Film Review: YUMMY (2019)

 YUMMY (2019) Belgium 1hr 28mins

Director: Lars Damoiseaux

"Teen pregnancy... we give them free abortions." -Janja

"Ooooh that's really nice!"-Alison

"God is punishing us for interfering with his creation."- Yonah

Alison (Maaike Neuville) is unhappy with her appearance. She wants a breast reduction and has roped her nervous yet doting boyfriend Michael (Bart Hollanders) into coming with her to the hospital/retreat to have the procedure. Alisons mother Sylvia (Annick Christiaens) has come along for a few procedures herself. On arrival everything seems normal until Michael gets nervous about Alisons impending procedure. After having a panic attack Michael is given a tour of the hospital from porter Daniel (Benjamin Ramon). They discover and unleash the reanimated corpse of a former patient who Dr. K (Eric Godon) and his assistant Janja (Clara Cleymans) have been experimenting on. As most of the hospitals staff and patients turn into blood thirsty, cannibalistic walking cadavers. Michael, Alison and a small group of survivors must learn to face their fears and fight to stay alive.

Drawing from a whole host of influences ranging from DEAD/ALIVE (1992), THE EVIL DEAD (1981) and DEAD SNOW (2009) to name a few YUMMY (2019) is one of the goriest and funniest movies of recent times. Unafraid to show lots of blood, guts, green goo and a flaming penis, you are never more then a few shots away from gratuitous gore and/or a hilarious medical mishap. The characters play out as follows; Michael and Alison (our main protagonists) are your average couple. Alison is a confident, independent woman and Michael is her devoted boyfriend who maintains that he is okay with her decision for the breast reduction. These two really remind me of Hanna and Martin from DEAD SNOW (2009) and I don't really know why. They don't look like them but they seem to have some mannerisms and characteristics that makes me think of them instantly. It could be that Michael (like Martin) had studied to be a doctor but has a tendency to faint at the sight of blood and Alison is as bold as Hanna was when it comes to fighting zombies. There are many other characters that are simply there to perish in horrible, hilarious and shocking ways. Alisons poor mother becomes a bit of a lab rat, Doctor Yonah has a hell of a time of it pretty much throughout his screen time and the young girl Oksana really shouldn't be as trusting as she is. However, the antagonists, Daniel, Dr. K and Janja are subtle in their antics at first but things soon begin to escalate. It's one of those movies that you will find yourself rewinding multiple parts of to wonder over the great practical effects, relive the kills and to just confirm that it was one of those "what the fuck" moments!

Patient X was a young woman who had undergone an experimental stem cell treatment to prevent ageing that had gone horribly wrong. Strapped to a hospital bed and sporting a Hannibal Lector style mask she gets discovered by Michael who thinks he's helping her. On taking off her mask he notices that she has no lips and after she tries to eat him he flees leaving her to chew through her restraints. She wastes no time dragging herself around brutalising and biting the patients and hospital staff. The zombies produced by patient X are (thankfully) the good old proper zombie as we shall call them now. They are slow and shuffling but easily agitated, quick to horde and violent to the core. Many have limbs missing and most are half eaten and/or partially digested. The infection is passed on through bites and bodily fluids and reanimation is pretty quick after infection. As well as the swarms of gut munching monstrosities there is another little fella to watch out for. Some infected blood from a decimated corpse on the floor above seeps through the ceiling of a lab containing all manner of critters swimming in formaldehyde. It drips into a jar containing a cute little dead reptilian creature who reanimates and has a bit of a jolly around the hospital as the carnage erupts around him and hilarity prevails. There are so many awesome and grotesque zombies that you will never get bored. They are acted incredibly well and look fantastic they really are the stars of the show. As I said earlier the FX are brilliant, gory and highly entertaining. You know it's good when you cant quite tell the difference between a zombie and a lady who has had her chemical skin peel treatment left on for too long!

The plot is well thought out and so amusing, it is very immature at times but who the hell cares?! I don't quite understand why they decided to call the movie YUMMY... I guess it is just a reference to cannibalism but it is a bit weird and not exactly memorable. Great use of shaky cam and some CCTV footage. It has some subtitles but for those of you that don't enjoy subtitles they arent around for long and it flits between Dutch and English only occasionally. If you arent entertained by the movie as a whole then the bat shit ending will blow your mind if the rest hasn't. I love this film a lot and score it top marks of 5 brains out of 5!

YUMMY (2019) currently streaming on Shudder and is available on blu ray.