American Zombie is an independent film released in 2007 that mockuments the rise of a zombie population in Los Angeles.  The zombies, however, are much different from what the word conjures in your mind.  These zombies are closer to illegal immigrants than flesh eaters.

From start to finish, the film has a very genuine documentary feel.  One of the filmmakers (Grace Lee) is interested in the humanist side of zombies, while the other (John Solomon) is more concerned with uncovering a darker truth that he insists is there waiting to be discovered – or perhaps exploited.

As a Horror film, you have to eschew all previous expectations around the word: Zombie.  This is not a conventional Zombie movie.  While there is a bit of violence near the end, it does not cater to us gore-hounds.  However, it would be a stretch to say that this is the Thinking Man’s Zombie Movie as some people have called it.  There aren’t very many weighty issues tackled here.  While they more than merely tinker with the equation between minorites and the zombies, they never truly explore the issue and let the film’s plot teeter around an overnight, zombie-only event called LiveDead that happens out in the desert once a year. 

The human filmmakers manage to secure the rights to film the event and what they discover changes the course of their film.  The reveal of what is really happening with the undead at LiveDead is the crux of the problem with this film: It really has no idea what it is trying to say.  Now don’t get me wrong, I am all for the mindless zombie film, but this movie never even attempts to usher us down that road.  Instead, it spends the majority it’s 95 minutes pushing it into our face that these zombies are just like us.  Then, when LiveDead seemingly reveals a darker side to zombies, the whole plot of the film comes crumbling down.

All in all, this isn’t a bad movie.  Far from it.  As a mockumentary, you could do far, far worse.  But where this movie ultimately fails is that it has the word ZOMBIE in it.  The audience likely to pick up a film called American Zombie is not looking for a movie about a thinly veiled anachronism for minorities in the USA.  Heck, I myself watched this because I like to watch Horror movies in October.  On the other hand, if the goal was to craft a film that could reach the uneducated-horror-enthusiast market (I’m right there with ya’ll) and pseudo-educate them about the plight of the blacks/mexicans/asians/etc in America… well then, you kind of fail in that endeavor by revealing that the zombies (minorities?) just might be evil after all!

RATING – 2 Ships out of 5

Stop trying to use zombies for your statements on the ills of society.  Or, at the very least, do what Romero did and wrap the statements up with plenty of bloody, flesh eating eye candy!