Movies
[Review] Despite the Budget, ‘Zoombies’ Captures Mindless, Undead Fun
You’ve got to hand it to these Asylum flicks, as despite the (often warranted) criticism, they’re some of the most honest productions out there. When one of their titles promises a mutant shark, ridiculous weather phenomena or maybe even both, you can bet your ass that that’s exactly what you’re going to get. Glenn Miller’s Zoombies is no exception to this rule, as the movie does its damnedest to deliver on its amusing premise.
Zoombie stars Kim Nielsen as Dr. Ellen Rogers, head of the Eden Wildlife Zoo, as she prepares for opening day by welcoming a group of young interns into the park. Unfortunately, a monkey infected with some unknown pathogen attacks a group of veterinarians and soon begins to spread a mysterious illness to other creatures, turning them into undead killing machines. Once the enraged animals begin to tear down the park, eating anyone in their way, the zoo staff must band together in order to survive the outbreak.
As the tagline proudly states, Zoombies is basically “Jurassic World of the dead”, with a few elements from Hitchcock’s The Birds thrown in for good measure (although, when things go wrong, it does sometimes feel more like Birdemic). Judging it purely based off this premise, the movie is a success, gleefully reveling in its precarious budget and having fun as CGI zombies wreak havoc across the zoo. However, that’s not quite enough to make this a good movie.
We are given a few relatable characters to root for, but they don’t have that much to do once the outbreak begins (other than feed the undead animals, of course). The script doesn’t develop anyone beyond a few quirks and limited backstories, and a few instances of stilted acting don’t help either, though everyone is at least likable.
The story here also lacks most of the depth present in its influences, as it’s kind of hard to interpret any moral argument behind this violent animal rebellion when Eden Zoo doesn’t appear to be doing anything wrong to these creatures. Hell, it’s actually stated several times that the place is intended to be a safe haven for endangered species, which makes the outbreak more of an arbitrary tragedy than punishment for mankind’s attempts at playing god.
That being said, Zoombies doesn’t necessarily set out to make any artistic statements, so it’s not fair to judge it based on expectations born from other similar films. The goal here seems to be to simply have fun with a silly premise, and that’s exactly what Miller does. It’s hard not to be entertained by man-eating giraffes and surprise Koala attacks. Even if you’re not legitimately thrilled by these scenes, you’ll at least smile at how blatantly absurd they are.
The wildly fluctuating quality of these effects does end up hurting some of these sequences, as the CGI can go from decent to last-generation video game graphics in the blink of an eye. There are a few practical effects here and there (mostly involving a Cross River Gorilla named Kifo), but these aren’t much better, as they don’t mesh very well with the digital work. These faults are obviously due to the extremely limited budget, but they still detract from the overall experience.
In the end, despite (or maybe because of) its schlocky, low-budget origins, Zoombies is a consistently entertaining ride, even if this isn’t always intentional. It’s not necessarily a good movie, but it’s worth a watch if you’re up for some mindless fun and don’t mind the technical shortcomings.
Zoombies will be playing in select Cinemark theaters on October 19th as a part of Thursday Nights at The Asylum!
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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