As the first film presented by the Dread Central website, Zombieworld would be expected to be a full-fledged horror film. Instead, it’s a collection of about a dozen shorts, most of which existed prior to this project, not to mention an outright comedy. That’s not a bad thing — just something its packaging takes great pains to hide.
Loosely tying the segments together is the ongoing newscast of anchorman Marvin Gloatt (Bill Oberst Jr., Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies) as the world succumbs to a zombie apocalypse, himself included. In increasing states of decomposition, Gloatt and his toupee break away to reports from around the globe. These are the shorts, of course, involving everything from a convenience store to a mailman to a video game. One resembles found footage, while another a mock training film. The bit set in Australia contains no levity whatsoever, making it stick out for all the wrong reasons.
Doing so for the right reasons are the hysterical, over-the-top bookends by Spanish co-directors David Muñoz and Adrián Cardona: Fist of Jesus, which pits Christ and sidekick Judas against a horde of the undead, and Brutal Relax, following a mental patient on a beach holiday interrupted by an invasion of zombies from the sea. Gleeful in their goriness, both pieces seem like Mad magazine parodies adapted for the screen by Sam Raimi circa Evil Dead 2.
Representing the collective work of 14 directors, Zombieworld is not an all-star celebration along the lines of The ABCs of Death — unless you consider Wrestlemaniac influential or noteworthy (and I sure don’t, as that 2006 luchador slasher is barely watchable) — so approach it as an opportunity be exposed to the genre’s potential up-and-comers. All in all, the movie is as uneven as a vertiginous hunchback attempting to stay atop a rolling log, but the shorts that do hit merit the time invested. —Rod Lott