Wild Zero - Review

The film opens with hundreds of flying saucers headed towards Earth - MARS ATTACKS-style. This is intercut with scenes of a rockabilly/punk-loving little misfit named Ace, who's greasing his hair up and getting ready for the Guitar Wolf event that night. ROCK 'N' ROLL!! - and we're off to the club where Guitar Wolf is playing a blistering version of their song "Jet Generation". After their set, Guitar Wolf gets into a confrontation with the drugged-up club owner, blowing his fingers off with a pistol. The club owner later takes off after Guitar Wolf for revenge, driving his hot rod, toting a shotgun and wearing leather shorts that are entirely too tight and entirely too short. Ace gets involved with and begins to fall for a girl who turns out to be a transvestite. Some zombies show up for some flesh-eating fun. And then the movie really gets crazy. This film is ridiculous and zany; but above all it's Fun (that's right, with a capital "F"). How could you not enjoy watching Guitar Wolf take out multiple zombies by throwing guitar-pick lasers at them in rapid succession (like some kind of punk rock ninja)? There's a decent amount of gore on display, as well. I've said this before in other reviews, and I'll say it again; it's just not a zombie movie without some good gutmunch scenes, and WILD ZERO has a few of them. There's also plenty of splattery gun shot squibs and zombie head explosions too. The zombie make-up is straight out of George Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD - blue greasepaint; and I like it. Some of the zombies who have close-ups have a bit more extensive make-up: flesh wounds, rotting skin, etc. The soundtrack, mostly by Guitar Wolf, is all high-octane rock 'n' roll and punk, which keeps the energy level up throughout the movie. Fans of horrorpunk and psychobilly bands should get a kick out of this film. If you ever thought to yourself, "Wow, I'd like to see a movie that combines ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL with DAWN OF THE DEAD by way of Peter Jackson's BAD TASTE, with a Japanese flavor" - then this is the film for you.
I'd also say it's somewhat reminiscent of the punk-fueled cinema of Sogo Ishii, and it would make a great double feature night with Ishii's BURST CITY or ELECTRIC DRAGON 80,000 V.

8/10