Phil's Horror Watch: ZOOMBIES (2016) from The Asylum - May 5, 2016

ZOOMBIES DVD Cover (2016)

ZOOMBIES
Starring: Ione Butler, Andrew Asper, LaLa Nestor, Kim Nielsen, Marcus Anderson, Brianna Joy Chomer, Aaron Groben, Kaiwi Lyman
Written by Scotty Mullen
Cinematography by Bryan Koss
Edited by James Kondelik
Produced by David Michael Latt, Paul Bales & David Rimawi
Directed by Glenn Miller
Released by The Asylum

Those crazy people at The Asylum are at it again. For those of you who may not be familiar with them, The Asylum is an independent movie studio that focuses of making really bad, generic horror movie knockoffs of major Hollywood films. From SNAKES ON A TRAIN to TRANSMORPHERS, their movies have been dubbed "mockbusters" by those in the press. However, they hit the big time when their film SHARKNADO premiered on the SyFy network back in 2013. The movie had one of the biggest ratings ever on the channel and soon there were two more sequels, a television show called Z Nation (also on the SyFy network) and even more films. The tagline for their latest movie ZOOMBIES is "It's Jurassic World of the Dead." It's kind of a stretch, but it' not a bad movie either.

The film's official synopsis: When a strange virus quickly spreads through a safari park and turns all the zoo animals undead, those left in the park must stop the creatures before they escape and zombify the whole city.

Yes, they're not denying it that this is their take on JURASSIC WORLD. Hell, even their titles is in the same font and design as last year's summer blockbuster! It takes place at a safari park that looks very similar to the one seen in JURASSIC WORLD. The only differences is that it's safari animals instead of dinosaurs and there's a virus that's turning them into crazy, killing zombie animals. As cheesy as it sounds, it's actually a very silly and entertaining movie.

The man responsible for directing the movie is Glenn Miller. If that name doesn't sound familiar, that's because it shouldn't. Miller had only directed half a dozen films including the family film SANTA CLAWS, the horror/comedy THE COED AND THE ZOMBIE and THE BELL WITCH HAUNTNG. However, you may have seen in act in a couple SyFy movies like MEGA PYTHON VS. GATOROID, MEGA SHARK VS. CROCOSAURUS as well as other Asylum flicks like AIRPLANE VS. VOLCANO, 2012: ICE AGE and the formentioned SANTA CLAWS. Miller does a good job of keeping audiences glued to their seats with....ahhh who am I kidding......we're glued to our seats because we can't believe what the hell we're watching! The obscurity and ridiculousness is off the charts! There are zombie giraffes that are eating people! Zombie giraffes!! And there's these bad CGI monkeys at the beginning of the film that look so fake. Then to top it all off, they go old school at there's a man dressed up in a gorilla suit! Nice there's parts where it's a CGI gorilla but then it cuts to the rubber gorilla suit wearing guy! It's crazy to see something like that is today's world where everything is done in the computer. However, it was kinda cool to see that again. 

ZOOMBIES is a laugh-out-loud, low budget mockbuster masterpiece that will leave you sitting in your nacho cheese infested couch and thinking to yourself, "Why in the hell am I watching this stupid piece of crap?!?" Well, I'll tell you why little Jimmy! It's entertaining! It's funny! It's stupid! It's a "so bad it's good" type of movie, but then I expected nothing less from The Asylum! So if you're looking to totally switch your brain off for the next 90 minutes, then this movie is for you! 4 out of 5 stars!! Hilariously entertaining!!

ZOOMBIES  is currently available on DVD at your local retailer. It's also available on Redbox as well as on iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, Google Play and Video On Demand. To learn more about The Asylum and their movies, visit their website at www.theasylum.cc. Also checkout their Facebook page and follow them on Twitter as well.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the show!