Zombie (2012)

Directed by: Martijn Smits, Erwin van den Eshof | 87 minutes | horror, comedy | Actors: Gigi Ravelli, Yahya Gaier, Mimoun Ouled Radi, Sergio Hasselbaink, Uriah Arnhem, Noël Deelen, Carlo Boszhard, Ben Saunders, Nadia Palesa Poeschmann, Yesser Roshdy

The Netherlands and horror – it has not always turned out to be a happy combination. In the eighties, Dick Maas – a big fan of the genre – caused a short-lived revival of the Dutch horror film, mainly thanks to ‘De lift’ (1983). ‘Amsterdamned’ (1988), also by Maas, is in fact more of a thriller than a horror film. After ‘The Johnsons’ (1992) by Rudolf van den Berg, it has been quiet for years around the Nederhorror. Only halfway through the ‘zeroes’ the genre seems to be revived with films like ‘Doodeind’ and ‘Sl8n8’ (both 2006), but there is no boom. Maas tries again in 2010 with his successful horror parody ‘Sint’. Apparently Nederhorror catches on better if the makers don’t take themselves so seriously. Martijn Smits and Erwin van de Eshof must have thought so too. After taking a good look at the British zombie comedy ‘Shaun of the Dead’ (2004), they decided to make their own Dutch version of it. ‘Zombibi’ (2012) is a fat parody that unfortunately has surprisingly few successful jokes for a comedy.

A Russian space station crashes on top of an office building in the heart of Amsterdam. The mysterious virus released as a result turns anyone it touches into zombies. Aziz (Yahya Gaier) and his brother Mo (the inevitable Mimoun Ouled Radi) have no idea of ​​this disaster: they spent the night in jail, just like Surinamese friends Jeffrey (Sergio Hasselbaink) and Nolan (Uriah Arnhem) and businessman George (Noel Deelen). Together with the tough agent Kim (Gigi Ravelli), who, like them, has not yet come into contact with the virus, they must reach the ‘safe zone’. For that they have to get through the mass of zombies. Aziz also has more on his mind. He is determined to save Tess, his handsome colleague in danger, from the zombies. Let her just be stuck in the office building where the space station crashed.

To get straight to the point: the jokes are sparse in this, according to the makers, ‘the first real zomedie’. Mo, Jeffrey and Nolan’s antics (because Aziz is way too serious) often don’t deliver more than a smile. The exception is the funny scene where Mo and Jeffrey try to kill poor Nolan, who has been bitten by a zombie. A few bold side characters also provide a genuine laugh. Carlo Boszhard puts down a nice parody of news reader Jan de Hoop, Frans van Deursen indulges himself as a military Russian zombie expert and Michiel Romeijn is hilarious as a stoic and unintelligible Polish car mechanic. And also pay attention to the crazy contribution of Edo Brunner. Compared to them, the protagonists are only dull. The dull Yahya Gaier seems out of place and Mimoun Ouled Radi plays the same character as always. Soap actress Gigi Ravelli is doing very well in her first movie role and at least has enough charisma to captivate the audience. It is not entirely surprising that she cannot take the predictable and colorless story to a higher level. Her character, like all the others, is much too flat.

Fortunately, ‘Zombibi’ doesn’t take itself seriously at all. This makes the film quite easy to watch. The fact that the cast and crew must have had a lot of fun chopping off each other’s limbs and splashing around with green slime and fake blood also argues for ‘Zombibi’. That’s why it’s such a shame that there are so few good jokes in the film and the zombies are tame and not scary at all. This leaves little left but unpretentious and wafer-thin entertainment.