ATTACK OF THE CORN ZOMBIES & RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES: Dirt Cheap Double Feature

ATTACK OF THE CORN ZOMBIES & RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES (Blu-ray)

2023 & 2025 / 177 minutes (2 movies)

Bayview Entertainment

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Josey, the Sudden Cat🙀

Before you go thinking the titles suggest a couple of satiric, self-aware zom-coms…nope. Both are a couple of ultra low-budget flicks that are more-or-less serious in tone (especially the second one). They are the products of Steve Hermann, a self-taught filmmaker from Chicago whose can-do spirit is admirable, even if he hasn’t quite taught himself everything yet.

Attack of the Corn Zombies apparently had a budget of $10,000, which'll get you a decent used car if you shop smart enough. Taking place in 1969, it’s about a corn crop sprayed with fertilizer that has the unfortunate side effect of turning people into the title creatures, complete with stalks and kernels growing from their open wounds. Languidly paced and clumsily staged, with some eye-rolling dialogue spoken by a cast whose primary income probably isn’t acting, Attack of the Corn Zombies might have you wondering if that used car wouldn't have been a wiser investment. Still, the movie boasts some not-half-bad make-up effects and an earnest effort to make the whole thing look like a product of the ‘60s.

DoorDash has arrived.

Comparatively speaking, Return of the Corn Zombies is actually pretty good. Made for three times the budget of the first (a whopping $30,000, enough for a decent new car), this one is still amateur night in the acting department and wastes way too much screen time on character exposition (to no avail, since we still don’t care about them). However, the legitimately decent story sees a few survivors of the corn zombie apocalypse lured into a compound overseen by a megalomaniacal ex-mayor and his looney family, who run the place like cult leaders. Pretty dark in tone, it sort of plays like a Walking Dead episode, where the real monsters aren’t the zombies. The technical aspects are also a significant improvement.

Ultimately, how much one enjoys these homegrown films largely depends on an appreciation for what Steve Hermann and friends were able to accomplish with such meager resources. He’s no Romero, but probably capable of cranking out a pretty solid horror movie if ever provided the kind of financing that could put a sports car in his driveway.