This is a whole heap of grotesque fun, if you are in the mood for it. Comedy is virtually impossible to get right for everyone. And yet this fusion of body horror and overplayed humour is very enjoyable. I say 'overplayed' - that is not strictly accurate. Only the monstrous are encouraged to 'heighten' their performances - the townsfolk are allowed to play things fairly straight.
A small town is transformed into a zombie's paradise by an unspecified meteor landing. First to be affected is Grant (Michael Rooker), brutish husband of heroine Starla (Elizabeth Banks), who undergoes a gradual, hideous but deliberately ridiculous transformation into the hive-mind, whereby all future infected people share his mindset. Conveniently, this means that when (what has become of) Grant is destroyed, all the others are too. But there is a whole horror-show to get through before that even becomes a possibility.
The numerous visual effects and their designers do an incredible job creating a convincing society descent into bloody chaos. Director and Writer James Gunn indulges his story with a growing sense of perversity - with truly appalling tragic moments accompanied by cheesy love songs which ensure we are never invited to take things seriously.
A small town is transformed into a zombie's paradise by an unspecified meteor landing. First to be affected is Grant (Michael Rooker), brutish husband of heroine Starla (Elizabeth Banks), who undergoes a gradual, hideous but deliberately ridiculous transformation into the hive-mind, whereby all future infected people share his mindset. Conveniently, this means that when (what has become of) Grant is destroyed, all the others are too. But there is a whole horror-show to get through before that even becomes a possibility.
The numerous visual effects and their designers do an incredible job creating a convincing society descent into bloody chaos. Director and Writer James Gunn indulges his story with a growing sense of perversity - with truly appalling tragic moments accompanied by cheesy love songs which ensure we are never invited to take things seriously.