Brains?

Now, see, we’re back to the joys of genre films that don’t wink at the audience again. After Harry Knuckles I was kind of resigned to Enter… Zombie King! being another semi-pro cheese-fest. (Note to self: get some info for this movie entered into IMDB, stat.) As it turns out, Stacey Case is a serious fan of zombies and wrestling and his movie rocks hard.

It’s the same basic precept. Once you accept a world in which masked wrestlers are superstars of justice and zombies roam the earth, there’s nothing in the movie that sacrifices the plot for the sake of laughs. Occasionally the wrestlers serve as top secret consultants for the government, and that’s cool too. Since the movie takes itself seriously, it works.

The wrestling was also fairly decent. Whoever was under those masks either had some actual training or put some time into working on their moves, which is nice. The screenwriter tossed in a couple of technical wrestling terms without being a showoff; also good. And Case clearly also has a handle on the importance of wrestling dynasties and family and honor.

Mind you, you don’t have to be the mad wrestling fan that I am to enjoy this movie. My pal Chris thought it was just grand. There’s honor and battle and zombies and love and at least one very disturbing kiss. The acting was a cut above what one might expect, although that may have been because most of the protagonists were behind masks.

Good clean fun. I want to do something with the concept of a small squad of masked wrestlers working as government agents someday. I also want to find a clean segue into noting that I got an extra kick out of the movie because I wrote part of a RPG supplement with zombies and wrestlers in it, but it’s getting kind of late so I’ll give up on doing it gracefully and just get it over with.