When Samuel (Edward Furlong) makes a pact with the voodoo god Kalfu (Corey Feldman) to become the Zombie King and live for eternity with his recently-deceased wife, he didn’t count on coming up against such formidable foes as Ed the postman, Boris the jumpy, nervous, borderline man-child traffic warden and portly, potty-mouthed milkman, Munch. These three unlikely heroes find themselves surrounded by zombies one day, and fate brings them together with several other strangers in a battle of survival that leads to a showdown with not only the Zombie King but also Kalfu himself…
Very much coming across like a super low-budget version of Shaun of the Dead, The Zombie King is one of those films that’s easy to find fault with but still manages to be consistently entertaining. There’s a lot of “this place isn’t safe… nowhere is” cheesy zombie movie dialogue, but the majority of the cast seem to be aware of the silliness and play their parts with at least half a tongue in cheek. It’s very puerile and sweary but in a very British way and, while a few performances are rather on the wooden side, there are some especially delightful turns from David McClelland as Munch, Jane Foufas’ 50-something mutton-dressed-as-lamb Vera, and Jon Campling (Final Fantasy‘s King Regis and Otis from The Devil’s Rejects lookalike) as the drunken priest, Father Lawrence, who all seem to revel in the campy and filthy dialogue they’ve been given.
It’s low on special effects and gore (for a zombie film, at least), cover stars Furlong and Feldman appear on-screen for less than 10 minutes in total and, being a low-budget production, technical standards are less than stellar. But there’s always something going on, it never drags, and if you’re in the right frame of mind, you’ll definitely laugh out loud more than once. If you ever wanted a mash-up of Viz comic, Dawn of the Dead and The Vicar of Dibley, Zombie King is exactly what you’ve been looking for!
Release date: May 4th (US)
