Macabre…ish Horror Review: Better Off Zed

Better Off Zed, 2018/ 1 hr 27 min.

The world has devolved into a zombie apocalypse, it’s not a total desolated hellscape yet and not everyone is a zombie.

Some semblance of normalcy still exists, which helps. But the threat of zombies is still outside of every home of the living. And every once in a while a friend or neighbor turns up in the group.

Guy (Graham Sibley) keeps himself busy around the house but he is driving his wife crazy with his laziness and irresponsibility.  He does not have her same sense of urgency and he finds different things important. His wife, Paige (Christine Woods), is anxious and just waiting for rescue, while Guy is content to wait it out at home and maybe relieve a zombie friend of his, cannabis plants. On occasion he has sabotaged rescue efforts and withheld information from his wife.

Meanwhile, they are running out of food and soon, water. But Guy insists this is still better than how things were before, for him, this is the best thing that’s ever happened. One day, some abandoned bottles of wine draws him out, into what little danger there is and he almost doesn’t survive it. For all his trouble, only one bottle survives.

Paige tries to be content but then finds out Guy is keeping secrets and she’s pissed. One day, hope returns when radio communications suggest help is very near, so Paige prepares to leave. All while Guy works on his paintings. But he makes sure to keep sabotaging her.

Fed up, she packs a bag and leaves but it’s too late, they are overrun. Things left undone, half done or neglected come back to haunt them. With their skittishness about killing zombies, they have little hope of survival.

This is like a slacker comedy with zombies as a back drop. This turned out to be mostly about marital discord during a disaster with a few zombies for flavor. These are slow zombies and the zombie effects are ok. There’s a little blood and gore but for a zombie flick, it’s almost none. It’s not bad but not what not what expect when I want a zombie horror. Here the zombies were little more than window dressing.