Zombies on the Beach

“Chopping up zombies is good fun for everyone,” says ShowBiz Cheatsheet blogger Fred Topel in his review of the new Syfy channel offering, Zombie Tidal Wave. No comment on that, at least not until I’ve seen this film.

From Sharknado director Anthony C. Ferrante and screenwriter Thunder Levin, Zombie Tidal Wave looks like it will offer up pure action as a small island town fights off wave after wave of zombies washing up on the beach.

When I was a kid we had to worry about used condoms and hypodermic needles washing up onto the sands. But zombies? What a way to ruin a perfect summer tourist season. 

“My early films were definitely horror,” said director Ferrante in an interview. “I wanted to see if we could subvert the zombie film with this. You’re not going to change the world with them. You’re not going to suddenly go, ‘We just came up with an idea that no one has done.’”

I am interested to see what this idea is. The director said these zombies cannot be killed. They cannot even be burned in a bonfire, as the toxic smoke is infectious. So how exactly will the humans in this film survive the tidal wave of zombies? 

It seems that in the zombie film genre the ancient wisdom of King Solomon in Ecclesiastes holds true: What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. In that sense, the zombie in film is often much like a Greek drama, with the thrill coming not from the story but from the way the familiar tale is told. 

Ferrante, however, seems to be somewhat uncomfortable with the idea that film viewers might be “obsessed with the old.” The director concedes, however, that “you’ve got to be aware of what’s come before you and how they’ve done it well or not well.” In his interview, Ferrante compares his work with legendary predecessors such as George Romero, Dan O’Bannon, Lucio Fulci, and even John Carpenter.  

Now I’ve really got to see Zombie Tidal Wave to decide for myself if Ferrante’s zombie horror film can equal the masters he seems eager to both pay homage to and — if I can be bold enough to use the name of literary critic Harold Bloom’s theory of the anxiety of influence — to overthrow.

Watch the trailer for Zombie Tidal Wave here.