"What we have is a problem with the damn climate. Every year it's getting warmer. So we can soon forget about skiing, you know. It's like the Arabs losing their oil. "
Frankly, the film title was the only reason why I wanted to see this movie. Admit it. Such a film title appeals to the imagination. You know up front you can expect an über-ridiculous horror full of kitsch and cheap horror effects. Eventually I was expecting a similar result as in a Bavarian porn from years ago. These were satirical soft porn films where you could admire a shapely bosom from a lusty Bavarian farmer's daughter occasionally. But otherwise it was merely suggestive. Even the movie titles were more exciting and more titillating than the content of the film itself. The same goes for "Attack of the lederhosen zombies" . It's obviously a satire on the zombie genre and focuses more on the comedy part than on the horror section.
I was pleasantly surprised by the opening scene with a wide view over the Austrian Alps. Unfortunately, this panoramic view looks slicker than the gore, bloody zombie scenes at a later stage. The makers of this Austrian zombie satire don't like wasting time though. So you don't have to wait half an hour before the first infected victims appear. This time it isn't a uncontrolled virus that's the cause of the epidemic, but a chemical substance which has been brewed by the local ski-lift owner to produce artificial snow. Who invents such stuff? When an interested investor attends a demonstration, this goes awfully wrong causing him to swallow the chemical crap. Well, and this is the beginning of a lot of trouble.
A piece of advice. Don't take it all too seriously. But then again, which zombie movie should you really take seriously? To be honest, this is the first time I thought the combination of humor and horror wasn't that bad. It's obvious that the emphasis is more on creating comic situations than making the film scary. It isn't really creepy or exciting at all. And stating that this is a real thigh-slapper (which is customary with those lederhosen ) is also a bit exaggerated. There are some chuckle moments (that zombie with those ski poles getting stuck in a stairwell) and some sly tongue-in-cheek jokes ("It's all downhill from here"). But don't expect more.
The only acting performance I could appreciate was that of Margarete Tiesel as the voluptuous Rita. The protagonists are clearly not recruited because of their acting skills, but rather because they know how to snowboard, I guess. The most irritating piece was the dance-scene with Steve (Laurie Calvert) and Branka (Gabriela Marcinkova) demonstrating their best dance moves. Kind of funny but the fragment was a little too lengthy. In terms of makeup used on the creatures, this obviously couldn't match the zombie movies with a significantly higher budget. The gore scenes, however, were gross enough with a multitude of spraying blood, decapitations and winding intestines (although they looked plastic). Unfortunately, however, the zombie deer looked like the work of a taxidermist. "Attack of the zombies lederhosen" is not a sickening zombie-movie, but tries to be unique in the current stream of zombie movies we have to swallow the last few years. It's not the type of film one would say "It's so bad, it turns out to be good". But it's a close call.
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