You know the film. It’s a film you have never heard of. The cast might be composed of actors you know and love or complete unknowns. A documentary that sounds interesting about a topic you might like. You stumble across it on streaming and wonder if it will be worth two hours of your time. This series will be devoted to reviewing films like these, the strange items that pop up when you are looking for a flick on the streaming service of your choice. This is “We Found It On Streaming”
During our celebration of Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary, we will be devoting this feature to films found on streaming with some ties to the sketch program. This installment covers a film reuniting two members of the original cast–Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd–in a kid friendly horror flick.
FILM: Zombie Town
Release Date: October 6, 2023
Run Time: 92 Minutes.
Streaming Service(s): Hulu
Rating: Rated PG-13 for some language and bloody images.
Len Carver (Dan Aykroyd) is the recognized master of the zombie movie. So popular is he that his hometown has renamed itself Carverville in his honor. However, it has been decades since he made his last movie, choosing to instead become a recluse who hides away in his mansion, far away from his adoring fans.
But that is about to change. Carver has created a new film, and he is going to debut it for the entire town the night before Halloween. It is vitally important that the whole town will be there because Carver has a surprise for them.
The surprise is ruined by Mike (Marlon Kazadi). See, Mike hates horror movies but he likes Amy (Madi Monroe), his best friend who he hopes to make his girlfriend. Amy loves Carver’s films and to impress her, Mike uses his job at the local movie theater to let Amy see the film a day early. But it really isn’t a film. The surprise is that Carver’s film is a curse, designed to turn entire town into zombies. It is remarkably effective. Soon, Amy and Mike are the only people left in Carverville who are not the undead, and they must work together to try and reverse the curse and save their friends and families.
“Wait a minute,” I hear you say. “This is a zombie movie! You mean they engage in a gritty and brutal struggle for survival, having to kill the zombified versions of their loved ones, before either failing or meeting up with survivors cast by British actors aping American accents.” Yes, but this is a zombie movie based on a novel by R.L. Stine, the Stephen King of the schoolyard set. So, it is your typical zombie tropes sent through a washing machine a thousand times until the come out sterilized enough that parents won’t be calling for boycotts. That means no biting, no gore, no gruesome zombie deaths and there is hope for a cure.
Most zombie movie fans have probably stopped reading by now, as they have heard all they need to know about the film to know they won’t like it. That’s fair. I’m a fan of the genre and the whitewashing didn’t bother me that much. there is still enough tension and peril to get the scares across. No, my problems with the film lie elsewhere.
And, no, they don’t lie with Chevy Chase. Chase is only in the film a short amount of time and does what is required of him. He plays it straight without any mugging or scenery chewing. My problems are with hoe the film uses its budget and also with the lead actors.
Zombie Town is a low budget affair. There is nothing wrong with that. A lot of great horror movies have been made on shoestring budgets. But those movies get the most out of their budgets. Zombie Town looks polished, the cinematography is excellent. There are a number of name actors in the cast outside of Aykroyd and Chase (Kids in the Hall alums Bruce McCulloch and Scott Thompson have small roles and Mission Impossible’s Henry Czerny plays Mike’s boss.) And the soundtrack features songs by Elvis Costello, The Hollies and Andy Kim. So, no money was spared there. Where the money was spared was in the extra budget.
I know this seems an odd criticism. but I like my zombie hordes to be zombie hordes. When my fat, old, arthritic butt could have a great chance of getting away from the five zombies they have chasing after me, the threat doesn’t seem as real as it could be. And it goes further than that. Mike is the only one who works at the theater. That means he has to sell the tickets, work the concessions and start the projector. That’s gotta be a pain when a big movie comes out. And you have to laugh when the local Carver fanboys claim to be the biggest Carver fan club in the world. There are only three members of the club. In a town that loved Carver so much that they renamed the town after him. Seems a bit light to me.
It became so noticeable that it took me out of the film a bit. But not as much as the acting of Kazadi and Monroe together.
I don’t know if it is because of lack of chemistry, lack of acting skills, poor direction or the weakness of the script, but when they share the screen together, everything seems a bit off. It’s like each actor is starring and a different movie and have been spliced onto this one. They have numerous conversations in this movie, but they don’t sound like conversations. They sound like actors reciting lines, waiting, then reciting their next line. Separately, they do serviceable acting jobs. But together, they are awkward and unbelievable. And since the feelings the two characters feel for each other are supposed to be the emotional center of the film–the thing that makes us root for their survival–the movie is poorer for it.
The rest of the acting rates from good to adequate. Aykroyd does well as Carver. Czerny is good yet wasted as Mike’s horror buff boss, considering he spends most of the movie as a zombie. As for McCulloch and Thompson, well, I love the Kids in the Hall. But I think the direction they got was chewing as much scenery as they could, and they did it to the best of their abilities.
Zombie Town might have been better if it was a little better thought out. But, as it stands, its flaws outweigh its assets.
Have you found a film on streaming that you’d like us to look at? Leave it in the comments and it might appear in a future installment of this feature.
