The ZRC tried to be optimistic about this film. After all, right in the title it claims to love Zombies!

Love! That’s good, right? Friendly? Tolerant?

Wrong. Oh-so-wrong. Because unfortunately, tragically, this film ‘loves’ Zombies in a very perverse, yet common way. They love to HURT Zombies.

This is actually a very common misuse of the language by the way. At a convention if someone tells the ZRC they ‘love Zombies’, half the time they’re really saying they ‘love to DESTROY Zombies’.

Which we resent, by the way. Not only is it imprecise to shorten your idea that way, it’s profoundly intolerant! Shame!!

Ahem.

So what is ‘For Love of Zombies’ really about? Well, in a pre-screening talk the movie was described as a ‘fanboy film’, and that at least is fair – this is a movie by, and for, those who cherish ‘Night of the Living Dead’. Just take a look at how they mimic the opening sequence from ‘Night’:

I have to admit, that’s some craftsmanship in your hate.

The film opens with your four, ahem, protagonists, consisting of two unhappy couples, heading to Evans City’s infamous cemetery on a sort of Romero pilgrimage. The two guys in the car, Pete and Jake, worship Romero to a level that qualifies as idolatry (and I’d put good money on someone having a shrine in their closet back home). Their girlfriends, Valerie and Brianna? Not at all.

So driving all the way to rural Pennsylvania to see a cemetery is causing relationship strain.

Naturally, our two pilgrims want to see the sights and take lots of pictures of themselves palling around the grounds, imagining themselves in the movie. For some reason, never explained or even really questioned, a Zombie Apocalypse begins at the cemetery, and our Zombie haters get to Live the Dream, as it were. Will they survive? Not saying. Will they even consider the feelings of the Undead they’ve grown up maligning? Nope! (Not really a spoiler)

This film raises some interesting questions for the ZRC. How do we stop people conflating Love of Zombies and Love of Harming Zombies? What can we do to stem the Romero fanboy tide, still rising after almost fifty years of hatred?

And do people really go to an actual cemetery to goof around and celebrate ‘Night of the Living Dead’? Complete with fake blood getting on the headstones? That seems kind of.. crass. I wonder if any mourning relatives ever cross paths with that revelry.

Awkward.

At any rate, The Zombie Rights Campaign was forced to award ‘For Love of Zombies’ with our second-lowest rating, the dread ‘Anti-Zombie’ ranking.

For shame. For shame of Zombies.

Thanks again to Chicago Fear Fest for showing us this movie!

Tags: Movies, Public Appearance, ZRC Reviews

This entry was posted by John Sears on Sunday, April 22nd, 2012 at 8:16 pm and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.