistic whilst providing what I consider to be some of the better stories in recent zombie movie. Flashback to Shaun of the Dead – original and groundbreaking, a huge smash hit in the UK. 28 days Later – another groundbreaking and terrifyingly memorable experience. Heck even Zombieland took things to a new level!

The difference is that foreign movies and western movies from rich countries is that people automatically, I believe, place them in the category of inferiority. They shouldn’t. Maybe I’ve just got lucky that these foreign movies are about zombies which is my favourite genre.

Back to the movie. Some poor lady is pregnant during it! Yes, it is complicated. But all has a happy ending. The ending takes things to a familiar place, even though the film was released in 2019. The immune father, and the others, take a fortified campervan and begin to bite the zombies to reverse the illness and cure them. Ironic circle there. The camper is covered in writing such as ‘vaccination’ and the cause of the original zombie was that he escaped from a pharmaceutical lab with human experimentation. It was slightly uncomfortable to draw those connections but oh well, it’s not like anybody really cares.

This movie is also by Arrow Films! I didn’t realise they still made original stuff! It develops slowly and at a suitable rate, some films are slow and boring, however it held my interest and the location is quite eye pleasing. When things pick up, it becomes slightly scary but not terrifying which I believe makes this great. The comedy aspect helps to keep this watchable although there was a few moments when I felt like I could not watch.

I recommend someone to spend 1 hour 50 minutes watching this well thought out laugh fest, full of silly humour and a story about family and life. I had to use subtitles but not an issue. I also found this on Amazon Prime by mistake, but there are no mistakes, just happy accidents.

Rest in peace.

Rating: 5/5