RL STINE'S ZOMBIE TOWN (2023)

Based on an RL Stine novel ZOMBIE TOWN is the story of a young man and his friend who have to try and save their town when the new zombie film from legendary director Len Carver (Dan Akroyd)  turns everyone into brain munching zombies.

Appearing in American theaters in a kind of half-hearted release that back in the day would have resulted in my driving fifty or a hundred miles to see it, ZOMBIE TOWN is a sweet little film that the distributors weren’t sure how to handle. I can kind of understand that since the film is clearly aimed at a family audience however outside of animated films there really isn’t a theatrical market for families. That’s a shame since this is a film that was made with genuine love, even to the point that Chevy Chase actually turns in a good performance.

Tweaking things from the book, the characters are in high school and not 12, and things are a bit more adult, this is a nice upgrade from the novel. It is never juvenile, but always family friendly in the best sort of a way with some of the bits being fine for kids and having an edge for adults. What I like is that there is a nice blending of (low key) horror and humor, and while won’t scare the little ones too much it will keep the bigger kids and adults hooked as to what is happening. The only thing working against it is that it is an RL Stine story so you know it can’t get too dark.(If you go in expecting a full on horror film this is going to disappoint you)

As I said above the film was clearly made with love and it bleeds off the screen. You can feel that the community on screen is a real place. It helps that everyone turns in a real performance and doesn’t phone it in. I completely understand why Aykroyd, Chase and the others took part in the film because the result is something other than just a desire just to make money.

I had a good time with ZOMBIE TOWN. It's an old school horror comedy  akin to GOONIES. I enjoyed it enough that I want to revisit it, preferably with my niece who isn’t a big fan of horror films. It’s the sort of thing that might get her interested in things that go bump in the night.

While I know that the US release was scattershot so you might not catch it in a theater, it is something you’ll want to put on your to watch list especially with Halloween 8 weeks away (Hit its VOD October 1).

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