Zombie Chronicles: Infection Zone

Of course I harbored zero expectations to this 2023 horror movie titled "Zombie Chronicles: Infection Zone". I mean, just look at the cover, if that doesn't scream low budget to High Heaven, I don't know what does. But still, my fascination with horror movies and all things zombie drove me to give director Joe Sherlock's 2023 movie a fair chance.

To rub salt in the open wound that is "Zombie Chronicles: Infection Zone", then this was a zombie anthology. Yeah, that didn't make things better, not even in the least way. Horror anthologies are usually rubbish, and this was basically no different.

Writers John Oak Dalton, David C. Hayes, Joe Sherlock and Joseph Sherrock didn't exactly conjure up grand stories for the anthology stories. Some of the stories were bad, some were fair, so it as a bit of a mixed bag.

Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list. Some of the acting performances in the movie were wooden and devoid of any emotions at best. While others put on fair enough acting performances, and that definitely helped to carry the inadequate performance of the other performers.

The movie contains pointless nudity, which didn't help promote the narrative in any way. All it did was just sleaze up things unnecessarily. Take away the nudity from the movie, and you'd end up with a slightly better end product. It was nothing more than the writers chance to get to put some skin on tape.

Something positive could be said about "Zombie Chronicles: Infection Zone" and that was that it was definitely a low budget production that was made by people that had a genuine love of the zombie subgenre of horror. And it was made with a lot of spirit and enthusiasm, no doubt about that. But it just wasn't enough to make it get past its amateurish shelf.

Some of the zombie make-up was good, whereas other instances were downright laughable to look at, especially those painted on yellow blemishes on a woman's face, they looked so fake.

While I managed to sit through the 70 minutes that the anthology ran for, I can honestly say that I am never returning to watch this a second time. If you enjoy low budget zombie movies, then by all means check out "Zombie Chronicles: Infection Zone".

My rating of "Zombie Chronicles: Infection Zone" lands on a four out of ten stars.

I first saw this movie on Tubi and I was pleasantly surprised. This is a no-budget independent zombie B-movie and I mean that in the best way possible.

Yes, it's an amateur production but there is a charm to that and you can tell the actors and director did a great job with the resources they had. For a movie made on a budget of $5000 USD, it's actually very entertaining. The zombie and gore effects are decent and there is also a fair bit of nudity as well. It's good old fashioned B-movie fun, with no frills. This is a cheap fun zombie movie and it doesn't try to ever pretend like it's anything else. If you want to be entertained for an hour and ten minutes and are a fan of zombie movies, this is a good choice to go with.

Stuck late at his shift, a morgue attendant passes the time watching tapes of cheesy, low-budget zombie films while dealing with his clients.

The Good Stor(ies): Harvest Time-While carrying out a clandestine deal, a pair of strangers come across flesh-eating zombies in the woods. Overall, this was a really fun effort that lets the conventional storytelling give this a lot to like. The way the setup in the woods, with their secret meeting and conversations about the whole thing ties into a past between them, provides a nice grounding so that the creature attacks generate some cheesy charm. There are some fine sight gags involving the contents of their meeting interacting with the zombies and it all provides a solid enough storyline to keep it moving and upbeat, and although the amount of calls to his wife to reassure her about everything gets old and slow the pace down it's not a major issue in the slightest.

Keeping Molly-Preparing for the birth of their baby, a newly-married couple finds a series of complications to hinder their lives after the delivery. As a whole, this was a fine effort but seems slightly misplaced in this kind of anthology effort. The slow-building exploits of the virus and how it's spreading through her as well as the resulting community has some great tension being built up nicely through the body transformation and eventual realization. Although it's the longest segment, the first half being all set up about the pregnancy allows for a massively overlong but still fun second half featuring the outbreak of the virus which goes on a bit too long with that length providing the opportunity to generate plenty of great indie gore with the bodily breakdowns and gruesome flesh-ripping. Still, as it's the most fully flesh-out and structured it stands out from the others who are centered around a short gag or setup, so this does come off weird but still has plenty of likable features here.

The Bad Stor(ies): The Nudist Resort Zombie-Attempting to take a vacation, a woman getting ready for the trip is attacked by a flesh-eating zombie. This brief way to get things started isn't all that bad but its premise does ruin this slightly. The potential sleaze and cheese on offer is quite enjoyable and gets this off to a solid start, especially once the attack happens, but the gag about its setup does tend to bring about the main issue here presenting itself as a cheat more than anything else.

Carl the Coroner-Stuck late at his shift, a morgue attendant passes the time watching tapes of cheesy, low-budget zombie films while dealing with his clients. As a whole, this isn't bad as a means of establishing a wraparound for this type of indie fare. The setup of the worker staying late with the tapes at his job so that each of the stories appears as a tape is workable enough along with the resulting zombie outbreak that leads into the final segment after the proper third story that again features some cheesy action and plenty of gore. It's all somewhat confusing how this takes place whether or not it's part of the movie world or the real world, and it's the most glaring ly obvious about it's low-budget origins as the goofy atmosphere drips off the screen constantly for a hint as to what's on display throughout.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and Full Nudity.