The Zombie Army

Director - Betty Stapleford

Starring - Cindie Lou Acker, Jody Amato, and Michelle Anderson

Release Date - 1991

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "I want you for...the zombie army"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

     Tom Savini's remake of Night of the Living Dead was the film that got me into horror but Romero's original NotLD was the first movie I became obsessed with.  This obsession soon spilled over into a zombie obsession.  Before long I was snagging every zombie flick I could find.  Movies like Dead Meat, Dead & Breakfast, Zombie Town, and so on.  I couldn't get enough.  Sadly, The Walking Dead has over saturated the market and we have so many half-hearted zombie films to choose from.  I still keep an eye out for a zombie flick every now and then but mostly avoid the sub-genre due to all the Walking Dead clones.  A few weeks ago Makeflix announced the release of the 1991 S.O.V. zombie flick The Zombie Army on blu.  I had never seen this one before but with Tempe behind the release I knew I had to snag it.  

     The film follows a military troop that take over an abandoned asylum.  However, some of the mental patients that were confined to the asylum is still there.  The patients have discovered a way to turn the living into zombies and soon start capturing soldiers to turn into their on army of the undead.

     I wasn't expecting an amazing zombie flick but I was hoping for a no budget flick that had just enough story to hold the viewer's interest.  Sadly, this one was not.  It was a bit dull and a story that was oddly familiar.  The acting in this one is surprisingly fun.  The characters blend into the background and are extremely flat but the cast delivers some solid performances.  I really enjoyed the mental patients and the zombies.  They really went above and beyond to stand out and I respect that.  The story for this one has an interesting beginning but it's love for Day of the Dead prevents it from becoming anything other than a feature length fan film.  I love the idea of mental patients living in an old asylum and it's a bit of a stretch having them turn soldiers into zombies but I was really getting into it.  However, the movie doesn't really continue down that road.  We get soldiers entering the underground tunnels of the asylum which is where the Day of the Dead homage is thrown at the viewer.  So many scenes during this portion of the film almost mirror Day of the Dead, especially Rhodes death.  I really wanted to love it but it failed to stand out from other zombie flicks.  Finally, the film has plenty of blood and some gore that wasn't half bad.  We also get some decent make-up effects as well that could have been something memorable if the story would have stood out.  Overall, The Zombie Army could have been a fun no budget S.O.V. zombie flick but it couldn't give the viewer something new.  It fails to hold the viewer's attention and becomes a chore to finish.  The blu looks decent enough but that is hard to be the only selling factor with a film like this.