Movie Released: 2011 | DVD Release Date: May 8, 2012
A zombie infection strikes Europe and quickly becomes a global event. A group of survivors pull together and make their way to a rumored Survivor Camp on Catalina Island.
I was listening to Jack Benny on Radio Classic today. Jack was lobbying to make “The Horn Blows at Midnight” for radio. In one scene “Jack Warner” stopped by and forbade Jack from making the piece saying it was “Too bad for the big screen and too good for television.” 2012: Zombie Apocalypse was a bit bad for both. It is everything that I don’t like about Z Nation and The Walking Dead. We’re supposed to believe that these people have survived as long as they have in the apocalypse and yet they have no real concept of how to not attract the zombies. It’s a constant battle to stay alive without any other plot of development and it wears on the viewer.
The story starts strong. A French woman is infected with the VM2 virus and within a few months, it’s a global pandemic. We meet the core cast six months in when 90% of the population of the U.S. has been infected. The story begins with survivors Ramona (Taryn Manning), Billie (Eddie Steeples), and Kevin (Gerald Webb) looking for supplies. The noise attracts a herd of zombies that infect Kevin. Henry (Ving Rhames), Julian (Johnny Pacar), Cassie (Lesley-Ann Brandt), and Mack (Gary Weeks) come to their rescue and together the group plans to travel to a survivor camp that they’ve heard about.
Like other shows of the genre, everywhere the group goes, they see no chance of survival. They go to a human safe zone where everyone is dead. Word of warning, many a cast member is lost in a dramatic zombie horde. It seems with some of the deaths that it’s the woman running upstairs in the horror movie syndrome. Wouldn’t it make sense, as they’ve survived in this zombie apocalypse so far, to take certain safeguards?
The acting is appropriate to the weak script. I thought that an actor of the caliber of Ving Rhames would bring quality to the piece. He was perhaps the best of an uninvested cast but seemed to mostly disconnect from his role as Henry. There were some ideas I found strange. The runner zombie who tries to get help from other zombies was just an odd concept that didn’t ring as creative.
2012: Zombie Apocalypse is a classic B-movie. If you’re a fan of ridiculously bad movies and characters too dumb to live, pick this one up today.
2012: Zombie Apocalypse is available as a DVD, Blu-Ray and on Amazon Instant Video:
Amazon U.S. • Amazon U.K. • Amazon Canada
| Title | 2012: Zombie Apocalypse |
|---|---|
| Director | Nick Lyon |
| Actors | Ving Rhames, Taryn Manning, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Johnny Pacar, Eddie Steeples |
| Length | 1 hour and 30 minutes |
| Rating | not rated |
| DVD Release | May 8, 2012 |