While it’s an interesting title and Virginia Madsen is one fine actress in more ways than one, the actual execution of this 1987 horror film doesn’t come close to living up to its title and instead is a frankly dull film and has nothing to do with zombies in the classic sense (flesh eating types).
Zombie High
(1987)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Horror
Shout Factory | R – 90 min. – $29.99 | December 15, 2015
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** Click Here to Purchase Zombie High on Blu-ray from Amazon.com **
THE MOVIE – 1.5/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: It seems to Andrea Miller (VIRGINIA MADSEN) that the upperclassmen act like robots. They’re the perfect students – dedicated, involved and loyal. Their clothes are perfectly pressed and their hair is perfectly styled. It seems the teachers have something to do with this ingratiating behavior. And when Andrea, the new kid at school, sees her friends turning into clones, she starts to suspect the worst. Quick Hit Review: Zombie High is such a misleading title and should’ve been called Stepford Children but even with the dumb title which has a story that has nothing to do with the walking dead, it’s a rather dull and boring flick that only picks up during the final act and even then it’s not very well done. Virginia Madsen at least is fine but she’s not given much to work with, the suspense is limited and the horror elements were tapped down and fairly mundane. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 0.5/5 |
| The only feature included is the film’s Trailer (1:05; HD). |
VIDEO – 3.0/5 |
| Zombie High arrives on Blu-ray through Shout’s Scream Factory line and the 1080p high-definition transfer, presented with a 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio, doesn’t look the best. Some scenes colors aren’t too bad but others have a yellow-ish tint; I don’t know if this was due to poor film preservation, no blame considering the film at hand, but it doesn’t lend itself to a great transfer. Detail isn’t great but at least adequate enough and there weren’t many major instances of dust marks or scratches. |
AUDIO – 3.5/5 |
| The movie comes with a decent enough DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track providing good dialogue levels throughout and the score/soundtrack comes through well enough. It’s not a dynamic track or anything yet it’s impressive considering the film’s limited budget and age (going on nearly 30 years). |
OVERALL – 2.0/5 |
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Overall, while it’s an eye catching title and Virginia Madsen is one fine actress in more ways than one, the actual execution of this 1987 horror film doesn’t come close to living up to its title and instead is a frankly dull film and has nothing to do with zombies in the classic sense (flesh eating types) and instead is more akin to Invasion of the Body Snatchers or, albeit made 10+ years later, Disturbing Behavior. The Blu-ray released by Shout is rather basic with only a trailer and so-so video and audio transfers.
Published: 12/08/2015 |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.