Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante: Revolución Tóxica

The first two Plaga Zombie films were reasonably entertaining nonsense, full of cartoonish gore and absurd characters, but Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante: Revolución Tóxica really, really, REALLY got on my nerves, the inane goofiness dialled up to eleven. Directors (and stars) Pablo Parés, Hernán Sáez, and Paulo Soria are clearly aiming for a Peter Jackson-style blend of horror and comedy (Max is obviously modelled on Derek in Bad Taste) but what they actually give us is puerile trash that delivers the gore but completely fails when it comes to the laughs (in desperation, the film features not one, but two fart gags).

The plot sees the three heroes of the previous films -- Max (Hernán Sáez), Bill (Pablo Parés) and John (Berta Muñiz) -- once again battling zombies, only this time around they learn that the reanimated dead are hosts to aliens that are planning to invade the Earth. The trio devise a daft scheme to blow up the aliens' mothership which involves turning a zombie into a bomb. However, Max develops a father/son relationship with the zombie (which he names Junior) that threatens to scupper the plan. This leads to some excruciatingly awful, intendedly touching scenes, with Max repeatedly wailing 'Junior' in his whiny voice. Meanwhile, Bill and John wander the town, encountering more zombies and a rogue FBI agent, none of which is particularly entertaining.

Things get even worse towards the end of the film with a terrible musical scene in which the guys belt out a hugely annoying theme song while the zombies dance in the background. It was almost bad enough to make me want to switch off, but I had made it that far, so I wasn't about to let the film beat me. To add insult to injury, an end credits scene shows that the zombie/alien situation is far from over, promising yet another movie (which finally came out in 2021).