CINEMA: Doghouse

If you were a man going through a messy divorce surely you would want your mates to rally around you and ensure that you were happy and had a good time to take your mind off of it all?

In this new film from Evil Aliens director Jake West that is exactly happens but things go a little pear-shaped for Vince (Stephen Graham) and various mates when they take him to the little village of Moodley where the women apparently outnumber the men three to one. On arrival they find body parts strewn about the place and blood everywhere and when the local women seem to have turned into zombies, they must fight for their lives in order to survive.

From the get-go you know that this film is not going to be either politically correct or ashamed of its B Movie roots. It stars Danny Dyer as Neil, a man so sexist it’s scary, and we are introduced to his character at the start of the film with him running out of a girl’s house, forgetting her name and insulting her on the way out. I know many people will switch off now, but he really is good in this film, playing a role he has perfected and providing much of the movie’s comic relief. Noel Clarke also appears as (Mikey) one of Vince’s five other friends and once again shows the comic timing he displayed in Doctor Who.

There is much running around of course, and we find out that the female zombies (or “Zombirds”) were created by an Army experiment gone wrong, and that they are going to mutate and get stronger and more vicious over time.

Yes it is really, really silly and cheap and cheerful but is a whole lot better than the awful Lesbian Vampire Killers, and although not Shakespeare it does what it says on the tin and provides a good 90 minutes of great, gory and often funny entertainment.

Writer Dan Schaffer has crafted a cute and clever addition to the pantheon of zombie films, and horror-comedy fans will find this a hoot.

Mark Cappuccio