DVD Review: Zombieworld

By Brad Henderson

Even talking about Zombieworld seems silly to me. Dread Central recently released a “movie” anthology of zombie shorts. That seems interesting at first, but when you notice that the shorts are have been around for a few years and are simply strung together with no wraparound, you realize this was just a sloppy and lazy way to make a quick buck.

I might be singing a different tune if these shorts were good, but they are boring and bland. Honestly, it seems that the idea was to make a zombie anthology, but the filmmakers soon realized it would be cheaper if they found shorts of pre-existing zombie films and just lumped them together instead of producing new ones. In a way this is cool because it gives the filmmakers a chance for their shorts to be widely seen and actually make some money, but on the other hand it feels tacky and completely unnecessary.

I’m sure your average Joe won’t notice it, but I know a lot of horror fans will. Zombieworld is not only a sloppy movie, but also one in which all the shorts are completely misplaced. By using the name Zombieworld—which is very close to Zombieland—and also using similar artwork, it feels like they are planning on duping the average person into thinking it’s a spinoff. This is a tactic that The Asylum uses. Yeah, those are the guys that did Transmorphers, Atlantic Rim, Abraham Lincoln Vs. Zombies, Almighty Thor, Battle Of Los Angeles, and many others. (Wikipedia has a pretty good list of their films and what they are actually knocking off.)

As far as the shorts in Zombieland go, there are only a couple that are actually decent and fun. There is a Jesus short that is bloody and insane and it sets the mood perfectly. There is another mindless short that I actually saw at a festival a couple of years back called Brutal Relax. It’s about a guy with a temper tantrum killing zombies for fun. In addition to these, you are given an extra hour of slow and mundane zombie shorts that will bore you to death.

Sorry Dread Central, I don’t mean to be a dick, but it feels like you followed The Asylum template with this one. I understand why you did it and I think your heart is in the right place, but I just can’t get into it. If the people behind this project had clearly stated what the movie was and titled it a little differently, I think viewers would be more forgiving and accept it for what it is, but camouflaging it as something else just seems like the wrong thing to do.

Zombieworld was released by Image Entertainment on February 24.