ZA: Zombies Anonymous aka. Last Rites of the Dead

Released: 2006

Reviewed: 11.19.09
Star rating: 3 out of 5

Gina Ramsden (Angela), Joshua Nelson (Josh), Christa McNamee (Commandant), Gaetano Iacono (Gooch), Constantine Taylor (Malcolm), Mary Verruto (Solstice).

Imagine a world where zombies coexist with regular mortal humans but are considered second-class citizens. When people are killed, they keep living but as zombies. Angela finds this out the hard way when her boyfriend kills her. As she tries to pass as mortal she and other zombies find their hunger for human flesh growing and their reasons not to start a war shrinking.

I liked how the film started off looking like a strange documentary then switched to focusing on Angela's story. The film then refocused later to show the struggle between the 'races', humans and zombies. There is actually a surprising amount of social commentary here for a zombie flick. There is also plenty of blood, guts, gore and violence. Almost a zombie flick that feeds the mind and the emotions! Almost. Sadly the plot seemed disjointed at times, the acting not so great, and production work second rate. Despite all of that, I actually liked this one more than I should have.

Acting wasn't very good by anyone involved. Ramsden, Nelson and a few others gave passing performances while others, such as McNamee, were completely over the top or downright ridiculous.

Camera work, sets, and backgrounds were obviously low budget and almost dropped this one into B-movie territory. Without the social commentary I think it would have been a solid B flick but as it is, the film is almost depressing. With a better budget this could have been so much more but as an Indie entry, it was pretty good.

Sound and dialogue were okay while special effects alternated between elementary and decent.

Overall not a bad zombie flick but not one to get excited about either. For true genre fans put this about the middle of your Must See list. Blood, guts, gore, violence, foul language, and mild sexuality so save this for the oldest teens and above.