“Look at me! Look at the crazy zombie!”
I absolutely love this film. I think it is brilliant, I think it is creative, and I think it is artistic. This movie has two names, Aaah! Zombies! and Wasting Away. To my knowledge, the real name is the first one, which is what it is called on my DVD copy as well as the films official website. However, imdb has it listed as Wasting Away. This title does not even make any sense.
Anyway, the film is so great because it is from the zombie’s perspective—that is right. This has never really been done before and it is quite a creative concept.
The movie starts out with a government conspiracy to cover up a chemical that was intended to turn soldiers into super soldiers. However, it instead kills them and then brings them back as zombies. One soldier tries to stop the cover up and in doing so is hit by the truck carrying the shit and one of the barrels falls off and rolls next to a container of soft-serve mix outside of a bowling alley which is where are lead characters, Mike, Vanessa, Tim, and Cindy, are hanging out.
Tim works at the bowling alley and is letting his friends hang with him before it opens for league night. Mike is hungry and decides to mix soft-serve ice cream with beer from one of the kegs also near the chemical drum. The ice cream ends up green but does not deter our young friends from eating it quite quickly, dying, and coming back.
The film creatively shows us the world from the zombie’s perspective in color while the rest of the world’s perspective is shot in black and white giving the message that both groups are not seeing the full picture, the world of the living, especially.
The film comes up with several other creative concepts such as drunks being able to understand zombies, and the rest of the world appearing to move quickly because zombies are so slow physically and mentally. The movie does pay tribute to good old Romero by having slow zombies but also by mentioning Romero’s zombie films and agreeing with most of the world, including Romero himself, that the worst of his zombie flicks is Land of the Dead.
Aaah! Zombies! is almost a pure comedy but towards the end gets dramatic and serious which adds depth to the film and it really is touching. After this, it gets right back into being a comedy again and the mood transitions are flawless in my opinion.
Because the film, takes new stance on an old concept, by showing it to use through different eyes, (even if this perspective only applies to this form of zombie) it has some existential undertones.
The acting is great despite the film going for a sort of b-movie feel. I already mentioned how wonderful the cinematography is. Overall, the film is flawless and is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I know this review is short but I really did not want to give anything away—it is just a masterpiece you have to see for yourself. My roommate could not stop laughing when I showed him this flick.
Final thoughts: this film to my mind is perfect, it was successful in everything it sought out to achieve and it was executed beautifully. If you love zombies, you are sure to love this movie. It is sold at FYE, which is where I picked it up, I would not be surprised if Newbury Comics sold it, and of course, there is always good old Amazon. This movie gets a 5 out of 5 unrelated to Romero ratings.
If you are new to the sight, please check out my Zombie Movie Reviews page for more…well…zombie movie reviews.
As always, comments are always appreciated.
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