‘Zombie Strain’ Review: A Perplexing Stoner Horror Comedy
I love horror movies. And I am equally fond of the cannabis plant. So, films that mix stoner humor with gory genre tropes are right up my alley. Seeing as Michael Seabolt’s Zombie Strain fits that very bill, I went into the flick with hopes of discovering a quirky horror comedy made with marijuana connoisseurs in mind. Unfortunately, the film never congeals as such. It’s a collection of mismatched parts with an incoherent script, challenging performances, and subpar cinematography.
The setup for Zombie Strain is this:
Zombie Strain bills itself as a film about a group of interns (and the owner of a sound stage) who discover a wicked cannabis strain that will somehow help thwart the zombie apocalypse. There are pieces of that promise within the narrative. However, the titular strain has nearly no bearing on the outcome of the story, aside from rendering one character so stoned that she briefly manages to blend amongst the infected. Aside from that, the cast never harnesses the power of the special strain. The film would have ended in the exact same way without that aspect included, making its presence somewhat superfluous.
That’s far from the only aspect of Zombie Strain that’s perplexing. Gregory M. Schroeder’s script is incoherent, piecing together a series of sequences that pad the film out to feature length. Yet nothing really happens. In one case, a character comes out as queer by suddenly kissing another character of the same gender. That moment is never mentioned again. It adds nothing to the narrative or to the arcs of the characters involved. The kiss comes out of left field without rhyme or reason.
Actually, none of the characters really have an arc that allows them to stretch, grow, or do much of anything. We just exist with these people as they do very little while learning absolutely nothing.
The camerawork is beyond bad.
The camerawork is also really rough. Much of the footage is presented from the perspective of a BTS guy, who is capturing footage for … something. It doesn’t look like he used a tripod, Steadicam, or any other suitable option to stabilize the camera. There are a lot of choppy pans that whip back and forth to showcase different characters without a cut. It’s messy-looking and distracting.
There are multiple scenes where the characters’ heads are partially or entirely obscured from the frame. The camera whips around, zooming in and out to make different characters visible as they recite their lines. This technique gets the job done, but it cheapens the look and feel of the film.
Also troublesome is the acting. It ranges from wooden to completely unbearable. The best actors amongst the key players turn in community theater-level performances. The less-skilled thespians completely derail the proceedings. Chandni Shah’s Zoe is supposed to be high for the bulk of the film. However, she isn’t able to convincingly sell that conceit. To her credit, she manages to be endearing on occasion.
Zombie Strain is a horror comedy with no scares or laughs to speak of.
Another major challenge is that the film isn’t funny, nor is it ever remotely scary. Most of the kills transpire off-camera, and none of the humor landed for me. Comedy is often subjective, but the attempts to inspire laughter in Zombie Strain aren’t funny by any standard. I’m talking about tired dad jokes and lowest-common-denominator sex humor with wonky timing.
Perhaps the film’s greatest sin is that there isn’t a proper lead character. The film features a large ensemble cast without really committing to a single protagonist. Nate (Cameron Vitosh) is the de facto lead by virtue of being the first of the interns introduced. However, he isn’t what I’d call a protagonist. Neither Nate nor anyone else in the film fits that mold.
With all that said, I can see that Michael Seabolt has a passion for film and I commend him for getting his movie made. One feature is one more movie than most people direct in their lifetime. And that is something to be proud of. I think he had ambitious intentions and limited resources. Accordingly, Seabolt likely did what he could with what he had. Perhaps with a tighter script, a more experienced cast, and a larger budget, the film would have worked better.
If you are game to experience Zombie Strain for yourself, you can find the flick on VOD from Dark Sky now!
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‘Zombie Strain'
Summary
‘Zombie Strain’ tries to do too much with too little.
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