Cockneys vs. Zombies - DVD

Content: The fact that the retirement home where their grandfather Ray (Alan Ford) lives is to be torn down for some luxury apartments is something brothers Terry (Rasmus Hardiker) and Andy (Harry Treedaway) don't want to take lying down. They plan to use the money, which they plan to capture in a bank robbery, to save the house and secure housing for Ray and the other residents. Together with their cousin Katy (Michelle Ryan), the gun nut Mickey (Ashley Thomas) and their buddy Davey (Jack Doolan) the robbery is to be carried out quickly and cleanly. So far, so good. But what the brothers don't suspect is that workers at a construction site have uncovered a sealed tomb that is causing a zombie epidemic to spread through London in no time. Together with their two hostages, the junior bank robbers must now fight their way through a horde of the undead to save Ray from the hungry zombies...

German director Matthias Hoene, who has worked in England since studying film, has created an amusing horror-comedy with Cockneys vs. Zombies, which skilfully crosses bloody zombie action with deep black humour. Of course, the comparison to the cult comedy Shaun of the Dead, in which a group of friends in London also had to fight against a zombie apocalypse, quickly suggests itself. Hoene's bloody fun does not reach the class of this film. For this, the script lacks enough original ideas and also the rather low budget is too often visually noticeable.

But even if the effects can not compete with those of larger productions, so what Hoene has created here with the means at his disposal, can really be seen. But in the end, it's not the splattering blood or the hungry zombies that make this film so successful anyway. Rather, it's the quirky characters and how they deal with the zombie plague that determine the fun factor here. Ray and his gang of pensioners in particular defend themselves from the pesky undead in a delightfully weird way, which is already very funny even before they are equipped with more effective weapons by Terry, Andy and co. And when they go into battle armed to the third teeth, fans of wacky horror-comedies will definitely get their money's worth.

Hoene pleasantly eschews well-behaved political correctness and delivers some wonderfully wicked interludes, which then makes up for many a script weakness. The story may not be particularly clever and the dialogue not quite as funny as it would like to be. But since the film itself is wonderfully macabre, the characters are well drawn and some really original ideas are offered, the bottom line is very positive despite all the weaknesses. So if you like horror comedies with a lot of black humor and even more blood, you shouldn't miss Cockneys vs. Zombies. Worth seeing!!

Picture + Sound: Even if the film due to its rather low budget technically can not compete with expensive large-scale productions, the picture and sound quality of the DVD are on an absolutely satisfactory level. The picture is very clean, the gallons of splattering film blood is well accentuated thanks to a powerful color mix and also the sharpness of the image leaves a positive impression. The sound is dominated by the very centrally mixed dialogue, but growling zombies, gunfights and explosions always provide a pleasant load of the surround channels. No audiovisual revelation, but for a small genre work like this definitely: good!

Extras: The DVD has some nice extras to offer. It's especially nice that two specials with director Matthias Hoene were recorded in German specifically for the German release. In the first, Hoene faces questions from the Facebook community (approx. 7 min.). The second special is an in-depth interview with the director (approx. 23 min.), in which he talks about his film studies in London, his work as a commercial filmmaker, and his idea for the film, among other things.

The rest of the extras are in English with optional subtitles. Just under six minutes of removed and extended scenes here can be viewed in either the original audio, with commentary from the director, or with commentary from the screenwriter. It continues with a storyboard film comparison of two scenes (approx. 9 min.), which can also be viewed again either in original sound or with explanatory commentary.

An entertaining look behind the scenes (approx. 24 min.) as well as an amusing instructional video for the zombie statists (approx. 4 min.) round off the good bonus material.

Conclusion:Cockneys vs. Zombies is an amusing horror comedy that makes up for its budget-related weaknesses with original ideas and wonderfully macabre gags. Although the whole thing can't reach the quality of comparable works like Shaun of the Dead, this zombie attack on London is fun at any rate. The good technical realization and the sometimes informative, sometimes amusing bonus material also contribute to the fact that this DVD fans of bloody horror comedies can be warmly recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp