“I’ll never watch another zombie movie again!” 

When Amy (Madi Monroe) and Mike (Marlon Kazadi) uncover a centuries-old curse after watching an exclusive film reel, they must quickly track down an infamous filmmaker and navigate a town of hungry zombies before it’s too late to break the curse.

With “Zombie Town”, Peter Lepeniotis offers a horror comedy that revisits genre clichés while bringing a modern twist. 

The return of old-school stars 

Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, and R.L. Stine… you can’t say “Zombie Town” reeks of youth. At the same time, it’s the presence of these two comedic legends that made me want to watch this film. Because to be honest, I love Dan Aykroyd.

So, with no great expectations but with some anticipation, I decided to dive into this work. At times, you could almost think you were back in the 1970s when Chase and Aykroyd were the headliners of SNL. Moreover, some sequences seem to be semi-improvised. You can also recognize the typical humor of the show.

Anyway, Aykroyd is always a pleasure to watch. He still has that deadpan comedic aura. He’s perfect in this role of a grumpy old man. Chevy Chase seems older. He’s clearly had better days. But his small role remains enjoyable. After all, he’s probably the one who best represents holiday cinema in North America.

LOL

Let’s be honest first. “Zombie Town” isn’t a great movie. It’s more like what could become a Halloween movie classic. It’s not really a horror movie, either. No more than “The Blues Brothers” is a police movie. Although I’m not ready to put these two films in the same category, they have in common that they appropriate the codes of a subgenre and make a kind of parody that remains watchable.

The two movie legends mentioned above are not the center of the action. It’s more Marlon Kazadi and Madi Monroe who make the ups and downs of the film. The young man is excellent in this leading role. He makes his character credible while mixing humor and seriousness. Madi Monroe is less convincing. The duo works well, but she doesn’t manage to make the sauce rise like her counterpart.

Nevertheless, we laugh a lot watching “Zombie Town”. We laugh at the situations and the jokes, but we especially laugh at the cheap side of the film, which perfectly represents what a horror movie parody should be. Even more so when talking about zombie movies, because, often, they were very low-budget films.

A little more…

So, this film is not grandiose. The plot is not very original (after all, it’s a parody) and the screenplay relies mainly on the effectiveness of the gags and situations. Dan Aykroyd is perfect in his role as a villain of the poor, zombie controller. You almost feel like you’re in the first “Ghostbusters”.

The director also reserves a nice surprise towards the end with a superb shot that I won’t reveal the surprise of. But it’s also the scene that the oldest will wait for throughout the film, as it will finally bring Chase and Aykroyd together on screen.

“Zombie Town” is far from a masterpiece, but it will certainly please in this Halloween season.