Zombie Resurrection

Director(s) - Jake Hawkins and Andy Phelps
Starring - Eric Colvin (Broken), Jim Sweeney (Outlander), and Danny Brown (Boston Kickout)
Release Date - 2014
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "The dead won't stay undead"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Well, it was a good run the last few weeks but it was just a matter of time before another zombie flick found it's way to my door step and into my Xbox One.  Lately, I have been reviewing several different films ranging from slashers to creature features.  Zombie flicks are everywhere regardless if you like them or not.  Personally, I love a good zombie flick but there is so many out there now that the bad far out weigh the good.  Recently, Midnight Releasing sent over a copy of the zombie flick Zombie Resurrection to check out.  I was not in the mood for another zombie flick but I refuse to not review a film that was sent to me for review so I went ahead and tossed it in where I was very surprised by the story it presented before me.

     The film follows a group of survivors who are trying to take a prisoner to an army outpost to be executed.  He is believed to be the man who brought about the zombie infection ending the world the way we know it.  However, along the way they encounter several zombies and are forced to seek shelter in a nearby building.  What they don't know is that there is a zombie that can turn any zombie he comes in contact with into a human again.  They attempt to capture the zombie to study only to suffer heavy casualties.  

     The zombie films of recent years tend to follow the same story that fans tend to eat up.  This is the formula we had seen so many times before but was made popular by The Walking Dead.  These films tend to be more dramatic than they are horror which results in a rather boring zombie flick.  Very few are able to spin that type of story like Romero can and still offer up the horror.  Zombie Resurrection tries to offer up a similar story only to pull the rug out from under you with the addition of one huge plot point.  The acting in this one is actually pretty solid by the entire cast.  No one character stands out over the others but all of them are very consistent in their performances.  This helps the story flow very well and easy to understand.  The story for this one has a lot of problems with it but does offer up something that I have never seen before in a zombie flick.  The film starts out with zombies over taking the world and a group of survivors, of which only two are military, taking a prisoner to an army base for execution.  This person is supposedly the one that started the epidemic unintentionally.  I have several problems with this.  One, if the world if over why would they still try to hang this man instead of feeding him to the creatures he created?  Two, why kill the man who made the virus when he may be able to make a cure?   Three, why would a group of civilians who are looking for safety be escorting a prisoner to his death.  It just didn't make sense to me.  With all that being said, I really enjoyed the zombie Jesus angle.  It was very surprising and actually made me wonder about all the possibilities that could come out of a film with a character like this.  Sadly, the film does not properly use this character but it was still cool to see something like this in a low budget zombie flick.  Finally, the film has some gnarly kills that truly caught me off guard.  The kills come with some great practical effects.  The practical effects work very well with the kills we get.  Overall, Zombie Resurrection is a film that has so much potential but the story just falls apart even though there is several moments where it thinks outside of the box.  I recommend this one for the zombie Jesus angle but that's it.