FrightFest review – Ibiza Undead

My notes on Ibiza Undead

‘You English,with your drinking and your fucking with no condoms. It’s a wonder you’re not all zombies already.’

Okay, so it’s The In-Betweeners movie meets Sean of the Dead … and every bit as crass as you’d expect, but it has a reasonably amiable (and pretty) cast, a few decent character beats and a sense of mild fun.  With the UK in lockdown due to an ongoing zombie problem that UKIP blame on immigrants – and mutterings that the armed police tend to shoot as many live people as dead ones, which hint at a political angle that then gets dropped – a bunch of willfully stereotyped lads and ladettes head off to Ibiza to get drunk and have sex, only to find that the undead turn up on holiday too,  striding out of the sea in evocation of the run of underwater zombie pictures of the 1980s.  There’s some waffle about notionally nice but actually whiny Alex (Jordan Coulson) trying to get back with his sensible girlfriend Ellie (Cara Theobold) but his crass pal Big Jim (Ed Kear), in the Nick Frost role, hogs most scenes he’s in and eventually wears down the audience by showing a nearly vulnerable streak in a scene with Alex’s fun blonde (infected) sister Liz (Emily Atack) before a strange bit of plotting whereby he can’t quite admit he didn’t have sex with Liz and so lets everyone think he’s going to turn into a zombie and stays behind when they escape. It’s a bit short on guest stars, but familiar character comedian Matt King puts in a showing as a white-suited club-running crook who imports zombies to Ibiza to dance in a club which becomes ground zero of the outbreak.  Zara (Algina Lipskis) has a funny, dimwit speech about how if there has to be an apocalypse she’d prefer to be attacked by sexy vampires than smelly zombies.  It’s a bit light on the expected gore gags, spending more time on the fun in the sun silliness and youthful sex comedy business.  It’s no Sean – it isn’t even Dead Set, Stalled or Harold’s Going Stiff, but there honestly are dozens of worse zombie movies stumbling around out there.  Written and directed by Andy Edwards.