Review by Adam Thomas
When it comes to movies about zombies, there are many. There are zombie dramas (zommas), there are zombie comedies (zomedies). Hell, there are even movies about zombie strippers (zompers?). What you don't see very often is a movie that attempts to humanize zombies as a separate culture, still trying to live a normal afterlife amongst humans. Zombies Anonymous follows one girl, Angela, who is murdered by her boyfriend, and reanimated, who then must go on with her life as if nothing ever happened. This creates a unique type of tension between the two when they meet up later in the film, which was kind of refreshing. It wasn't like typical boyfriend/girlfriend drama, the whole "you murdered me while I was cowering in a bathtub" thing comes into play, and no one is happy when they have to confront their own killer, let alone their ex-boyfriend.
So, amidst the interpersonal drama of Angela and her ex Josh, there's a group of zombie haters (zombaters?). They think that the best way to act towards a zombie is to bludgeon it to death, while the rest of the world tries to come to terms with the fact that zombies are real, and they live (un-live?) among us. This gang is lead by The Commandant, a woman with testicles the size of watermelons, or at least, that's how the character was written. So we've got the two groups, the zombies, who are just trying to live life (after-life?) normally, and the zombie haters, (zombaters) that want to see all zombies dead(er). Director Marc Fratto did a good job creating a universe that seemed like society was trying to accept them as a cultural group, and the issues addressed in the movie paralleled the race wars of the 60's. It had somewhat of a political undertone which lent the movie a heavier effect than some zombie fare. However, towards the end of the movie, it begins to unravel, and the political tone becomes an overt message about cults and religion, with the Good Mother Solstice leader of the coven of zombies, taking in Angela, and attempting to teach her the ways of the zombie, by eating a human. And by human, I mean kidnapped young woman bound and held against her will. Angela, still retaining some human qualities, declines, and passes out.
Overall, I applaud this movie for it's efforts. It is every bit as independent as you can get. Some of the effects were done well, and some weren't. The story went from great to good slowly, then good to WTF in a hurry. It's sad to watch the story come undone, because it was so well planned in the beginning. Unfortunately, once the action kicks in between the Commandant and her crew and the Good Mother Solstice and her zombies, it gets progressively worse until the final climactic scene, where Angela has a meltdown on Josh, explaining why she left him, and I quote: "YOU MURDERED ME." If that's not grounds for a break-up, then obviously someone needs counseling. As I said, I support indie film, being myself an indie filmmaker, and I appreciate what they were trying to do. In the end, the movie couldn't decide if it wanted to be an action zombie movie (zaction?) or retain a more subliminal message, trying to mix the two, and ultimately end up with a mixture too muddled to comprehend.
I give this movie a 6 out of 10.