GANGSTERS, GUNS AND ZOMBIES

A sextet of robbers have grouped together to turn over a bank. We meet them first as they’re making their getaway in a white van, hurrying to the sanctuary of a nearby safehouse.

Q (Vincent Jerome) is the new lad, brought in as a last-minute stand-in getaway driver. He works under instruction from Tony (Huggy Leaver), the hard knock who put the job together. Also along for the ride are well-intended but dim hulk Muscles (Charlie Rawes), shifty Pat (Frank Rizzo), wild card liability Steve (Fabrizio Santino) and Tony’s pal Danny (Simon Mathews). The latter has been shot during the robbery, and now lies in a pool of his own blood in the back of their van.

Frantic to save his buddy’s life, Tony insists the group make a detour en route to the safehouse and pay the nearest hospital a visit. But the hospital, like everywhere else it would seem, is overrun with zombies.

Ah yes, did I forget to mention that minor detail? In the midst of our protagonists’ breakneck getaway plight, we learn from the commentary on their radio that a zombie infection has spread throughout the UK during the past week.

While the commentators debate over what started the pandemic and how it can be spread, Tony and his crew arrive at their rendezvous … to discover the police waiting for them. Fortunately, the undead also turn up and the police swiftly cease to be a problem.

So, onwards the robbers drive, heading for a second safehouse that Tony had up until this point kept a secret. But there are problems with this countryside-bound plan: Danny needs medical attention, they’re low on fuel, and everywhere they look they see the living dead.

Stopping only to bury Danny once he expires (and fight off a group of zombies bizarrely dressed as knights), the group briskly resume their journey.

It takes them through endless bickering, a pretty funny foray to a petrol station, and eventually to a remote windmill where they encounter a foul-mouthed Grandma (Jennie Latham) and her granddaughter Cassie (Cassandra Ohran).

Although initially at loggerheads, these two disparate groups must work together if they are to fend off the undead. But, with a holdall full of stolen cash and a van full of lags all giving each other shifty glances, the scene is set for double-crossing, power struggles and more.

Directed and co-written by Matt Mitchell (Taliesyn Mitchell is the other co-writer), GANGSTERS doesn’t start off promisingly. In fact, after ten minutes of Q’s voiceover, stock cockney bad guys, the RESERVOIR DOGS scenario, freeze-frames and characters being introduced with their names in onscreen text, I could easily have switched this off and dismissed it as no-budget sub-Guy Ritchie shite.

But I stuck with it. And, I must admit, I warmed to it more and more as it ploughed on.

The acting is never great, but at the very least the five conscious lags all have a great, individual screen presence about them. Jerome looks a little like Ashley Cole at times, while Santino’s manic energy is an ample rival for Leaver’s charisma as the performance that steals the show.

The tone is pitched more towards comedy than horror, with most of the humour being derived from the scathing banter shared between the hoodlums. More overt jokes come in the form of Pat asking a marauding zombie footballer what the day’s scores are, Steve obsessing over the cleanliness of his new shoes and Muscles’ endearing stupidity.

In terms of horror, the film is never scary and seldom tense. But Alexandra Vlcek’s splattery FX work is kept busy during the film’s first half (oddly, the pace slows during the latter half), ensuring gore fans are well catered for with lots of practical bitings and shootings.

Jamie Burr’s cinematography also impresses, as does Simon Woodgate’s atmospheric score.

It feels redundant to accuse the screenplay of failing to explore certain plot points to their fullest (the nature of the zombie virus; who is the rat among the robbers, etc). GANGSTERS doesn’t concern itself with such conventional logic: it’s an episodic road trip, flirting with two seemingly mismatched genres while aiming for deadpan giggles at every turn.

I do think this current trend that no-budget British genre filmmakers have, of making high concept mish-mashes such as STRIPPERS VERSUS WEREWOLVES and COCKNEYS VERSUS ZOMBIES, is pretty lazy, exploitative and insulting. Worse still, it’s attracting home-grown talents who should be investing their ideas and energy into something much less tacky. Having said that, GANGSTERS – terrible title, intro/outro song and acting aside – is surprisingly enjoyable. In its own, slightly embarrassing way.

Lionsgate’s UK DVD opens with a succession of trailers for other titles: THE POSSESSION, SILENT HILL: REVELATION, THE THOMPSONS and a preview for TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D.

From there, we get an animated main menu page and a static scene-selection menu allowing access to GANGSTERS via 8 chapters.

The film itself is presented uncut in a healthy 2.35:1 aspect ratio transfer. The picture is sharp, clean and enhanced for 16x9 television sets. A film-like sheen prevents it from ever looking too cheap, while strong colours lend added depth to that aforementioned cinematography.

Audio-wise, we get treated to a robust and effectively balanced 5.1 mix. There are also optional English subtitles on hand for the hard-of-hearing.

The only bonus feature on the disc is a 29-minute Making Of documentary entitled "Fake Blood, Sweat and Tears". This may be somewhat self-congratulatory, but is well-produced and good-looking. The cast and principal crew members are all on hand for ‘talking head’ style interviews, with many of the former gushing over the quality of the script.

All in all, this featurette is one of the better recent examples of its kind.

GANGSTERS, GUNS AND ZOMBIES shouldn’t be entertaining but it is. It looks good here, and is worth a punt if you’re willing to forgive its lack of originality and budget.

Review by Stuart Willis