“This truck runs on zombies. No zombies? No truck.”

Justin’s rating: This movie is not about sanitary blood practices, just warning you

Justin’s review: What is it about Australia that brings out the apocalyptic themes in its movies? Maybe it’s because they’re already living on the edge with the environment filled with murderous fauna that it becomes a hop, skip, and a step to the end of the world.

Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead kicked off a cult series with a minimal budget, weekend shoots, and an intense attitude — and it might be the best zombie flick you’ve never seen.

A passing meteor shower triggers a widespread plague of angry zombies looking to eat, infect, and scour the landscape looking for more survivors. It all happens fast and brutal, with Australia struggling to react to the calamity as the plague seems spread by gas as much as blood and biting. Among those left are a mechanic named Barry, his sister Brooke, and an Aborigine named Benny. Guess it’s the attack of the B-names, isn’t it?

What I love about Wyrmwood is that it’s not lazy. Most zombie movies are incredibly lazy, relying on nothing but tropes and angry people in makeup biting other people. There’s no originality or other ideas, and so it becomes a matter of trying to look cool and pull off action scenes with a high squib count.

Not this film. Wyrmwood may not be top tier, but it’s full up on some pretty interesting ideas that, for once, expand upon what an undead world might look like. For example, it’s revealed that Brooke has the ability to telepathically control zombies, turning her into a super-weapon that plays more and more into this story. And there’s a mad scientist performing all sorts of experiments for… some reason?

Also — and I’m not making this up — gasoline stops working and the only fuel that functions becomes zombie breath and blood. This leads to zombie-fueled cars, because of course it does. But the zombie gas doesn’t work at night because they use it to power up their attacks. The Rule of Cool is heavily at play in this movie, and you’ll be thankful for it.

What’s also at work in favor of this movie is that it is happy to draw inspiration from plenty of great zombie movie ancestors. It’s easily an Evil Dead spiritual successor, with the Sam Raimi quick cuts, the hero who loves his sawed-off shotgun and quips, and immediate transformation of people into creatures that look very much like Deadites.

But it doesn’t stop there, because there’s the DNA of Mad Max, Re-Animator, Dawn of the Dead, and probably more mixed into this. Wyrmwood is in good company as a result, glorying in the utter weirdness, gore, and — yes — humor that these other films embraced.

You probably know by now whether or not this is the kind of movie for you, and if it is, I guarantee you that you’re going to have a rip-roaring time. At least someone’s been having fun with the undead after getting all depressed in these other cinematic universes.

Intermission!

• Zombies have very good dental plans, I notice
• “This morning I shot my wife and child with a nail gun. I don’t know how to make that into a story.”
• Giving someone face paint right before they turn into a zombie makes them extra-scary
• It helps if you’re good at parkour to evade zombies
• “Daddy, there’s somebody in the kitchen.”
• The trademark Sam Raimi gear-up quick cuts!
• Nail guns take down zombies very nicely
• “See this? This is going to go into your neck.”
• Welder’s goggles under a radiation suit? This dude is a mad scientist for sure.
• Never seen so many zombies punched out before.
• “Round ’em or through ’em?” “Through ’em.”
• “I’m keeping this.”
• Neville the freezer zombie
• “We need to armor up. Big time.”
• A gas-powered harpoon! To hunt sharks!
• “So what did you learn?” “Never get out of the truck!”
• They stop breathing the gas at night? Sure. Why not.
• “It’s going to be a long night.”
• Firing guns inside a car seems like it’d be a good recipe for blowing out your eardrums, but no
• Australian medical boxes come stocked with beer
• Gotta be pretty dedicated to cut off your own hand and then have no adverse affects from blood loss or shock