Text © Richard
Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2023
Images from the Internet
Super Z (aka Super
Z: Smart-Ass Zombies!)
Directed by Julien
de Volte and Arnaud Tabarly
La Ruche Productions; MVD Visual
80 minutes, 2022 / 2023
www.facebook.com/SuperZ
www.MVDVisual.com
Zombie-love in the States is obvious, but it is also far flung across the world, such as Train to Busan (2016) in Korea, and in Europe, there is the recent Ever After (EndZeit) (2018) from Germany. Those films, however, are dead serious (pun intended).
On the other hand, there is Super Z, hailing out of France, which is a bloody and gory comedy. There are not too many zombie comedies in general, though there are the likes of Aaah! Zombies!! (aka Wasting Away) and Bong of the Dead (2011), not to mention the infamous Shaun of the Dead (2004), which even predates this release. This feature is based on the directors’ 2014 short film, “The Foodies.”
Audrey Giacomin, iJohan Libéreau, Julien Courbey, Florence Bebic-Veruni
In French (with subtitles), of course, this multi-level story of death, flesh and lust starts in a laboratory called The Purgatory, of a corporation led by Le PDG/The CEO (Jacques Boudet, who has had a long and storied career in French cinema). There is even a picture of himself on his desk. He is assisted in this endeavor by the over the top Le savant fou/The Mad Scientist (Jean-François Gallotte), who gleefully tortures the people/zombies on whom he works. As you may notice, some characters are expressed as their titles or roles, rather than their given names.
But the scientist has taken an extra step on his own and has made them more than just killing and eating machines, he has given them sentience, so they are aware of what is going on and can even talk. However, that is mostly trash talk, taunting like the French guards in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), except full of vulgarity and profanity.
The main test subjects are a family of four: “father” Gertre (Johan Libéreau), “mother” Stephana (Julien Courbey), and “daughters” Marcelline (Audrey Giacomini) and Georgette (Florence Bebic-Veruni). After they escape the facility, along the way, while having – er – dinner, they manage to turn a young man into one of them, Yvon (Fabien Ara), whom they adopt. The transformation takes only seconds. Yvon confuses me, though; is he supposed to be a teen? He plays his role like a man-child a la Lou Costello or a Jerry Lewis character (remember how popular Lewis was in France?). He is into rap, wears his extended cap sideways, pants hanging below his butt, and has his name on a gold chain. And he’s a bit annoying; no where as interesting as the foursome family. I do have to concede, though, that the “young” daughters are also played by adults.
Sent after them is Le mercinaire/The Mercenary (Lauren Bouhnik) and his cousin, La cousin (Jo Prestia, who also has quite the filmography), out to hunt and kill the escapees. This scenario, in some twisted way, reminds me a bit of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, with the hungry foursome as the escaped slaves being Eliza and her family, and Le mercinaire as Simon Legree.
Holed up in a cabin (see?), the extended zombie family fixes it up and feeds of people going by on a nearby walking path in joyous and bloody ways. Some family dinner table scenes are hysterical for both normality and – er – not (more on this later), and yet is extremely and disturbingly full of blood and gore. They plot their revenge against the world of humans, but what happens when one of them becomes infatuated by living, tooth-impaired, Augustine (Marion Mezadorian)? There is a definite Romeo and Juliet aspect to it, including a balcony scene. Smart.
While the excitement lasts throughout, with very little lulls, it also picks up significantly in the third Act when the mercenaries show up at the CEO’s insistence to do away with what he considers a failed experiment(s).
You can see the influence of other films throughout, such as an homage to the ending of Mother’s Day (1980), which made me smile. Another interesting aspect of the film is that as absurd as it is, there is also a “normal” aspect of it, such as the zombies drinking wine, smoking, taking drugs, sleeping (and snoring), loving and arguing. I really enjoyed that. To them, even though they despise the living beyond the food aspect, they are not much different in so many ways.
But what is most notable is the gore effects and make-up, which look phenomenal. These were handled by Stéphanie Couste, Harold Levy, Cédric Martin and Vanessa Ricolleau. It does not surprise me it took four people, because there is a lot going on here, from zombie make-up, the gore SFX, and body parts.
Sexually, it is quite
crude, with masturbating and zombie sex, among other aspects I will not discuss
because I do not want to give too much away. This film just revels in absurdist
humor, which is bound to make some laugh, but will also guarantee some will
find repulsive in both visuals, comments made by characters, and the degree of
wit (mostly low level). But I found it quite fun and full of great moments.
Also, their voices are quite growly and screechy, almost as though their voices
have been sped up. This is especially true of Stephana. I am grateful for the English
subtitles, because even if it was in English, I may have trouble making out the
dialogue; however, the subtitles are not the best, being all white, but still
appreciated, as I was with the film in general.
IMDB listing HERE
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