Did I really watch a film about killer beavers? Yes. Yes I did.
As the title may imply, the premise of this film is relatively simple. Some beavers get infected by toxic waste and become zombies. Blood ensues as they come into contact with a trio of sorority sisters and their boyfriends.
2014 Armory Films
Going in, I had fairly low expectations. It sounded like typical B-movie, of the same caliber as Sharktopus, with Beavers being chosen in order to make the obvious jokes. These thoughts were not assuaged by the site of the first beavers (pre infection) which I’m guessing were done with puppets. They looked okay, so long as they didn’t move (when combined with CGI at later moments, it was as weird as the CGI Twilight baby).
The characters were… largely insufferable. I’m not sure if the intention was to make them deliberately over the top and horrible or if that was just consequential. They got less insufferable after the beavers started showing up, so I’m guessing that it was a deliberate send up of the typical annoying characters. It may have helped that one of the more annoying characters was the first to be attacked, rendering him silent for most of the film. The chemistry between the group was good though and the banter between them was entertaining to watch. There were also a pair of old neighbour characters who felt very genuine and their scene was a definite high point.
2014 Armory Films
A lot of the humour came from visual moments rather than the dialogue. A particular favourite of mine was a scene where two of the three couples were having very (very) loud sex and the other two were sat awkwardly on the sofa listening. Or when the girl providing the standard amount of nudity and being very open about it saw a bear and her instinct was to cover her breasts… not sure how effective that would be. Also watching a zombie beaver-human hybrid (yes, there were zombie beaver-human hybrids. And a zombie beaver-bear hybrid) doing a weird semi twerking thing to beat their tail on the floor was kind of hilarious. As to be expected, there was the requisite number of beaver jokes, including one where a particularly tenacious zombeaver was attacking a girl and it was shot so the creature was between her spread thighs.
The effects were as to be expected. The CGI was terrible, the puppets were nightmarish (which admittedly in some scenes worked to their advantage), the gore varied in quality (when they used practical effects, it was pretty good). Given that it was intentionally set up as B movie, where bad effects are to be expected and are often part of the appeal, it wasn’t as bothersome as it might be in another film.
2014 Armory Films
One definite positive of the film was the way it subverted expectations, especially around the ‘final girl’. Most of it was fairly straightforward and predictable but it threw in a few small twists to keep it interesting.
Zombeavers is a funny film. It’s not trying to offer up a message or be particularly clever, it’s just a straightforward, dumb horror movie. With a rather amusing song over the end credits. If you have some time to kill and an enjoyment of B movies, I would recommend checking it out.