When Lima is hit by a zombie outbreak, luckless student Filipe attempts to save his unrequited love, his childhood friend Claudia. After surviving the initial attacks the pair end up in the company of macho supermarket security guard Arias and a philosophical drunkard constantly in search of his next bottle, and they try to survive in a city infested with the undead.
Aj Zombies! is adapted from a web series of the same name, and as such the plot is a little disjointed, consisting of a series of vignettes linked together by the group’s attempt to escape from the zombie-overrun streets of Lima. Each section brings with it new ideas, so despite the fractured structure the film never gets boring or repetitive.
The Aj of the title (pronounced Aye) is a Spanish-speaking way of saying ‘Eww’, and nicely sets the tone of the film before it’s even begun. It’s a lazy shortcut to invoke Shaun of the Dead when talking about a zombie comedy, but in this case the comparison is actually warranted due to a similar theme of the outbreak propagating due to nobody realising what’s going on until it’s too late since everyone is too wrapped up in the minutiae of their own lives. The film also has a streak of social commentary running through it, showing the isolation many people feel, along with the wide disparity of Peru’s class division, with the haggard-looking zombies being mistaken for street beggars or poor servants wilfully ignoring the zombified states of their rich employers.
The small core cast allows the film to remain focused, their distinctive and clashing personalities a constant source of material. Things like Arias insists on referring to himself in the third person and speaking in a Bale Batman growl, or the drunk (we never actually find out his name) being so utterly hammered he remains completely oblivious to the reality of what’s actually happening, to the extent that during a fourth-wall-breaking Rashomon-style recap, his perception of the preceding events was an elaborate song and dance number. As a rich spoiled princess, Claudia’s selfishness and entitlement initially make her difficult to empathise with, but she gradually softens as the film progresses when she realises how much Filipe would do for her despite never being thanked, and is even allowed a few moments of humour such as offering a declaration of ‘valar morghulis’ before facing a horde, to everyone else’s bemusement.
It’s possibly a result of the film’s web series origins, but at the end the story doesn’t quite seem finished, with a major plot thread left hanging but its resolution heavily implied, and the feeling that events have yet to truly arrive at a natural stopping point. But to be honest, when the rest of the film is this much fun, it’s hard to hold that against it.
Aj Zombies! is a fun and lively thrill ride that thinks a little on the way, and is a solid entry in the rom-zom-com subgenre well worth your time if it ever comes your way.
AJ ZOMBIES! / CERT: TBA / DIRECTOR: DANIEL MARTÍN RODRÍGUEZ / SCREENPLAY: PABLO CARRILLO, GONZALO RODRÍGUEZ RISCO, BRUNO ROSINA / STARRING: EMILRAM COSSÍO, ANAHÍ DE CÁRDENAS, CÉSAR RITTER, MIGUEL IZA / RELEASE DATE: TBA
