As We Know It

In today's overly saturated zombie comedy market this film was a refreshing take on the genre. What's more is it focuses on the friendships and relationships and the zombies tend to take the backseat for the most part... which is what I loved most about the movie. But don't worry zombie fans, zombies are still very much involved in the storyline. The set pieces are also so incredibly detailed and the camera setups are super clean and reminiscent of early Wes Anderson. I of course have to mention the sweet soundtrack by CAKE and Spin Doctors, that took me way back to my youth. Without giving too much away it was a delightful film and I would highly recommend it if you're in the mood for something original, whether or not you're a zombie fan. Bravo to the filmmakers behind this one. Job well done.

Of course I had to sit down and watch the 2023 horror comedy "As We Know It", as I happened to stumble upon it by random chance. I had not heard about the movie prior to watching it, but seeing that it was a zombie movie of sort. And given my love of all things zombie, of course I had to give this movie a chance. However, I have to say that the storyline in the movie failed to tickle me in any right places. There was simply way too much yappering throughout the course of the 84 minutes that the movie ran for, and not enough zombie action. And "As We Know It" was listed as a horror comedy, but I failed to find the narrative funny. So writers Brandon DePaolo, Christopher Francis and Josh Monkarsh failed to entertain me with the script and storyline they wrote. The movie has a small cast ensemble, and it certainly was a surprise to see the likes of Pam Grier and Chris Parnell showing up in a movie such as this, despite being in small roles only. Despite having a lousy script and storyline, then the acting performances in the movie were fair. Visually then "As We Know It" wasn't an impressive movie. The zombie make-up and effects were rather simplistic and low-key. I found "As We Know It" to be a movie not worth the effort, and it is definitely not a movie that I would recommend to fans of the zombie genre, or fans of the horror comedy genre in general. My rating of "As We Know It" lands on a three out of ten stars, given the acting performances and the production value. But the contents of the storyline didn't do it for me.

After a viral outbreak hits Los Angeles, a group of friends hiding out in their house while hordes of zombies gather on the streets outside are shocked when his ex-girlfriend is also stranded at the house which starts their attempt to get back together while the encroaching undead complicates matters for them. This was a pretty fun and enjoyable genre effort. One of the finer features here is the stellar sense of comedic interplay that comes about the more this goes along. The starting point here with the invasion taking place and the inability to process everything as the one friend is stuck in the post-relationship stupor means a lot of the situations here are quite genuinely funny with the way they react or comment on things. The more they hang out together trying to survive the situation and the more things escalate, this becomes funnier and features a nice bit of branching out from the quirky roommate comedy to a slew of relationship jokes and a hint of slapstick as well while they try to fend off the creatures. With this one going for a heartwarming relationship struggles to carry itself on for a solid secondary storyline, this provides quite a lot to like about it. There are some issues here holding this one down. The main issue with this one is the highly underwhelming sense of zombie action here which is kept to brief comedic punchlines more than anything. There's not a whole lot of their encounters and confrontations that serve as a joke with the group swarming the jogger while in the middle of a news broadcast, attacking the girls in the car while they're discussing potential escape plans, or coming back to attack after supposedly finding a cure for everything, the film treats the zombies more as a punchline than than anything when they do occur since their total screen-time manages to last only around five minutes at most. This could be a massive issue for those wanting more of a presence from the creatures and is what holds this back the most. Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.