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Film: We Are Zombies
Year: 2023
Directors: François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell
Writers: François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell
Starring: Alexandre Nachi, Derek Johns and Megan Peta Hill
Review:
This was a movie that I got the chance to see when Simply Legendary Publicity reached out to see if I’d be interested in the screener. I’m a zombie fan when they’re done right. It is a sub-genre that has been a bit over saturated as of late. This also is a comedy, which doesn’t always work for me either. Regardless, this gave me a 2024 watch, getting its wide release this year. I also wanted to give it a second watch to see how I sat with it as well.
Synopsis: in a city infested with the living-impaired aka non-cannibal zombies – three slackers, after easy money, must fight small-time crooks and an evil mega corporation to save their kidnapped grandma.
We start this off with images and getting voice-over narration. One thing that stuck out was that there’s a sign stating the name of the city as Necropolis. We then see a zombie knocking a milkshake out of the hand of Freddy Mercks (Derek Johns). He’s irate, even more so when the zombie asks for money. This is a good set up that for unknown reasons, the dead are coming back to life. Life has gone on normally despite that. These zombies also have rights and the politically correct term is ‘living impaired’.
There is a corporation that extracts zombies though. It is named after its owner, Coleman. Freddy and his friend, Karl Neard (Alexandre Nachi), are workers who collect the dead. We see them both picking up a guy and it ends up with the wife getting bitten. The truth though, they’re conmen. Thanks to Maggie (Megan Peta Hill), who is Karl’s half-sister, they’re able to arrive before Stanley (Patrick Abellard) and Rocco (Marc-André Boulanger) who are the real extractors. She used to work for Coleman but was fired. An indicator is that the conmen also only take cash.
They also then take the zombies to an odd rich guy named Otto Maddox (Stéphane Demers). The problem is that they’re doing it at a discount due to not being good at what they do. There is a repercussion here. Hannity (Benz Antoine) catches on that Stanley and Rocco aren’t bringing in the bodies for his experiments. He has issues of his own though, when the boss, Bob Coleman (Guy Nadon), gets a demonstration that fails. This causes issues and it rolls down to the extraction team.
Stanley lays a trap for Karl and Freddy. They owe money so they’re having this bumbling duo collect it for them. There is an opportunity with Otto. It involves bringing the zombie of a famous actor, Zelvirella (Rosemarie Sabor), to him so he can bring her as a date to an art showing. This proves more difficult than thought and this leads them to a camgirl named Jane (Sabor). Hannity has other plans that might bring about a true zombie apocalypse.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that I had a blast with this movie. Now I’ve not seen this filmmaking/writing team’s film of Turbo Kid, which is their most popular amongst the independent circuit. I have seen Summer of 84, which I am a big fan of. That was enough for me to check this out to see what we’d get.
Now that I’ve set that up, let me say that we have an interesting Zom/Com. If you know me, then you know I’m not always the biggest fan. It is a hard act to balance. This is more of a comedy than a horror film. This does have good make up and effects for the zombie, which helps. I also just like the group of characters that we follow. There are things that bring them to life with their quirks. I also love that as this goes on, it becomes more of a horror film. Where it ends up is great. To me, this almost feels like the opposite of how the story is presented in Shaun of the Dead. I’ll just leave that there.
Where I then want to go is the social commentary that I picked up. There is the idea here of capitalism and how it is bad. It’s not in your face though. Coleman is extracting the zombies for experiments. I get the idea that what he’s looking for is a way to reverse it. I could be wrong there. Hannity’s research has led to where the zombies explode which upsets his boss and threatens to send him to Malaysia due to the amount of money the experiments have wasted. There is a darker side effect that we see later. It made for a great climax at the art showing which I enjoyed.
The last thing to include here is the world building. Zombies have become a way of life to the point where they almost look at it as a ‘disability’. It is funny that this is using the concept of being politically correct and using it on the undead. It made me laugh and is also an interesting look at the state of the world. What is also interesting is that the zombies aren’t aggressive. We have ones that are homeless people. Zelvirella is an actor and this persona is also used for a camgirl. Their bites can turn people. They can be killed with trauma to the brain. They can also talk and hold other jobs. I love though what happens in the end and this leaves the state of world as well.
That should be enough for the story so let’s go over to the acting. This wouldn’t work if Nachi, Johns and Hill couldn’t play off each other as well as they do. I love that Nachi is the nerdy Karl. Freddy is the big idiot of the group who has a crush on Maggie. She is the one that came up with the idea to make easy money since she can still access the Coleman servers. I’ve left jobs where I could still login, which fits the real corporate world. Antoine slowly becomes a villain which I liked. Nadon works as the head of the corporation. Clare Coulter fits in as the grandmother and she adds levity. Abellard, Boulanger and Demers help to progress the story as well as raise tension. Credit to everyone who is a zombie as well.
All that is left then is filmmaking. Now being that this is a comedy, I don’t know if it raises much in the way of tension until the climax. The implications there were good though. This did make me laugh so that helped me go along for the ride. I’d say that the effects that we got were solid. It looks to be practical with almost everything that was possible. The look of the zombies were great. The gore we got was as well. I’d also say that a soundtrack fit was needed as well.
In conclusion, this is a fun Zom/Com. I’m not always the biggest fan since they tend to lean more into humor than horror. This one falls into that, but we have characters that I like, we get great practical effects and it gets darker as it goes. The acting of our leads was good. The effects were on point and I’ll credit the cinematography for hiding seams. The world building is also something that helps as well. Not one that I think everyone will like. I’m just a fan of this filmmaking team so I’d continue to check out their works.
My Rating: 7.5 out of 10