Cockneys vs Zombies

A movie review by Brett Cravaliat. 

I recently watched Cockneys vs Zombies, a hilariously silly zombie flick set in the East End of London.  Without putting out any spoilers because basically the movie is about as un-spoilerable as it gets, it’s one of the best zombie flicks since Shaun of the Dead.  In terms of un-spoilerable, imagine a film where some Cockneys end up in a zombie invasion and have to fight to survive.  There.  That’s it.  That’s 80% of the plot.  The other 20% of the plot however is not fresh or innovative, but it is when it comes to zombie films, that’s all I’ll say.  

There is a scene in this film which I highly regard as one of the best action scenes in zombie cinema.  I won’t spoiler this one because it will break some of the tension build up, but you’ll know it when you see it – all I’ll say is it takes the chase scene motif and absolutely knocks it out of the park.  Take the finest off centre British humour, apply it to zombie films, throw in some absurdist comedy, and you’re there.  

The rest of the film goes along spendidly and whilst the plot outline – a group of people surviving a zombie invasion – is pretty much the staple of the zombie genre, this film does things around that which make it an underhyped classic.  It’s got nods to some of the classic British films, Lock Stock, Spice World, all the greats.  Yep I said Spice World.  Maybe it was just me, but there is one scene in the film where I was 100% sure I knew where it was going.  They had me convinced they were going down the macho big trucks and big guns route, and then they British’d the hell out of it.  Classic.  Unexpected.  Hilarious. 

Definitely worth a watch and has some surprisingly big names in it.  A little gory in places but it’s a zombie flick, with a lot of Cockneys. 

– Brett Cravaliat