Color, NR (mature themes, violence, gore, language, nudity), 91 min., DVD $19.98, VHS rental
DVD: music video
Street: May 17, Prebook: April 19
First Run: Video premiere
Cast: Jenicia Garcia (Vampiyaz), Jakeem Sellers, Randy Clark (Vampiyaz), Raymond Spencer
Director: ZWS
LIONS GATE
A young woman (Garcia) on a demolition crew finds herself in the midst of a massive zombie attack at the building her crew plans to demolish. For a bit of intestine-chomping fun with a hip-hop twist, Zombiez certainly fits the bill. Just don't expect it all to make sense. Not interested in wasting time on set up, Zombiez claims its first victim less than five minutes in. This gore-a-thon has the kind of fake guts scenarios and campy moments that would make Roger Corman proud, but also contains a few truly chilling situations. As a mash-up of the urban and horror genre, the movie is a clever one from a marketing perspective, targeting two bases that often feed off of one another. And it takes an alternative, Deliverance-like turn in having most of its zombie thrills occur in broad daylight. The movie mixes sexuality and violence (including a couple of female victims either scantily clad or not clad at all) in a way that should appeal to a certain cross-section of B movie enthusiasts. Unfortunately, however, there's not a very good explanation of how these zombiez come to be, and the final scene feels too easily resolved. Nonetheless, with both horror and urban titles as popular as ever right now, Zombiez's undead subjects should have a nice shelf life.