Review: Attack of the Vegan Zombies! (2010)

[Mark R. Leeper]

                   ATTACK OF THE VEGAN ZOMBIES!
                (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

     CAPSULE: The vines go after the people and the
     zombies go after the wine in ATTACK OF THE VEGAN
     ZOMBIES!  Writer/director/star Jim Townsend has a feel
     for older horror films and fresher ideas for a zombie
     movie.  The action scenes do not work really well, but
     Townsend knows not to let this degenerate into too much of
     the spoof too soon.  The film is available from amazon.com.
     Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10

The first nice surprise about ATTACK OF THE VEGAN ZOMBIES! is that
at least for a while it is not at all the sort of tongue-in-cheek
spoof that the title suggests it is.  Instead it is a low budget
horror film with feet firmly planted in the 1960s low-budget horror
film.  In fact, if it were not for the obvious digital texture of
the visuals, it might feel like a 1960s drive-in attraction.  The
story at least begins by taking itself seriously with a few lapses.
This film could have taken advantage of its low budget to add more
realism, but writer/director/actor Jim Townsend--a freshman at each
of these jobs--was apparently not sure that was what he wanted to
do.

Joe Bryant (played by Townsend) and his wife Dionne (Christine
Egan) are having a hard time making their vineyard and winery work.
The crops have a long history of not doing well at this location
under the control of both Dionne's father and later of Joe.  Dionne
wants to make a go of it and asks for the help of her mother, whom
only Dionne knows is a genuine, modern-day witch.  The mother
(H. Lynn Smith) agrees to use a fertility spell that includes using
some of Joe's blood, blood that the witch does not know is a little
polluted with alcohol.  The spell makes an extremely robust crop,
so much so that a local professor brings four of his students to
the vineyard to study the phenomenon.  The students are two very
exaggerated nerdy-Trekkies who add a little unwelcome comic relief
and two gratuitous lesbians to do what they do best.  Sadly, the
vines are just a little too robust as well as being predators
looking for--not blood for once--but wine.  They go after people
because the people have wine in their blood if they have been
drinking.  (I don't think it is still wine when it hits the
bloodstream, maybe some sugars and some alcohol--but I can go with
it.)  The vine's victims return to life as green-skinned zombie
winos.  By this point a little too much of the film's earlier
serious tone has been compromised and squandered.

This film could have used its low-budget more wisely.  But the
creation of green-skinned zombies does not work for the film.
First, they look like an image out of the original Star Trek of the
1960s.  Secondly, the green makeup does not cover the flesh-tone
skin beneath.  They never look like green people; they look like
normal people in green greasepaint, which is what they are.  More
care could have been taken with the makeup.  Townsend and Egan turn
in acceptable performances that get the idea across effectively in
roles that are not greatly demanding.  And cinematographer Max
Fisher does a particularly good job of creatively framing the
action.

The comic relief is not particularly funny, but the nostalgic 1960s
feel to the film makes it all worthwhile.  And it is nice to see a
few fresh ideas in a horror film for a change.  I rate this a high
+1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10.

Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1380852/>

					Mark R. Leeper
					mleeper at optonline.net
					Copyright 2010 Mark R. Leeper