Just imagine having a zombie movie set in a third-rate hospital where they conduct plastic surgery, there’ll be plenty of blood, gruesome activities one would imagine the script could write itself, it practically does thanks to bloodshed and body parts. Lars Damoiseaux made his first feature length horror movie, but also took inspiration from his short film Patient Zero (2016), which involved cosmetic surgery, he and Eveline Hagenbeek co-wrote the script for Yummy. The film has a simple tagline, “facelifts, boob jobs, and zombies” suggesting an easy portion of sleaze, disgust, political incorrectness, and sheer brutality, and includes subtitles when needed for it’s in both English and Dutch and received distribution from Shudder.
Alison (Maaike Neuville), who barely has any personality, is sexualized by a group of young men as they drive past her, she merely ignores them as she’s traveling to an obscure (perhaps shady) plastic surgery hospital in Eastern Europe, with her boyfriend Michael (Bart Hollanders) nicknamed Pookie Bear, who’s trying get the nerve to propose to her. Sylvia (Annick Christiaens), her materialistic mother who believes the surgery is a bad idea, mainly due the fact she wants an upgrade – full body, and not a downgrade is accompanying them. Once at the location, anyone who has seen a horror film, knows the place is rundown and disgusting. However, Alison and Michael ignore the eerie warning signs, yep horror clichés, but if they didn’t, the audience would likely have either a really smart horror film, or none at all. Dr. K (Eric Godon) acts a tad sleazy and quite handsy with the patients and is shocked and even confused that Allison seeks a reduction rather than an enlargement, more sexism, stereotyping, ignoring her physical and mental pain from the back and has plenty of rude comments. Meanwhile Michael suffers from hemophobia, and the discussion is making him queasy, he’s informed by Janja (Clara Cleymans) to take a stroll around the hospital with a creepy and perhaps a sexual predator hospital assistant Daniel (Benjamin Ramon (Cannibal [2010]), as Daniel fixes himself a drug cocktail. Michael is also a tad despondent as he is losing his “twins,” the film noting in an underlying manner a man’s perspective that he owns a woman’s body, that it serves his indulgences not hers. Anyhow he discovers a nude woman moaning and chained/strapped down, to a gurney clearly bloodied and with a mask on her, appearing behind a curtain and not even in a secure room. The creature gets freed, thanks to you-know-who, which of course sets into motion the ride of chaos and panic so Michael scurries to get Alison, as the hospital quickly becomes a breeding ground for the zombies, along the way they encounter more survivors, while scurrying for safety. It’s from here the story abandons character developments and instead is a splattering mix of blood and gorefest, facing the truth that is what a core of zombie and horror fans ideally crave. In addition, when mentioning a gorefest ideally what does that include on the menu, reverse liposuction, a flying axe-head, some bizarre looking creatures, a flaming penis, bodies torn and munch to shreds, and so much more to fulfill your sick delights.
First, note that the humor is truly rotten to the core, treating women in a degrading manner, there was potential for the humor to shine, but is too bleak to make any positive sense of it. A few plot-holes exists though thankfully not crater sized, but the film is filled with silliness, sadly it results in a lot of idling nothing really moves the story along, except for repeated zombie attacks. This isn’t a poorly made movie the special effects aren’t as crazy as Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive [1992], but there’re barrels and buckets of blood with splatter galore, including a weird scene involving a paper shredder used to somehow amputate an arm and a very cool reanimated zombie torso, that drops its intestines behind itself while walking on its hands.
If you seek a straight-up gruesome zombie flick that doesn’t have meaningful dialogue, well-thought plot devices, convincing characters, and no true sense of awareness or even humor then this flick is for you. The film combines practical and CGI effects, which does result in a few rushed blood-soaked scenes. Therefore, the final analysis is a flick that will leave hunger for more, but okay for evening snack.
TAGLINE:
- Facelifts, boob jobs and zombies
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https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11054164/
IMDb Rating: 5.9/10
Baron’s rating: 5.5/10