Review of Cockneys vs Zombies

I've grown quite allergic to the terms zombie-comedy, and especially to the allegedly cool slang name "zomedy", because we horror fanatics are literally overloaded with movies about the Living Dead that are supposed to be horrific and hilarious at the same time. In reality, however, the vast majority of them are just downright dull, uninspired and irritating. Ever since the British cult hit "Shaun of the Dead", it seems like every (young?) aspiring film director assumes that he/she can make a horror comedy even though these two remain the hardest genres to put into a blender together. Therefore I was rather skeptical when I went to see "Cockneys vs. Zombies" at a local horror festival here in Belgium. The idea sounded good, the trailer looked mighty fine and the cast features a handful of names that even make the most mediocre movie tolerable (Alan Ford from "Snatch" and Honor "Pussy Galore" Blackman) but still … it remained a zomedy! It took me more or less five minutes to put all my skepticism aside, though, because the movie starts out amazingly and I immediately got sucked in. The intro sequence and particularly the awesomely animated opening credits, guided by the magnificent song "What's that coming over the hill is it a monster?" by The Automatic, set the basis for an exhilarating, fast-paced and blood-spurting horror adventure. Admittedly the script features many clichés, stereotypes and redundant melodramatic moments, but overall seen is director Matthias Hoene's approach fresh and inventive. In Cockney country, the heart of working class East London, construction workers are building a gigantic apartment complex for which several traditional monuments have to be demolished, including the old folk's home of Granddad Ray Maguire and his friends. His offspring plans to rob a bank so that he doesn't have to move away from the area, but something else also interferes with the construction works… a zombie invasion! When the workers stumble upon ancient catacombs underneath the city, the region is quickly overrun by thousand of zombies. The bank robbers battle their way back to the retirement home as fast as they can, but the old timer prove themselves still tough enough to stand up against the undead. "Cockneys vs. Zombies" (don't you just love it when the title is, in fact, the entire plot?) is a straightforward and largely unpretentious zombie romp that delivers what you expect (or hope for). There are various flaws, like for example the screenplay refuses to sacrifice any real pivot characters and overdoes the melodrama a bit near the climax, but these are widely compensated through ingenious little plot aspects and the excessive gore effects. Certain sequences already qualify as instant classic in my book. For example, you haven't seen a zombie chase until you witness the race between a pensioner with a walking frame and a traditionally slow-sauntering rotting corpse. Or, how to kill a zombie with a metal plate in his head? And then for the obvious biggest trump of the film I'd like to refer to the title. The genuine Cockney characters and the delicious rhyming slang dialogs are the elements that truly distinguish the film from the others. Alan Ford must be the coolest Cockney since Sid Vicious and, as expected, he steals the show in every sequence he's in.