Zombeavers (2014) Review: Beasties & Boobies
“You’ll all be dammed!”Synopsis: A fun weekend turns into madness and horror for a bunch of groupies looking for fun in a beaver infested swamp. | ![]() Watch now on Amazon |
Calamity Brains:
Zombeavers is a delightful little creature feature that hasn’t gotten the credit it deserves. Obviously, any movie with such a ridiculous premise will have a capper on how artful it can be, but this flick takes the joke and runs with it. From the get-go, it delivers on its promise of fun – even the opening credits are entertaining.
On its surface, Zombeavers is just a dumb horror comedy filled with tropes. A group of sex-crazed college students are vacationing at a remote cabin when they’re suddenly attacked by radioactive beavers. Though the kids aren’t quite as stereotypical as the jock, the nerd, etc., there’s still clearly the “slut” and “virgin” dichotomy. There’s a wise hunter and some kindly older neighbors.
But even as it exploits those horror standbys, Zombeavers adds in sly twists. The focus is often more on female friendship than romantic relationships; the “last girl” isn’t who you’d expect; there’s a surprising amount of planning coming from a group of drunk kids at a cabin. There are also a visual callbacks to other horror icons, which adds a nice additional layer to the piece. Perhaps the most surprising choice from the filmmakers, though, is their use of animatronics instead of CGI for the beavers. Neither choice was likely to result in hyper-realistic zombie animals, but the animatronics are a lot more visually interesting than CGI would have been, and some of them are quite impressive.
Zombeavers embraces the campiness of its plot (and the subgenre) with open arms and leans hard into the horror standbys: babes, boobs, blood. If, like us, you’re into boobs and laughter with your gore, you’ll enjoy this ridiculous little flick.
Calamity Brains’ Rating: B+
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