Those with a voracious appetite for fresh variations on the zombie genre will lap up this juicy Belgian horror comedy about a virus outbreak in a run-down hospital offering cheap cosmetic surgery to desperate clients.
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Taking grotesque body horror to a whole new gross-out comedic level, Yummy – Belgiam’s first zombie feature film – is an orgy of blood, violence and fun.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2020
Yummy 2019
The zombie film is forever springing back to life like some cheap jump scare. In the funny and grotesque Yummy, the playbook gets a new chapter with director Lars Damoiseaux’s lively Flemish take on the genre, drawing some fresh blood onto an already heavily coated crimson canvas.
Early signs of a splatter shit-storm on the horizon are apparent when a young couple travel to a dubious Eastern European hospital for some cosmetic surgery. Alison (Maaike Neuvillet), the girlfriend, wants a breast reduction while her surgery-addicted mother has also tagged along for yet another facelift. Eventually her boyfriend Michael (Bart Hollanders) wanders off to an abandoned area of the hospital, only to find a woman gagged and strapped to an operating table. She’s actually patient zero in a rejuvenation experiment and in releasing her, he unwittingly releases a virus that proceeds to infect and tear through all and sundry.
The film, much like its characters, resembles old flesh given a slick nip/tuck job via the talented hands of an up-and-coming European director. The end result is brimming with enough humour, outlandish gore and nudity to satiate the old-school horror cognoscenti and newcomers alike. — Ant Timpson
About the Filmmaker
Lars Damoiseaux is a writer and director born in The Netherlands. His short film Patient Zero (2016) was the basis for his feature debut, Yummy.