WYRMWOOD (review)

Review by Mark Wensel

We live in a time when zombies are on prime time television.

Yes, they’re on cable, but it still counts.

That’s why it always amazes me when someone can come up with something new in the genre.

We seem to be inundated with the undead. They’re more popular than ever and that makes them harder than ever to deal with. Some of their biggest fans are starting to get sick of them.

I haven’t, though. I can still watch a good zombie movie.

It just seems to be harder to find them lately.

Barry (Jay Gallagher) is a family man in Australia. One morning, he and his little family wake up to find a zombie in their kitchen. Luckily, Barry is also a mechanic, so he has lots of tools around to dispatch the zombie.

They hit the road and tragedy strikes.

Meanwhile, his sister Brooke (Bianca Bradey) is kidnapped by a group of mysterious soldiers. A crazy Judge Doom-esque scientist chains her up and adds her to his experiments. And painful experiments they are.

This is about when Barry meets his plucky sidekick, Benny (Leon Burchill).

The movie has its moments of violence and humor. These guys deck themselves out like rejects from the Mad Max films and they blow the hell outta some zombies.

And, of course, the psycho doctor is pretty close to Dr. Heiter in the first Human Centipede. He’s sick. He does horrible things to people. And he’s joyful while he does it. This is his life’s work and there’s finally no one around to throw him in the looney bin for doing it…all to a kickin’ soundtrack.

But the first part of the movie very nearly makes it seem like it’s going to be a Walking Dead-like drama about the aftermath of having to kill your own loved ones. When one of the first lines is, “I had to kill my wife and daughter. I don’t know how to turn that into a story.” you know you’re in for something heart wrenching.

When it turns into an Aussie-sploitation zombie comedy, it’s almost jarring.

But Aussie-sploitation it is, and it’s actually a damn good one at that.

The acting is top-notch for this kind of flick. The action is even better. Barry and Brooke kick ass.

And it’s a damn sight better than the last Aussie zombie flick I saw, Undead.