Review: ‘Cockneys vs Zombies’ takes the battle to new levels of comedy Special

‘Cockneys vs Zombies’ is pretty self-explanatory: a group of East End Londoners band together to battle the undead scourge that has taken over their town.

The zombie subgenre is probably the most malleable in the horror category. It has the ability to scare, provide political commentary, touch people's hearts or make them laugh. There are also many variations of the traditional monster. Toronto After Dark's Cockneys vs Zombies takes the humorous approach and had the audience howling in their seats. When a group of inept criminals discover their grandfather's (Alan Ford) retirement home is being demolished, they decide to rob a bank to save it. In the meantime, construction workers at another site find an unmarked graveyard and are then bit by the not-so-dead inhabitants. When the gang attempts to make their getaway and flee the police, they find all the cops were killed by the amassing zombies. But even though the circumstances change, their mission remains the same: save granddad! This movie is laugh-out-loud funny. British comedy really lends itself to this genre as their dark sense of humour complements the monstrous situations. Ford is fantastic in this capacity. One character's experiences with the zombies include killing an undead mother, punting her baby a good distance and being left with half a person's face latched onto his arm. In text this sounds horrifying, but on the screen it was very funny. Similarly, the scene in which an elderly man with a walker attempts to outrun a zombie is still hilarious even though the gag is included in the trailer. And true to the country's culture, football rivalries never end. One thing this film does include that so many zombie movies lack is an arsenal. The retirement home residents are eventually armed to the teeth, shredding their undead predators with bullets. But no one wastes ammo either. When possible, they bludgeon their attackers' skulls or shoot to kill rather than maim the creatures. It's basically an adventure movie that’s bad guy is a horde of the undead. And in case you wonder why the credits seem a bit long, all 800 zombies are listed to acknowledge their contributions to producing this entertaining addition to the genre - they wouldn't have had a film without them. Director: Matthias Hoene Starring: Michelle Ryan, Georgia King and Alan Ford