Plot
An unusual solar flare hits the Earth just as a
drugs deal in a warehouse between two rival gangs is stopped by a pair of cops.
Everyone passes out and when they awaken, they find that the Earth is now
overrun by mutated zombies. Putting their differences aside, the gang members
and the cops must fight off the mutant hordes in the hopes of reaching a safe
house.
Review
My hopes for this low budget flick were not great.
For some reason it’s called The Undead in the UK and the release passes itself
off as The Horde, with an almost identical front cover and carbon copy storyline
about gangs and cops working together to fight zombies. My hopes were lessened
when I found out that its proper title is Mutant Vampire Zombies from the
‘Hood! Hardly a title to instill confidence into a jaded horror watcher!
Thankfully, after the painfully clichéd and too
straight-laced opening sequence which sets up the drugs bust (an Asian gang, an
Afro-American gang and two cookie cutter cops) and features some really terrible
special effects as the solar flare hits Earth, the film gains a sense of humour
and things lighten up. It’s not going to win any awards for originality and the
plot twists and turns can be predicted a mile away but in the horror genre, the
fun is in the journey and not the destination. The zombies aren’t just your
typical brain eaters but mutated humans, some of whom maintain human
characteristics whilst others just turn into gigantic 7ft tall monsters. Some of
the more human-acting mutants provide the film’s best but all-too-short sequence
in which the survivors find themselves prisoners in a strip club. These mutants
have increased sex drives and the two elements combine for an unnerving but
hilarious sight. The make-up effects are as good as they need to be for a low
budget film and whilst the scenes are never totally overrun by mutants, you
always get the impression that the characters are outnumbered by a significant
amount. There’s just enough action to keep things ticking over and apart from
the sluggish opening, the film is always full steam ahead - arguably too quick
for its own good at times, as the aforementioned strip club scene shows.
They may start off annoying and one-dimensional but the characters really come
into their own during the course of the film. They’re a likeable bunch and the
audience can root for them all without feeling too guilty in the fact that most
of them are criminals and petty hoods. The initial stereotyping is short-lived
and although some of the characters maintain their clichéd characteristics for
the duration (you know the film is meant to be set in the hood when almost every
other word involves motherf****r), at least there’s some depth and progression
with their development. C. Thomas Howell is the only real ‘star’ name on show
but I had to laugh when I saw Gregory Allan Williams in this. For anyone who
isn’t sure who he is, he’s the black cop who used to drive the four-wheeler up
and down the beach on Baywatch (and that’s pretty much the only thing
anyone remembers him from!!). Here, he is the astrophysicist who has a really
hot daughter. Anyone with half a brain can see that the only two white survivors
are going to hook up at some point. It’s Keikabou Holland who steals the show as
one of the Afro-American gang, thinking that the zombies are vampires and is
constantly spouting off about Nosferatu and Dracula. It’s funny since the film
never really explains what the mutants/zombies/vampires are. Lots of
explanations and scientific mumbo-mumbo is banded around but it becomes a
running in-joke. To be fair to the film, we don’t really need to know what they
are because we know there’ll be no resolution to the monsters by the end of the
flick.
Verdict
Don’t let the title put you off. Mutant
Vampire Zombies from the ‘Hood! might be low budget and it doesn’t beat
around the bush in rehashing old zombie clichés. But I expected nothing and was
rewarded with a funny, entertaining and throwaway zombie flick which I’ll most
likely not remember next week but at least it was worth the effort to sit
through. And if you expect to get through the film without one of the
Afro-American characters mimicking Samuel L. Jackson’s infamous line from
Snakes on a Plane, then you’ll be disappointed!
