Critic Reviews
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Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter
Performances vary widely in quality. Some of the "experts" who expound on zombie culture are portrayed by such amateurish actors that the film threatens to collapse.
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Dennis Harvey, Variety
If Lee intended primarily to spoof documentary conventions, she should have chosen a theme less commercially overexposed -- and worked harder at making it more than just sorta-kinda humorous.
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Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
The mere fact that [director Grace] Lee can make both a media satire and, in the end, a creepy horror flick, while at least alluding to bigger social issues, suggests the breadth of her wit and intelligence.
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Jonathan W. Hickman, Entertainment Insiders
A clever kind of documentary hybrid.
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Kam Williams, Mount Desert Islander
Everything you always wanted to know about Zombies but were afraid to ask.
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Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
[Director] Lee covers all bases and when we least expect it, she also manages to sneak in a creepy zombie flick...
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Devin Faraci, MovieWeb
American Zombie is hands-down the best film I've seen so far this year.
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Devin Faraci, CHUD
Proves that there's still lots of humor and insight to be found in the walking dead.
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Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly
Lee wants to make an up-with-dead-people portrait that shines light on how the diverse zombie community integrates into the city.
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Karina Montgomery, Cinerina
Besides managing to be a statement on racism, a parody of a documentary, and an enjoyable character conflict between two egotistical directors, it's also a straight up zombie comedy!
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Sara Maria Vizcarrondo, Boxoffice Magazine
Quippy send up of identity politics documentaries offers some occasionally biting moments.
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Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com
American Zombie works on several levels of satire.
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Peter Sobczynski, eFilmCritic.com
It is essentially a one-joke premise and while it might have played beautifully as a 30-minute short subject, there just isn't enough to it to sustain itself as a 90-minute feature.
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Rob Humanick, Projection Booth
Lee's film proves that it's a genre as viable as ever, endlessly flexible and perpetually illuminating.
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Sam Sweet, L.A. Weekly
The best zombie movies shock us into a realization about ourselves and the world in which we live, but how much can zombies teach us when their world so closely resembles 1995?
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Kam Williams, NewsBlaze
A cleverly-comedic, high-concept adventure, artfully-executed, and thought-provoking, too!
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Mark R. Leeper, rec.arts.movies.reviews
The film satirizes well-intentioned socially conscious documentaries, examining how zombies have been integrated into the general population. It has a rewarding last half hour if the viewer can wait it out.
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Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone, TheMovieChicks.com
If you're looking for zombie horror, this is not the film for you (not enough gut-ripping and arm-chewing), but if you're looking for zombie fun, check it out.
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Jette Kernion, Cinematical
Doesn't add much to the contemporary zombie genre or even the horror comedy genre but does provide light entertainment, especially if you like jokes about filmmaking.
Read all 19 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
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Is it just me or is the whole mockumenatary thing wearing a little thin? This has a few enjoyable quirky moments but overall it never really takes flight. Starting from the top, I thought the concept was great, the acting was good, but the collective quality of the material never… More
Is it just me or is the whole mockumenatary thing wearing a little thin? This has a few enjoyable quirky moments but overall it never really takes flight. Starting from the top, I thought the concept was great, the acting was good, but the collective quality of the material never rises above 'passively interesting'.
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This makes Land of the Dead look Like Diary of the Dead, which still isnt saying much.
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I REALLY hate when a movie is so middle of the road in quality that I struggle with what I want to say about it.
I do know that I had high hopes for this film for many reasons. The satirization of zombie movies has hit a peak this decade, and I expected another whopper to add to the… More
I REALLY hate when a movie is so middle of the road in quality that I struggle with what I want to say about it.
I do know that I had high hopes for this film for many reasons. The satirization of zombie movies has hit a peak this decade, and I expected another whopper to add to the list. I also thought it might be more insightful on the genre, and do for zombies what Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon did for slashers. Also, whenever you title something American ___dadada____ it had better be damn good.
It's interesting how these zombies fit into normal society, but that's where the entertainment ends. Very minimal makeup, nothing for zombie fans to see here. Very stereotypical acting for a mockumentary that seems too influenced by 'The Office' (talkin Gervais and Merchant as well as the American bastardization) and doesn't feel realistic or fresh at all. Nice shooting for a handicam, but mind you this is supposed to be a professional documentary crew.
There's nothing exceptionally BAD, but there's nothing exceptionally good or worth remembering. The movie does paste the zombie onto the pattern of oppressed groups and common problems within oppressed minorities well enough. But there's not any horror to justify the utter lack of comedy, and vice versa.
Just lukewarm and leaving one with an "you could have done so MUCH better" feeling, as this movie packs more promise than your typical Z-budget, but delivers just as little.
A once watch for zombie fans MAYBE. I can't recommend this to anyone however, and I would never screen it to anyone. It's paradigm middleness earns its a 2.5 but overall the production rates a 3 and the acting isn't atrociously but also around a 3. The separation between this film's potential and what is achieves is so great a gap that I can't in good mind give it a 3.
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A satirical zombie film that for the most part succeeds mainly due to the fact that it feels real. In other words if zombies were real I could see me watching this "documentary" on A&E.
Where it fails is that it takes too long to get to the "punchline" and… More
A satirical zombie film that for the most part succeeds mainly due to the fact that it feels real. In other words if zombies were real I could see me watching this "documentary" on A&E.
Where it fails is that it takes too long to get to the "punchline" and when you do it's not really surprising and winds up leaving you cold.
Still a worthwhile effort and certainly more enjoyable (and believable) than it's pseudo-documentary counterparts like The Blair Witch Project and Diary of the Dead just without all the headache-inducing camerawork and gimmicky feel.
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"Thoughts of suicide among teenagers and adults is common. You may experience rectal bleeding, shortness of breath and a drop of IQ by 102 point."
Seriously what a load of rubbish. Take the Blaire Witch and then pile drive that into the concept of Land of the Dead but… More
"Thoughts of suicide among teenagers and adults is common. You may experience rectal bleeding, shortness of breath and a drop of IQ by 102 point."
Seriously what a load of rubbish. Take the Blaire Witch and then pile drive that into the concept of Land of the Dead but subtract any coolness that you could have got from them and you got this steaming pile. I sat through to the end just to see what was up. Needless to say I'm underwhelmed. You got a film crew trying to do a "documentary" about "zombies". They try and explain how it spreads and some very pedestrian science behind it. Basically this hour and a half of boredom inducing garbage makes you start to weigh the pro's and cons of hanging yourself just to see if you can come back as a zombie and do something far cooler than these jack holes. Then again maybe the thoughts of hanging myself just seemed less painful...
The movie never picks up. It's the same monotonous pace throughout. Ohh here is a "zombie", talk about said "zombies" life. Watch me put my junk in a door jam and repeatedly SLAM the door just to keep my pulse up. I swear to god I should have brought some atropine with me just to be able to keep my heart beating. There is nothing that saves this film. It is boring from start to finish. The culmination, if you want to call it that, is this friggen "zombie stock" thing where all the deadtards get in a circle and sing kum bye ya or some shit. You only see 2 people die throughout the entire film. It all happens in like the last 10/15 minutes.
I love zombie movies; they are a thing that brings me much passion. I have seen a large assortment, some good and then there are some that are just bad. This is not only bad, it's an abomination. I mean at least there are people out there making Z quality films that are so low budget you can see the ketchup bottle under their shirt squirting as they get "shot". I can appreciate how they decided to take this film as a "documentary" style but it was already done. I mean what kind of fool thinks they can do a better job than the god father of Zombies Mr. George A Romero. I think the scariest thing in this movie was the...maybe it was the...or it could have been...Oh I got it, the scariest thing was definitely when I realized that I could have been watching something better with a point and a plot and story arch that has a climax. So now I reiterate my point from the attention grabber and this is how sum it up.There should be some fine print like an anti-depressant label "Thoughts of suicide among teenagers and adults is common. You may experience rectal bleeding, shortness of breath and a drop of IQ by 102 point."
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Since it looks like a mockumentary, there is a lot of dialogue. The good parts only come in the final minutes. Since I prefer the more action-packed type of zombie movies, I really didn't dig this one. The red-haired zombie was creepy though.
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A pretty cool movie that starts off slow but gives you a nice finish so you dont feel your time was wasted i almost shut this movie off but im so glad i didnt it was worth sitting threw the first few mins of a build up. This movie is about two filmakers that decide they wanna do a… More
A pretty cool movie that starts off slow but gives you a nice finish so you dont feel your time was wasted i almost shut this movie off but im so glad i didnt it was worth sitting threw the first few mins of a build up. This movie is about two filmakers that decide they wanna do a documentary about zombies that live in normal everyday society and how they function along side *normal* people as the story goes on it seems that the zombies are hideing alittle secret anyway i wont spoil it but if you liked movies that are handheld shot and wanna see a good movie check this out WARNING: Dont expect the usual zombies though
Read all 7 featured audience ratings
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