The October Zombie-Thon 2009 - Day 22: Plaga Zombie
Posted by Trevor Snyder on 10.22.2009
A special Zombie-Thon double feature, in the spirit of Raimi and Jackson.
PLAGA ZOMBIE / PLAGA ZOMBIE: ZONA MUTANTE (1997 & 2001)
Directed by: Pablo Parés & Hernán Sáez
Written by: Pablo Parés, Hernán Sáez & Berta Muñiz
Country: Argentina
To experience the Argentinean-made Plaga Zombie and its sequel Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante is to remember why it's worth it to sit through so much amateur-produced zombie trash. You just never know when you're going to come across films like these. But when it happens, the harsh memories of even the worst independent garbage like Hunting Creatures or Pot Zombies are almost all but washed away, replaced with the warm feeling of joy that comes with the reminder that sometimes pure creativity and love of cinema can overcome the obstacles of a miniscule budget and lack of filmmaking experience.
These two films, to be sure, represent the height of that idea – two superb examples of the power of imagination and ingenuity, even when filtered through the often-damning world of low-budget filmmaking. In a way, this is independent cinema at its best. Not in terms of story, character, or technical prowess; but rather in the pure audacious thrill of a bunch of buddies getting together and creating a zombie epic that overshadows many of its bigger-budget peers in terms of gore, action, comedy, and just pure good-old-fashioned excitement.
The three friends in question are Pablo Parés, Berta Muñiz, and Hernán Sáez, who were still in high school when they cobbled together a very small budget and decided to make their very own zombie short film. The result was Plaga Zombie, a high-energy romp concerning alien-created zombies overrunning a small town, and the three unlikely heroes forced to do bloody battle with them – medical student Bill Johnson (Parés), nerdy mathematician Max Giggs (Sáez), and disgraced former pro-wrestler John West (Muñiz). Given the film's humble origins, its occasional crudeness is both understandable and forgivable, because what does shine through is the unbridled enthusiasm and inventiveness of its makers (not to mention a few fairly impressive FX moments). Watching this film, you can sense that these three might deliver bigger and better things in the future…and you would be right.
The far more ambitious sequel, Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante, benefits from both a higher budget, more time spent making it (it was filmed sporadically over a period of four years), and the growing experience and confidence of its makers. It amplifies everything that was great about the original Plaga Zombie, and avoids most of the first film's more glaring problems. And although its story picks up right where its predecessor left off, it easily stands on its own two legs as one of the most insane, demented, and hilarious gore-fests the zombie genre has ever seen.
Zona Mutante sees the three heroes (including West, despite his apparent death in the last film) dropped off and stranded back in the undead-infested town, which has now been sealed off and quarantined by the FBI. Why does the FBI have any jurisdiction in South America? Well, let's not really worry about that. In fact, it's best not to worry about anything resembling plot, since the "story" is just an excuse to run our heroes through a gauntlet of zombie-fighting mayhem – each scene more frantic, outrageous, and gorier than the last. Zombie arms are ripped off and used as nunchukas, zombies are split in half, zombies are poked in the eyes by their own severed hands…heck, one zombie is even tied to a post with his own intestines. Of course, considering he used those same intestines to spray one of our heroes with fecal matter just seconds before, he was pretty much asking for it.
Yes, it is as stupid and over-the-top as it sounds, but Parés, Muñiz and Sáez actually have the talent to pull it all off in a highly entertaining manner. From the multi-colored zombies (if you've ever wanted to see green, red, and orange zombies, this is the movie for you), the way-better-than-you-would-expect fight choreography, and the unrelenting pace that just never lets up, the second Plaga Zombie movie is a non-stop delight, representing the very best kind of "well, we don't have very much money, but we're still gonna out-do the big boys" thinking.
With its hyper-caffeinated momentum and outrageous gore gags, the Plaga Zombie series is quite obviously influenced by Raimi's Evil Dead films and, more specifically, Peter Jackson's early gore-fests like Bad Taste and Braindead. And – incoming high praise alert – it's a more than worthy successor to those films, delivering the same sort of insane, anarchic attitude and wall-to-wall insanity. It's all but impossible to watch the films and not get swept up into the outrageous spirit. For instance, if you don't find yourself singing along to John West's ultra-infectious theme song ("John West, John West…he IS the best!!"), then you might just be as dead as the rainbow-colored ghouls in these movies. And if that's the case, I hope you never come across Bill, Max, and John, because you will get your head ripped off. Any fans of Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson, Troma, or just lovers of independent horror cinema in general owe it to themselves to see the Plaga Zombie films immediately (both are available on one modestly priced 2-disc set), and join me in anxiously awaiting the third and final film in the Plaga Zombie epic.
