We Are Zombies attempts to freshen up the undead (spoiler-free review)

Just when it feels like there's little life left in the zombie subgenre, along comes a film like We Are Zombies. Here's a movie that tries to do something different with the threadbare subgenre and, for the most part, succeeds. This feature has laughs, heart, and plenty of bite.

Directed by the filmmaking trio known as RKSS (Turbo Kid, Summer of '84), We Are Zombies is set in the not-too-distant future. Instead of an existential threat to human civilization, the zombies in this movie are more of an annoyance. Some of them even work low-wage jobs, and some of them have enough brain function to speak.

They're referred to as the "living-impaired." This very concept immediately sets this film apart from the oceans of other zombie narratives. The zombies here aren't cannibalistic and instead just wander the streets or work at the local grocery store.

The film's trio of stars includes Derek Johns as the wrestling-obsessed Freddy, Alexandre Nachi as the zombie porn-loving Karl, and Megan Peta Hill as Karl's sister, Maggie. The narrative is propelled by Maggie's desire to enact revenge against an evil mega-corporation, which experiments on the zombies. One of their players, Hannity (Benz Antoine), wants to use a chemical gas to turn the zombies into the hungry monsters we all know them as.

Maggie convinces Freddy and Karl to go along with her plan, dress as workers, and capture zombies, which they then plan to sell to the oddball performance artist Otto (Stéphane Demmers). Their plan goes awry, however, when the corporation realizes they're not actual workers and then kidnaps Karl's grandmother, holding her for ransom to recover lost wages. For such a lean feature that's under 90 minutes long, the subplots somehow all gel.

We Are Zombies is a horror comedy that leans much more into the comedic bits than the blood, guts, and gore, though the horror does eventually arrive. In terms of tone and style, however, this film has more in common with Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland than it does with The Walking Dead.

That said, the depiction of mega-corporations as nefarious and some of the humans acting far worse than the zombies is an old George A. Romero staple. It works well here. Yes, once again, humans are the real baddies. Antoine's Hannity is especially maniacal in his plans to turn the undead into ravenous corpses, eager to chomp at the living.

Meanwhile, Johns, Hill, and Nachi work really well together. The trio invokes lots of laughs and has good on-screen chemistry. They're the heart of this film, and they each make their characters distinct and plucky underdogs. I'd love to see them in another film together.

Even if you're tired of the undead at this point, give We Are Zombies a shot. The film is a bloody hoot with earnest performances and indie spirit. RKSS manages to reinvigorate an otherwise stagnant subgenre and inject much-needed life and laughs into it.

We Are Zombies will stream exclusively on Screambox on August 13.