DVD Review – Kill Zombie

Kill Zombie is released on DVD this week in the UK, but is it a game changer or just a game copier? Stu takes a look.

Another week, another zombie film.  It’s hard to believe that zombie films seemed so out of fashion until Danny Boyle’s 2002 film, 28 Days Later.  Hardly a week goes by now where there isn’t a new one released.  Fortunately, filmmakers are always coming up with new ways for us to watch the undead being dispatched.  Kill Zombie! is a Dutch zombie film set in Amsterdam, and is heavily influenced by Edgar Wright’s 2004 zom-rom-com, Shaun of the Dead.

The hero in Kill Zombie! is Aziz (Gaier), an office worker who is sacked from his job after his hard partying brother calls him too many times.  After a scuffle breaks out at  a party that they are both attending, they find themselves in jail. 

Unfortunately, whilst they are in jail, a Russian space station falls out of the sky and hits Aziz’s former place of employment.  Something then starts turning the residents into zombies.

The coolest thing about Kill Zombie! is that it is a zombie film set in Amsterdam.  That’s not to say that it is a terrible film, but it borrows very heavily from Shaun of the Dead, and also from Edgar Wright’s other works – Particularly Spaced but some of the video game style visuals brought back memories of Scott Pilgrim Vs The World.  The problem with Kill Zombie! being so reminiscent of Shaun of the Dead is that I spent most of the film thinking about how good that film was.

The story is very flimsy too, with Aziz trying to get back to his former workplace to save a girl that he has been on one date with.  There are some real problems with the way that the film treats women, they are never really fleshed out and even the female member of the cast is cast aside at times so the men can have more banter.  The women of the film feel like they are prizes for the men, and really isn’t acceptable.  The dialogue is at times, hateful.  There are at least two times when a woman is referred to as a “slut” and there is also an occasion where one of the male characters is jokingly called a “poof”.  Whilst this is clearly in jest, it isn’t funny.

Kill Zombie’s biggest fault is that as a comedy it isn’t very funny.  I had gone into the film prepared to like it, but I really only laughed once or twice, and even then it was only a little.  The comedy sometimes feels too self aware – there’s a standout moment where one character references Scarface and another chides him for saying something so clichéd – and it’s just embarrassing.

I was so keen to like Kill Zombie! but I came away from it disappointed.  Setting a zombie film in an unusual place really isn’t enough to make a film worth watching.  Underneath all the parts of Kill Zombie! that I didn’t like, there is a good film in there somewhere, but you’ll really have to look hard for it.

Kill Zombie! is released on DVD in UK on 17th September