ZA: Zombies Anonymous (2007) 6/10

ZA: Zombies Anonymous is a unique zombie film that poses the question: What if intelligent zombies actually existed, and how would they be treated by the rest of society?

The film begins with a boyfriend murdering his girlfriend after a heated argument. From here on we follow the recently zombified girl and the murdering boyfriend as they try to exist in a new world. We see the difficulties and prejudice the zombies experience as well as the fear and anger of the living. The murderer joins an anti-zombie militia while the girl joins an anti-living militia. Action and violence ensues.

Thank goodness some intelligent zombie flicks are starting to pop up. Fido was one of the first films, and there it was mostly a commentary of 50's American society. Here the film poses many unique questions like, do zombies continue to get the government disability they received when they were alive? Can a zombie stand trial and accuse their killer? What would society feel about zombies working side by side with the living? Essentially its a film about prejudice put into a horror context, and rather intelligently too. Its nice to see the horror genre being used as a satirical and social commentary rather then simply senseless violence. I cannot praise the script writers enough here for the audacity to take on such a huge subject as prejudice. The problem is the film was originally 108 minutes and was cut to 91, and the cuts are pretty rough. Towards the end of the film the motivations and relationships between characters become confusing. I feel that some essential material was taken out in order to cut the run time. That's a shame because it certainly negatively impacts the film. Don't get me wrong, a film like this shouldn't be pushing two hours, but there may have been other less essential scenes to cut. Beyond that the anti-zombie militia leader is terribly written and acted even worse. The woman that plays the role is not convincing and comes off as irritating and unbelievable. She plays a fairly significant role in the film and it really brings the project down on the whole. The last 15 minutes of the film are nothing more then poorly acted and poorly directed action scenes that get tiresome very quickly.

In the end ZA: Zombies Anonymous is an excellent micro budget attempt on a difficult subject. Sadly the last 15 minutes killed it for me and pulled the film from a solid 7 down into a 6. Check it out if you're looking for a unique indie horror flick but be prepared for a shaky ending.

Gore - mild

Nudity- none

Overall - 6/10