Usually, when I hear the words "faith-based film" I quietly decide to skip it and move on. I was burned by too many church screenings in the mid-90s, especially those geared toward a youth audience. However, The Zombie Club is unique, and well-worth your time. It's a genuinely entertaining film where the message is clear without sacrificing the story. And, to be frank, it's much higher quality than the movies we sat through when I was a kid.
In a small town, a diverse group of students find themselves stuck with the typical high school labels (smart girl, jock, pretty girl, nerd, stoner, goth kid) and they can't get along because they are all too busy trying to fit in with their own tribe. Soon enough, those with the social clout to get away with it start to bully the unpopular students. Coincidentally, a group of bullies and the bullied end up in Saturday detention together. There they, and their delightfully absent-minded science teacher, are infected with toxic gas emanating from a shipment of poison dart frogs mistakenly sent to the public-school lab. From that time on, they find themselves endowed with supernatural powers, but this comes at a cost: They are slowly degrading mentally and within a few days they'll be dead... or maybe undead. Losing their humanity, however, causes them to find it in each other. The group ends up bonding and working together to curb bullying in their school.
Movie goers of a certain age will recognize the title of this film as a nod to the "The Breakfast Club" with which it shares many intentional similarities- From Saturday detention to a group of students bonding over the struggles of adolescence. For this and other reasons, The Zombie Club is a movie that can cross generations. But it hopes to cross social paradigms too. By the end of the story, viewers will likely find an open door to discuss bullying in general and that seems to be the filmmaker's intent. Somehow it achieves this without becoming too preachy or feeling bad. But it's more than a discussion starter. It's a fun movie in its own right. I'd recommend it for anyone.