Review: ZOMBEER (short film)

Zombeer was one of ten shorts screened at Phoenix FearCon V this year. The short was written and directed by Drew Griffin, who as far as I know, was making his debut with Zombeer. The film stars Jesse Denton, Ulises Mauricio, George Mulholland, and Daniel Schurgin, who I also believe were also all making their first go around.

The short is about a mad scientist type of a man attempting to make some type of super addictive beer. He brews up a batch and gives it to his roommates. As soon as they taste it, the roommates immediately want more. They quickly drink down the entire batch as well as any other bee that is in the house. Once that is gone, they turn into zombies and attack the mad scientist type that brewed the beer.

Zombeer didn’t quite work for me. The opening segment was nice. We see the beer being brewed in a sort of lab with a mad scientist. We even have an Igor-like assistant. This all had a really good mad scientist vibe, along the lines of 50's era horror. The short should’ve stopped here because after this it was all downhill.

The roommates come into the house drinking beer and talking. The dialogue is poor. It’s not funny or entertaining and the acting is even worse. Now this does appear to be everyone’s first attempt, so I’ll give them a pass for some of this, the acting in particular, however, other issues arise.

The story doesn’t really make sense. I get the addictive beer. I get them drinking that and becoming hooked. What I don’t get is why drinking this particular beer made them addicted to every type of beer. It’s also not really explained why they turn into zombies and starting eating people. They should be craving beer, not flesh.

I think the very basic idea here can be good, but it needs to go down a different route. Since this does appear to be Griffin’s first bit of work, he can get better and approve and I’m sure he will. Zombeer is something that I’d expect to see on YouTube and not at a horror convention.

written by Christopher Coffel