Plaga zombie (1997)

Directed by Pablo Parés [Other horror films: Nunca asistas a este tipo de fiestas (2000), Plaga zombie: Zona mutante (2001), Jennifer’s Shadow (2004), Nunca más asistas a este tipo de fiestas (2010), Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante: Revolución Tóxica (2011), Soy tóxico (2018)] & Hernán Sáez [Other horror films: Nunca asistas a este tipo de fiestas (2000), Plaga zombie: Zona mutante (2001), Nunca más asistas a este tipo de fiestas (2010), Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante: Revolución Tóxica (2011)]

From Argentina, Plaga zombie is a gory film, which is about all it really has to boast about. It’s a low-budget movie, with not much of a plot, and unfortunately, too much comedy to leave that positive an impression on me.

Despite their heavy budgetary limitations, the individuals behind this film got the gore right. It’s a massacre, with dismemberments, decapitations, tongues getting cut off, and a whole slew of bloody and gory situations. The problem is, that’s really all this movie has.

Throughout most of the film, we have our main characters fighting zombies. And fighting zombies. There’s a sequence near the beginning which was a bit slower, but for the most part, it’s an all-out brawl with the undead, which wouldn’t be that bad in a short, but for a movie that’s seventy minutes long (which is luckily shorter than average), it just felt like it was dragging and dragging.

What didn’t help was the heavy comedic influence – I’m not against comedy mixed with my horror, but when it gets too silly or ridiculous, I check out, and it didn’t take long whatsoever for that to happen here.

Hard work went into making this, and it’s an impressive film for what they had to work with. I’m certainly not giving this one a lower rating because of the budget. The problem is that Plaga zombie is just so damn repetitive (which could be said for many zombie movies, in all fairness), and while it might have made a fine and enjoyable short, for a whole movie, I didn’t think it worked that well.

This Argentina flick has the gore, no doubt, and a lot of heart, but overall, it’s not something I’d want to see again (and it doesn’t make me too excited for the sequels either).

4/10