“We and a few others are the only thing standing between the people of Afghanistan and a zombie apocalypse.”

Osombie opens like your typical monster movie, but with a bit of a twist. It is May 2011, and in Abbottabad, Pakistan, four soldiers raid Osama bin Laden’s compound. As they are making their way down a hallway, doors bust open and they are overrun with zombies. They manage to fight their way through and find Bin Laden, but he is already dead—he had injected himself with something just before the soldiers arrived. As they are flying back with the body, the soldiers see movement and hear coughing coming from the body bag. There are gunshots, spurts of blood and the helicopter goes down in the ocean. We then see Osombie slowly rise from the water and make its way onto the beach.

Cut to the Afghanistan desert where a group of soldiers are being attacked by a hoard of zombies. Among these soldiers are Chip (Corey Sevier) who seems to be constantly losing his shirt, Joker (Paul D. Hunt) who is always making bad puns, Tomboy (Danielle Chuchran) the only girl in the group, DC (Matthew Reese) who uses killing zombies as a way to take out his frustration about his ex wife, and Doc (Ben Urie) the token Brit. While some of the soldiers use guns to mow down the Zombies, Tomboy uses a sword, and Chip just kicks them.

The group eventually comes across civilian Dusty (Eve Mauro), who came to Afghanistan to look for her brother Derek (Jasen Wade). Derek was a New York firefighter who was home sick when his crew was killed in the collapse of the towers on 9/11. He has made his way to Afghanistan to find and kill bin Laden, whom he believes is still alive. Dusty joins the soliders, and while she searches for her brother, they look for the compound that is manufacturing the biological agent used to create this zombie army.

While Osombie certainly isn’t going to get nominated for any Oscars, it is still an entertaining film. It’s a b-movie that could easily be a Syfy Saturday film (though a bit more gory). The effects and killing are over the top, and some of the dialog is downright awful and unimaginative, but that is part of the charm:

As one solider is dying he says “Finish the mission. Whatever’s going down, the brass feels it’s big. Find the militia camp. Stop the broadcast and send as many of these things as you can back to hell. Make it count.” And in another scene, when one of the soliders is about to die, Tomboy says, “Wait. (slaps him in face) That’s for getting bit. (makes out with him) I was supposed to have your babies.”

The film also plays out like a horror film, where one-by-one members of our group fall prey to the zombies. I appreciate that the film takes the time to give us some back story on each of the soliders—no matter how ludicrous it gets. For example, Chapo’s (Will Rubio) traumatic life story is that his mother was a sick hoarder…of Beanie Babies…and his family had to stage an intervention.

The special effects in the film were a little uneven—sometimes the blood looked more like computer-generated puffs of smoke, while other times it looked like genuine blood. And the explosions far from resemble those of big budget films.

However, if you’re looking for a fun b-movie action/comedy/thriller, then Osombie is worth checking out. However, since there are no bonus features on this release, you may want to rent it before doing a blind buy.

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What’s Included:

Film (1:34:11)

• 1080p / Widescreen 1.78:1
• English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DD 5.1
• English SDH subtitles

Extras:

• Trailer (1:03)

Final Thoughts:

The picture was was remarkably crisp and clear—the only part that was not quite up to snuff was the special effects. The quality of the blood splatter effects were a little inconsistent. However, the audio was really good, and captured all of the zombie killing sound effects and dialog.

There were no extras at all on this blu-ray except for the trailer. I would have loved to have seen some behind the scenes featurettes or audio commentary, or even a gag reel.

Overall, I think fans of crazy action b-movies will not be disappointed with Osombie. It has some pretty solid action and suspense, and even delves into the back-stories of the characters. While it’s not going to be nominated for any awards, it is a solid, entertaining film.