Zombieland
Directed by Ruben Fleischer
Columbia Pictures, 2009
By Sean Kelly
According to Zombieland, there are over 30 rules you have to follow in order to survive a zombie apocalypse. The film then goes on to spare no effort in comically reminding you of these rules with giant blocky text every time one of them is followed (or not).
This is probably the first straight-out zombie comedy since 2004’s Shaun of the Dead, which was apparently the film that inspired the filmmakers to do Zombieland. But unlike Edgar Wright’s film, which aimed to be a serious zombie horror film with comedic situations, this film is pure comedy all the way.
The film centres around Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), who is travelling across the US searching for a safe haven from the zombies, who have all but taken over the country. He has survived so far by strictly following the aforementioned rules. These include pieces of advice such as being wary while in washrooms (apparently zombies like eating you when you’re doing #2), making sure you stay in good shape (with all the running you have to do), and not to hesitate in making sure a zombie’s dead by doing a headshot.
Columbus is eventually joined by Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a loudmouth with a quick trigger finger and a craving for Twinkies. The two are then (almost against their will) accompanied by a pair of con artist sisters (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin). The story from here is that the four characters have to stay alive long enough in order to make it to a theme park in California, where they think that they might be safe. Along the way, they stop off at the house of a certain celebrity for some hilarious hijinx. It’s probably no big secret at this point who this celebrity is (initials B.M.), but with a zombie apocalypse all over the country, it’s probably no surprise that this who they decided to call.
Zombieland delivers a very fun and hilarious film. Even though I said earlier that it concentrates more on comedy than horror, the film still has plenty of the over-the-top violence to satisfy the gorehounds in the audience.
Between this film and Paranormal Activity, it was definitely refreshing to find a better choice of horror films this Halloween season than the latest installment of the Saw franchise. It’s good to be able to choose your thrills.
This is in my top 10 favourite movies of this year, for sure. Probably top five, actually.
Oh oh, there is a typo. I meant THE filmmakers not TWO filmmakers.