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Home | Film Review: Zombies and Cigarettes (short film) (2009)

Film Review: Zombies and Cigarettes (short film) (2009)

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SYNOPSIS:

Zombies invade a mall (“in Spain?”)and the hero Xavi tries to impress the girl he likes, defeat the zombies, and stay alive.

REVIEW:

More short films. Today we have a Spanish film called ZOMBIES AND CIGARETTES (2009) from Carpe Diem Productions, written by Iñaki San Román and directed by Rafa Martínez. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles.

A zombie movie set in a shopping mall is a zombie movie set in a shopping mall. I mean, the tropes are obvious, right? Set up camp, drink Orange julius and eat Auntie Annie’s pretzels until this whole thing blows over.

No. Sorry. That’s not how this works.

Our way into this world is through Xavi (Samuel Viyuela), an mall employee having an ice cream at the end of his shift before he heads home to mom. He does this a lot, apparently, as the kindly confectioner Anselmo (Paco Hidalgo) hooks him up at a discount.

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As Xavi is digging on his ice cream, along comes Carol (Aroa Gimeno), the girl of his dreams on the way to start her shift at whatever shop she works at. An awkward moment as Xavi accidently trips a perfume salesman, dumping his wares all over the floor. Carol bails out, Xavi helps clean up the mess, just another miserable day in Xavi’s life.

But then the gunshots start. Blood flies everywhere. The dead have risen, and they are in the mall. Xavi has one goal – find Carol and keep her safe. Along with Anselmo and fellow mall employee Kendo (Javier Ríos), Xavi and Carol begin the dangerous journey to get the heck out of the mall.

I have always said that a short film needs to be concise, and this one is right on the money. No time wasted, no long run-up establishing characters. Just holy cow what was that? and the adventure begins.

The zombie make up isn’t brilliant, but it is effective. And no shortage of blood. Like, AT ALL. This felt a little bit like a live action version of the video game DEAD RISING, right down to arming themselves in a sporting goods store.

The cast are all well experienced actors, with extensive listings for Spanish language television and film. The production quality is top notch. The score is awesome!! It’s a quick jaunt through the end of the world, and its totally worth watching.

The ending will not be what you expect, and it may piss you off a little. I know it made me very sad. No spoilers. Just throwing it out there.

So using my special short scale of one to five, five being awesome, I’m giving this film 4 zombies.

 

 

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