Stacy: Attack Of The Schoolgirl Zombies (2001)

My rating 7/10

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An epidemic is causing young girls to die before they reach seventeen. Before they do they experience N.D.H (near death happiness) and then return from the dead as zombies, known here as Stacies.

I love this fun little Japanese movie!. It's full of over the top gore, refrences to other movies and even manages to be strangely sad and poignant in places. There's a fun in movie advert with a girl in a bunny outfit advertising a chainsaw accsessory called "Bruce Campbells Right Hand 2", and a group of special force cops who's job it is to kill the Stacies called "Romero Repeat Kill Troops". The director obviously loves horror and the nods to The Evil Dead and George Ronero's zombie films are all over this film.

It's illegal to kill a Stacy unless you're a family member or a member of the Romero Repeat Kill squad but we get underground groups, one of them a three girl group called Drew Barrymore Repeat Kill Squad, an obvious refrence to Charlies Angels.

The main storyline involves a young lonely girl who's starting to experience the first stages of N.D.H. She befriends and seduces an older guy who's an artist making puppets so when the time comes she'll have someone that loves her to repeat kill her. As said, despite all the fun, madness and splatter there's moments of sadness as these girls know their fate and will do anything they can to have someone love them enough to help them.

The acting is fine and the practical gore effects are plentiful and mostly pretty good. Saying that, some of the early CGI blood looks really dated now but it doesn't spoil the splatter too much. We even get a couple of little detors into a puppet show which some will think is a bit pointless, but I think it works as it just adds to the weirdness of it all. I also really enjoyed the music, especially the end credits score.

I highly recommend this movie for those looking for something fun, different and over the top!.

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