"AAH! Zombies!!" represents the latest evolution in the zombie movie genre: Zombies as protagonists.
Tim (Michael Grant Terry), Mike (Matthew Davis), Vanessa (Julianne Robinson), and Cindy (Betsy Beutler) are hanging out at the bowling alley they work at (well, except Mike, who just likes to mooch free food), when a truck full of zombie-making goo crashes, spilling some into the bowling alley's ice cream supply.
With the quartet partake of the soft serve, they turn into mindless zombies...though they don't know that. To each other, they're the same people they were, but to the rest of the world they're mindless undead killers.
So they go lurching around, wondering about the random, unexplainable hunger they have, and wonder why they can take shotgun blasts to the torso and hardly flinch.
There's a bit of romance as well, which may also be the first zombie-on-zombie lovefest (the zombie romcom "My Boyfriend's Back" is, to my recollection, the first and only film of its kind, but was interspecies), as Tim and Cindy start making googly eyes at each other.
For an independent film, the visual effects are surprisingly good. At times they look cheesy, but it's by design, and when they're really trying the effects actually look pretty decent. There's also a nifty visual device where the zombies see each other in color, but on occasion we get shots of the "real world" in black and white.
There are no real "movie stars," but longtime character actors Richard Riehle ("Office Space") and Tracey Walter ("Batman") make appearances. The acting is sufficiently hammy, going for the intentionally bad route.
"AAAH! Zombies!!" is not a great film, nor is it a particularly effective zombie movie (it actually fails to adhere to most of the zombie rules, though it does have a crack on the fast-moving zombies). What it is, is a breezy, silly, fun movie that keeps you wondering and maybe even a bit surprised at what happens.
The extras are virtually nil (with only a music video and trailers), but with a true indie like this one it's hardly a surprise. The film stands on its own.
Film: 3.5 Yaps Extras: 1 Yap