Hole in the Head Fest

Mutant Vampire Zombies From the Hood!

By DENNIS HARVEY

A Restless Dead production in association with Stormfront Films. Produced by George P. Saunders. Executive producer, Thunder Levin. Directed by Thunder Levin. Screenplay, George P. Saunders, Levin.
 
With: C. Thomas Howell, Tyshawn Bryant, Rachel Montez Collins, Johanna Watts, Maxie Santillian Jr., KeiKabou Holland, Robert Wu, Greg Alan Williams.
 

Titles like "Mutant Vampire Zombies From the Hood!" dangle a small hope that the movie itself won't be duller than its eye-catching moniker. Here, that hope is rewarded: Thunder Levin's feature is a fleet if forgettable low-budget romp through familiar genre terrain. Headlining C. Thomas Howell as a cop turned gangster-ally in a suddenly post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, it's good enough fun destined for fanboy DVD exposure.

Howell and a partner are staking out -- improbably sans backup -- a tense summit between Asian- and African-American gang chiefs (Robert Wu, Tyshawn Bryant) in an abandoned warehouse. Violence erupts, a bust is attempted, but just then a massive "solar flare" knocks everybody out. Upon waking, they discover anyone who wasn't underground or in a lead-lined building like theirs became undead -- though varying degrees of resistance produced variably intelligent (as well as unpleasantly horny) zombies. Gasoline having been neutralized somehow, police and perps must reluctantly join forces to reach a scientist's gated compound in Santa Monica by foot. Gore factor is low for the genre, but game perfs, lively presentation and modest but adequate tech aspects pass the time amusingly.

Camera (color, HD), Eric Billman; editor, Karl Armstrong; music, Kurt Oldman; production designer, Kenneth Leslie. Reviewed at Another Hole in the Head, San Francisco, June 13, 2008. Running time: 82 MIN.