Movies
[Review] ‘Zombieland’
“Fleischer’s film is beautifully shot (his slow-mo sequences are stunning), engaging, funny, heartfelt and more importantly F-U-N. If you’re looking for a movie that has it all, Zombieland is a season pass worth picking up.“
Limber up, it’s one of the rules if you’re going to survive Zombieland, and not pull a muscle from laughing so hard. While Columbia Pictures’ film might revolve around the undead, what awaits you is an action-comedy that could easily be described as Shaun of the Dead meets Superbad, or for comic book fans, think “The Walking Dead” with laughs.
In the screenplay by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the world is now overrun by zombies, and Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg from Adventureland) is in search of his family when is comes across Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), who is headed in the same direction. When making a pit stop at a grocery store, they’re conned by two young girls, Wichita (Emma Stone from Superbad) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin from Little Miss Sunshine), whom eventually join them in their trip west.
First and foremost, what makes Zombieland one of the best movies this year is the in-depth characterizations. The screenplay builds a mythology around these characters that aren’t just there to keep them from all acting alike, but also to provide comic relief throughout the entire film. For example, the film opens with the neurotic, terrified and OCD laden Columbus, who has turned his intense fear of the outside world into “rules”. These rules keep him alive, while entertaining the audience to no end. The rules find a way of being referenced on multiple occasions, each time more hilarious than the first. Then there’s Tallahassee, who is an intense, testosterone-fueled madman who is in search of one thing… a Twinkie. Then there’s Wichita and Little Rock, two sisters who have lived a con’s life, and are using their skills to stay alive. This is the core of Zombieland, as big FX pieces and action are only sprinkles of salt next to the masterful screenplay.
Speaking of action, the movie opens with Columbus trying to find a safe place to take a dump, which leads to an intense and hilarious situation that sets the horses off running. Zombieland is fast-paced and never, ever slows down. The pacing is dead on, and even in moments of revelation and/or serious heartfelt times, there are jokes and a sense of urgency that keeps the audience engaged from start to finish. While most of the action comes from running and screaming, there are plenty of gunshots fired, and blood splattered across the cement.
The replay value of Ruben Fleischer’s film is extraordinary. Unlike many films these days, I can see myself watching Zombieland on multiple occasions. Not only does it live in the same universe as Superbad, but it also has quite possibly one of the all-time funniest scenes ever thanks to Bill Murray (I’m going to leave this as vague as possible, go see it). Fleischer’s film is beautifully shot (his slow-mo sequences are stunning), engaging, funny, heartfelt and more importantly F-U-N. If you’re looking for a movie that has it all, Zombieland is a season pass worth picking up.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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