- Directed by Gregg Bishop
- Written by Joe Ballarini
- Stars Jared Kusnitz, Greyson Chadwick, Chandler Darby
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 27 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIIsEQWJNoM
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s loaded with dark humor and bucketloads of gore. This was another one that surprised us with how entertaining it was. There’s a little bit of a slow start as they set up the characters and go through some teen drama, but once it gets going it’s a wild ride.
Synopsis
We open on the caretaker of a cemetery, doing all the usual caretaker-y things, but occasionally, he hears a faint moaning. Suddenly, an arm shoots up out of the grave and chokes him until he gets his clippers and cuts its hand off. He puts it in his box with a bunch of others and covers it up. Credits roll.
It’s the night of the Cosa High School Prom. Jimmy and Lindsey talk about the prom during biology class. Steven and Gwen don’t want to dissect their frog, but the teacher forces them. Jimmy and Steven wind up in detention with Kyle, the redneck punk. Steven’s friends are the school nerds, but Gwen wants to invite Nash, the “van guy” to the prom instead. Nash says he’d rather chew out his own tongue out than go to the prom.
We get a getting-ready-for-prom montage with most of the characters we’ve already met. Steven and the nerds go to the cemetery instead with their electronic devices. They meet the gravedigger. Meanwhile, Mitch and Lindsey at making out in a parked car at the same cemetery.
Steven’s group goes to a mausoleum and goes inside. It’s got a coffin lying on the floor for some reason, so they have to open it. It’s empty! A zombie grabs Rod and eats his brains as the others run away. Mitch also gets eaten, and Lindsay sees a whole gaggle of zombies. The gravedigger hears her screams and goes to work; he tells Steven’s group to smash them in the brain to kill them. Zombies are soon literally leaping out of the ground.
Back at school, the prom commences. In the biology lab, the teacher has a run-in with undead animal specimens and is killed by a zombie frog. Jimmy runs into Kyle, but some zombies steal Jimmy’s car. Kyle has a gun, which is useful until he almost shoots Gwen. The three of them battle hordes of zombies and find out that zombies disassemble rather easily.
Nash and his band buddies soon figure out that the dead are paralyzed by music.
Lindsey sees Jimmy’s car, but Jimmy’s not driving. She calls Jimmy, who promises to come after her. Lindsey, Steven, and Kyle take a shortcut through the sewers. The tunnels are full of green goop, waste from the nuclear plant, that has been seeping into the ground to reanimate the dead. Soon, everyone is barricaded in a big old house. Then they realize they’re in a funeral home full of reanimated bodies. They fight them all off, but Kyle gets bitten and dies. Kyle gets up again in no time, and he’s even meaner than before.
Jimmy wants to go to the prom and save everyone there. Gwen breaks out and steals the hearse to drive the others to the prom. They meet up with the coach, who’s a crazy prepper-type with weapons ready to go. They rescue Nash and the band, who are getting exhausted from jamming out. Nash thinks they are attracted to music, like bees in a hive.
They arrive too late; everyone at the school is dead. The coach wants to wire the whole place with explosives, and he’s prepared for that. He gets it all set up, but then he drops the detonator remote in the gym.
Jimmy needs to go in after it, and Lindsey goes in with him; she doesn’t want to miss the prom. They’re soon surrounded, and it looks grim, but suddenly, Nash and his friends climb the stage and start playing, which distracts the dead long enough for Jimmy and Lindsey to get in a dance.
Gwen confides to Stephen that she’s been bitten. That goes badly for him—sorta.
One of the zombies accidentally pulls the plug on the music, and then there’s a free-for-all. Pandemonium ensues as most of the heroes escape. Jimmy and Lindsey kiss as the school explodes.
What’s left of the group decides to head to the power plant and blow it up too, since they all figure that’s where this started. But first, the coach drives them all to get pancakes…
Commentary
The gore and creature effects are surprisingly good. The humor is surprisingly good. The action scenes are surprisingly good. Everything was good.
The only thing scarier than prom is zombies, so overall, it’s a good zom-com.