Humans vs Zombies (2011) User Reviews

It wasn't as bad as people make it out to be...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 14 May 2012]

Having read nothing but bad things about this movie, it was with a certain level of disinterest that I sat down to watch it. But still, I did because I am a fan of all things zombies (and have seen/read a lot of bad zombie stuff in my time). "Humans Versus Zombies" wasn't as bad as people had it made up to be.

Sure it is a low-budget production, but the director, Brian T. Jaynes, managed to do well enough with whatever funds and props were available. I think for a low-budget movie, "Humans Versus Zombies" was actually in the better end of the scale. One thing was so bad about this, yeah, we get that the director is into zombie stuff, but the excessive usage of zombie materials (t-shirts, books, posters, etc.) everywhere in the movie was just a little bit too much. Yeah, we get the point; you like zombies, but tone it down a bit for the next movie, yeah?

The effects in the movie were fair enough, not top notch million dollar Hollywood budget here, but still, it worked out well enough. The zombie make-up was adequate, and some of the scenes with gore was actually quite good. Personally, I am not a fan of agile zombies running around, but hey, that is a matter of preference.

"Humans Versus Zombies" did suffer from a really bad dialogue script. There were moments where my toes were curled up in frustration and disbelief at what people said in given situations. But hey, the actors worked well enough with the script they were given to their characters. And as for the actors, then people actually were putting on good enough performances for a movie of this range - just don't expect award winning acting here.

Now, the movie was actually fast paced and high on adrenaline, which was working in its favor. Let the movie get started, because the beginning was a tad slow. The intro sequence, with the CGI effects, was actually really good. I liked that quite a lot.

The best thing about "Humans Versus Zombies" was the ending. Oh, how I just love those kind of endings. It is so non-Hollywood, with no happy endings and everyone living happily ever after. I will not reveal the ending, but having said what I just did, you can add two and two together, right?

It's a Dud -- Those "Positive" Reviewers are Shills

[natrc2003 · 3/10 · 30 March 2012]

There really isn't much of redeeming value in the movie, other than the pleasure of watching Madison Burge (as long as she isn't trying to act...to be fair, her horrible performance may be the fault of the director and/or writer).

The rest of the movie is just a poorly scripted, poorly directed, poorly acted attempt to cash in on the zombie movie craze. The makeup is awful, the special effects are high-school level.

And there's absolutely no sense of urgency. Which is death for a zombie film.

There's no use blaming the lack of budget -- Night of the Living Dead probably cost much less than this to make, and yet it remains one of the best of them.

I too was conned into watching this film because of the first few positive reviews -- where were obviously written by people involved in the production. No objective viewer could give this more than 3 out of 10 (and again, the movie gets extra points from me only because Madison Burge is easy on the eyes. If she wasn't in this movie, I'd be generous if I gave it 1 out of 10.).

Not great but not terrible

[tkzun · 4/10 · 8 January 2014]

Well what can I say not the worst zombie flick I've seen but you would have to have been in this film to score it a 10 Over all its a OK movie the characters are common archetypes ,jock,nerd ,the hot geek girl flaky female ,goofy fat mate The action is OK ,the effects are kinda OK the acting was surprisingly good I wouldn't trash this as badly as others but then I've had to sit though some really terrible zombie movies The geeky zombie expert ,the ex army security guard ,hot geek girl,the nice girl and the jock make for quiet a survivor group it made a great difference for then not to rush out and load up with guns and ammo

Only thing that bugged me was the guy trying trying to be Jack Black

Did a zombie make this film?

[hunter-epic · 1/10 · 28 March 2012]

The first 4 reviews actually misled me into watching this movie. Anyone giving this film more than 2 stars is obviously in cahoots with the production.

Overall: unbearable. The quality of the production itself is decent, but even with all the rogue pop-culture references and randomly-placed aerial shots, these just don't even begin to make up for the story and acting.

Acting: terrible, with the exception of the "Brad" character who is pretty much the sole source of comedy in the film - so he doesn't count.

Plot: terrible. The very beginning was somewhat interesting, enough to lure you in, but then it becomes incredibly dull for the majority of the movie. If you enjoy endless, pointless, and mind-numbing teenage conversation mixed with a flat plot development - this film is for you.

This film was so bad, in fact, that it rubbed off on the film we decided to watch afterwards. This is what I get for choosing a film with such an unimaginative title like "Humans Versus Zombies."

The previous reviewers were a part of the production.

[mikmarpau · 1/10 · 17 February 2012]

This is such a mind numbingly terrible movie I was at a loss of words, years from now there will be contests held to see how long you can sit through it. Terribly shot, with mediocre acting at best, it chooses to saturate itself with internet jokes and watered down video game references instead of developing a plot or believable characters. The pacing is all wrong, and the failed "action" scenes left much more to be desired.

It actually appalled me how little they put into their characters, it seemed that with so much useless dialogue clogging the scenes of the movie, you'd be able to at least personalize one character, sadly this wasn't the case. HVZ is a terrible movie that isn't worth the 103 minutes it took from me, avoid it if you can.

The next Ed Wood Jr.

[William_Henry_Pratt · 1/10 · 16 March 2013]

Awful story, amateurish (boarderline absent) direction, terrible acting (what else can you do with cliché ridden dialogue) all of the performances were inconsistent, tele-novella class cinematography, bush league make-up, screwball continuity (that's if they even bothered to hire someone to do the job), incompetent editing, do I really have to go on? It makes me think even the craft service on this picture was bad.

Plus half of the movie is zooming in and out of Google Earth.

All of the people involved with making this picture should consider another line of work.

I could not finish watching this...

[davidfurlotte · 2/10 · 8 April 2012]

It takes a lot for me to not allow a movie to finish so I know what the ending is like. I even finished "2012:Ice Age" and that has got to be one of the most ridiculous movies I have ever seen or reviewed.

Now before anyone says that I don't get the genre, I love "The Walking Dead" and have seen almost all the zombie apocalypse movies out there but this one was just...BAD.

The plot was err...lame, although with some creative writing it could have been made into something.

The dialogue for this must have been written by an eight year old because in reality, my cat could craft better dialogue. Now that doesn't mean that all good movies have great dialogue because there are some out there with very cheesy dialogue, but with a good actor or actress it can be delivered very powerfully.

Unfortunately for this movie, only one of the actors appeared to have actually studied the craft. I think the casting interview consisted of one question, "Hey, want to be in a zombie movie?" I place this movie into the category of: "There are some thing we just wish we had never seen."

Wow HvZ was awesome

[madisonlbarrett · 5 October 2011]

OK, I went to the screening with the assumption that this would be an OK movie due to the budget size, but let me tell you I was completely surprised at the content of this movie. It was well shot, great cinematography, great soundtrack, the acting was really good, you really believed the emotion and were drawn into it. the comedic element of the lines in the movie really surprised me and made this a very enjoyable movie...

although it is not the most kid friendly as it had a few adult scenes, but what horror movie doesn't? Brian Jaynes really out did himself. you can tell that the cast and crew really worked hard and they came up with a winner in my book. 5 stars. the only reason I gave it an 8 instead of 10 was because it did have a few imperfections but they did not detract from the enjoyability of this movie. would definitely recommend it to my friends.

A better than expected low budget zombie movie

[ravenleft · 6/10 · 29 March 2012]

After getting the opportunity to watch this movie I decided to write my very first review on IMDb. Not because I found the movie to be exceptional in itself but because the previous reviews puts the movie in an unfair light.

Mostly it's about expectations, if you watch it expecting some multi billion $ academy award winning production you will be disappointed but if you watch it expecting the kind of movie you often get when you watch a movie that has a 3 star average on IMDb you will have a much better experience. I was expecting a 3.

Humans Versus Zombies is not the best zombie movie ever but it's also not the worst movie ever made, it's actually pretty average, or at least not much worse (I watch anything with zombies in it, at least once, so I've seen a lot of really bad zombie movies..this is not one of them). The script is decent which in zombie land means that someone actually made an effort here, it's coherent enough to not be intrusive but it wont win any awards. Pretty much everything used in the movie is in the range of below average to average, the script, the acting, the effects, etc.

Don't let "average" discourage you from giving HVZ a chance though, this is one of the movies where the cast and crew makes good enough use of what they have to make you wonder what they could have done if given a larger budget to work with. There are people involved here that know what they are doing, making a movie with average tools often yields a terrible result but here they've done a much better job than you might expect.

Most of the acting is in the range of average to slightly above average, very little of it is actually bad (there's a few of the supporting actors and a few scenes where the acting is... less than stellar, but most of it is OK). Dora Madison Burge's (Tommi, the gamer girl) performance in some scenes was definitely above average and Brad (Chip Joslin) was hands down my favorite character who if this had been a big budget Hollywood version definitely would have been played by Jack Black (not that Chip did a bad job, on the contrary, Brad wouldn't have sucked if Chip hadn't played the character the way he did).

The effects were so so but they too were used effectively (ie with moderation, no long scenes zooming in on fake looking zombies or gore), there was some obvious CGI used in a scene (I wasn't looking for CGI so there may have been more that I didn't pay attention to but if so, good job then.) but it made sense where it was used and the scenes were shot in a way that made it not matter whether you'd notice the CGI or not (ie, this movie obviously is not a made for TV SyFy movie...SyFy shouldn't be allowed to use CGI at all, ever.).

If you watch the movie with reasonable expectations you'll most likely enjoy it. It's not Shaun of the Dead so don't expect it to be, it's not Resident Evil so don't expect that either. Expect an entertaining zombie movie that is far from perfect but also could be much much worse.

Speaking of SyFy, the previous zombie movie I watched was Zombie Apocalypse, a SyFy original! Humans Versus Zombies is a much better movie.

Zombie junk

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 16 July 2015]

Another ruinous no-budget zombie flick that helps to drive this particular sub-genre further into the ground. HUMANS VS ZOMBIES is apparently based on a live-action roleplaying game of the same name, one that's popular in colleges across the USA. As a film, it's entirely devoid of wit, intelligence, and merit.

A toxic leak at a chemical plant results in a zombie epidemic and some geeky roleplaying kids are the only ones who have a chance to fight back. That's the extent of the storyline, and for the rest of the running time we get stuck with a group of annoying teenage characters as they outrun zombies over and over again.

There are the requisite shoddy gore effects, crowds of bloody zombies, and low rent action, and all of it is captured by a director barely capable of shooting a watchable film. In the end, though, it's the poor quality script - one which is entirely derivative of pretty much every zombie flick that's come before - which scuppers this mess of a movie.

Fantastic Zombie movie that pokes fun at the conventions

[redraiderg · 9/10 · 3 October 2011]

This was a fantastic looking zombie movie that I really enjoyed checking out at Splatterfest in Houston 2011. Like the good zombie movies, they sped through the origin of the infection and right on to the good stuff. From there it went on to a bunch of good looking college kids getting torn apart by the zombie epidemic that had a decisively self aware tone that never patronized the audience and skipped one of the major annoyances with zombie films: characters who don't know what zombies are and have to have it explained to them. These characters and scenes always slow down other movies. But not HvZ. All the characters know what zombies are and get on with trying to survive.

It also featured a college kid who, like so many of the video game generation, would totally dig the zombie apocalypse and taking out zombies left and right. That character was the source of a lot of the comic relief. And, much like the incredible Shaun of the Dead, HvZ wasn't afraid to let the drama take a hold of the situation when it was needed and have some heavier moments.

Definitely check out HvZ when you can!

A Dark Comedy/Horror/Satire.

[Pairic · 6/10 · 10 May 2018]

Humans vs Zombies: Inspired by the RPG this film involves some participants who are caught up in a real-life Zombie Outbreak. Is it deliberately caused by the Illuminati/NWO? Some veterans who were sprayed with chemicals in foreign wars are immune to the virus. One veteran leads a group of students in an attempt to escape/survive.

A Dark Comedy/Horror/Satire. Above average for a low budget Zombie film and worth watching. IMDb gives it 4/10, as a Zombie fan I give it 6/10.

Not crap, but not fantastic

[staunton-gary · 5/10 · 21 April 2020]

Movie is watchable. Yes, there are some bad scenes and acting, but the effort was put in to produce a solid B grade movie.

Not good at all

[dogglebe · 2/10 · 28 September 2013]

This movie happened to be on television, so I watched it Despite this, I still want to get my money back.

In a nutshell, a zombie virus breaks out in a lab. And we spend what seems the next eternity watching a misfit band of college students get chased around by the night of the living cliché. During their struggle to survive, they learn to overcome their differences. blah blah blah blah...

The story was painfully slow. The film is 93 minutes long; cutting 30 minutes out would greatly improve things. Just cut 30 minutes of the cast bitching and moaning and fighting with each other.

The characters were taken from a cliché handbook. Painfully awful to watch... Especially that Jack Black wannabe. And Frank, the armed-to-the-teeth security guard who is not bad-ass, no matter how hard they tried to make him appear to be.

It's movies like this that are ruining the horror genre.

Yawn of the Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[one9eighty · 2/10 · 16 August 2015]

Allow me to explain that before you read this review I DO like bad movies, I have written about other bad movies and my collection has as many flops as it does epics. This film however is a lame duck, I didn't enjoy it either as a ironic film or an epic film.

To start this film looks like it was made for students, by students, starring students, about students with a student loan covering the budget. It was littered with good looking 18-25 year old's who lacked a lot qualities... the main one being quality itself!

The film is unoriginal, predictable, wooden and cheap. This film couldn't even boast any cheap ironic laughs to make up for how bad it was. The film was full of clichés the likes of which pop up in every zombie themed film and highly charged with teenage angst and scents of sexuality.

The film get's it's title from a student club/ game which is being played on campus by some of the students, "Zombies vs Humans" is only mentioned a few times but never really fully explored so you never know enough about the game to know if skills gained from it would be beneficial in the reality of a genuine zombie outbreak. In this film being a zombie expert doesn't actually benefit any of the characters, they still make the same stupid mistakes which all other characters do in the film. The film is polluted with stupid moments of people falling over unexpectedly when trying to outrun zombies, people running into concealed areas which would likely trap them, hiding in basements and such. I found myself shouting angrily at the film but then relaxing with the knowledge that the idiot on screen would soon be zombie food.

Apparently the origins of the film lie in a live action RPG shooter game, I hope the game is a lot better, this film didn't inspire me to bother finding out. This film took itself far too seriously and was a constant annoyance, not more so than the cast of characters you follow throughout the film; all cool clichés to try and become some kind of cult classic but the vain attempts failed badly. What's with the guy who blatantly wants to be Jack Black - I was hoping he'd get the chop early but unfortunately I was disappointed. As far as effects went they weren't good at all, when the CGI wasn't annoying it was the levels of and timing of any blood splatter and gore. I like gore and splatter but this film seemed to use it just to be cool and 'hip' like other zombie films.

I've checked out the reviews of this film and I agree with most and this film should not get more than 2 stars at best. Those people who rated this between 6 and 10 must have been watching something different or being blown under the table from a cast member while writing the review.

Yawn! I've suffered this film and wrote about it so you don't have to waste your time on it.

Wow - this REALLY sucked

[t-clibery · 2/10 · 17 July 2015]

I'll keep it brief.

Silly plot - let's just run from building to building, cars won't be available of course. Sometimes the zombies can break through a window, sometimes they can't Sometimes they're swarming the building, then they'll just disappear. A video game and zombie fan who's only recently seen the symptoms of a person 'turning' stands over his girlfriend while she turns, so she can pounce on him and rip his throat out.

Poor acting from the whole cast, though the video game woman is particularly bad. Let's just shout and look annoyed all the time.

Rubbish dialogue.

Not even cheesy, just VERY poor. What a waste of time

Bad doesn't even begin to describe it.

[sgreenfan · 1/10 · 30 May 2016]

To bad 0 isn't an option. But since it isn't i gave it a 1. In a nutshell here is the movie.

Dude hangs out with Bro. Bro hangs out with Dude. Chick doesn't like dude. Dude keeps pestering chick. Dudes...bros...chicks all party and drink from red plastic cups. Chick gets bit at beach. Chick bites bro boyfriend. Chick and bro boyfriend bite another chick. Shy bro likes popular chick. Jock dude introduces shy bro to popular chick. Old dude gets bit...young dude gets bit...bros get bit...chicks get bit. Zoom in and out of google earth.

As bad as this review is, the movie is worse.

Watchable...

[keirondarbyshire · 4/10 · 13 August 2022]

It's not a bad film.

It's definitely not a good film.

The acting is so so.

The effects are alright.

The story is okay.

But if next-doors dog doesn't require you pushing back in its piles, then this is a pleasant way to spend am hour & twenty minutes.

I liked it

[jordanshannon · 6/10 · 17 February 2019]

It's a typical zombie outbreak movie. Its srt on a college campus and some of the student's play Humans vs Zombies and a real Zombie outbreak happens. U have some people who really can't act on this but other than that its an okay movie for zombie fans. There is one character "Tommi" she is a horrible actress. Other than that I like this movie.

Fun zombie film

[brockwest8 · 9/10 · 30 September 2011]

I caught the world premiere of this film at Splatterfest last night in Houston, and was really surprised by how good it looked. The direction, editing, lighting, and quality overall is really amazing considering this is another low budget horror title. The acting is mostly good, save for some predictably cheesy moments. I have to say Chip Joslin gave Nick Frost a run for his money as the funniest fat guy in a zombie film. There are a few moments when the sound was an issue. Without giving too much away, one actress is speaking to the group in a tunnel and the audience simply couldn't hear a word. However I'm sure these problems will be fixed by the time it goes to DVD and, from what I heard last night, TV on the Chiller channel. Anyway, if you enjoy zombie films (or expertly crafted low-budget films) then this is one you're not gonna want to miss. -Brock

Humans Versus Zombies Rocks!

[BrianShirley · 8/10 · 30 October 2011]

OK, I've been following HUMANS VERSUS ZOMBIES for almost a year I guess and finally getting a chance to see the final product is like little kids waiting all year long for Christmas morning and getting to tear into that big present they had asked for. Christmas came early for this big kid!

Getting to HVZ. Director Brian T. Jaynes gives us a new approach to the zombie virus with H1Z1 aka the zombie virus, we've all heard of H1N1, right! There are several very slick "what if scenarios" thrown into the movie. We've seen movies where rabies is thrown into the story and develops into the rage virus but what if there are other animals or even insects that could carry a virus like this? Oh yeah, could this really happen?

The movie follows a group of students who team up with a paranoid security guard to take on fellow classmates and some local townspeople who have all been infected with this "swarm" virus. Outnumbered, the small group keep fighting while they look for safety and ultimately find refuge in a small church and a preacher who answers a few questions about the virus.

Dissecting the movie, as if I was dissecting an "ant" is easy. HVZ starts off strong. We have some really cool aerial shots that I really liked. The movie does focus more on our surviving characters than some other zombie movies that simply rely on blood and gore. We get way more than that with this movie! The FX and makeup in the movie are great and look awesome! We get some cool up close shots from the camera of blood and brains getting splattered all over the place. Music always sets up a scene but you have to use the right music for the right scene! The music plays a cool part in the movie and it all fits in really well. The HVZ story is original and very unique and is a breath of fresh air for this zombie fan!

The character development in the movie is great! We have all types too, the hero and heroine, the funny guy, people you'll question, plenty of victims and lots of zombies! The movie definitely has its stand outs too. Madison Burge plays Tommi, the strong female lead who in the beginning is a little too standoffish but ultimately ends up kicking zombie ass. Frederic Doss plays Frank who is a paranoid, shell-shocked campus security guard who is the movies anti-hero and is a lot of fun to watch. Chip Joslin also stands out as the funny side-kick friend who ends up being one of the movies heroes and delivers some great one- liners while battling the undead and his timing is great. Watching these characters come together to kick zombie ass and try to survive while watching their relationships build as all this happens is a cool watch.

Humans Versus Zombies takes a whole new approach to zombie story telling! I always go into reviewing a movie by asking myself, can I watch this again and HVZ gets a big HELL YES!

Bottom line is if you're looking for a new zombie movie with a great story and fresh approach I highly recommend Humans Versus Zombies!

You don't take a sandwich to the beach

[nogodnomasters · 10/10 · 21 March 2018]

The film starts out with a zombie virus infection breach then goes headlong into a world infestation. There is a 2 weeks interval between the events. The comic book that comes with the DVD goes into more detail, but really doesn't add anything to the explanation which was given later in the film, one which I really appreciated as it pretended to have some basis in fact. The action takes place on a college campus where students engage in a game called "Humans vs. Zombies." These students believe they are zombie experts and then the apocalypse happens (Rev. 20:13).

Zombie movies are pretty much the same. Find a safe haven, purge zombies. It is the characters that separate great zombie films from pack. I liked the zombies eating people in front of the "Humanities" building and the characters in this film:

Tommi (Dora Madison Burge): She has a gamer web site and is a hot cyber chick all the guys want, especially James. She is pretty, smart, savvy, and can make quick decisions. She is the person in charge in the room.

James (Jesse Ferraro): He is the football player who wants Tommi and the man she wouldn't have sex with even if he was the last man on earth...not to be taken as an omen or anything. He could have any girl, but wants the one he can't have.

Danny (Jonah Priour): He is the studious roommate of James who engages in zombie games. He is our voice of reason, our Jesse Eisenberg from "Zombieland." He likes Amanda and shares with her the secret of the zombie metaphor.

Amanda (Melissa Carnell): Pretty coed whose clothes everyone borrows. She also has a working shower...I think you know where this is going.

Frank (Frederic Doss): Campus Security guard who believes in conspiracy theories. He contends the Illuminati let loose this virus and fellow guard Billy (Matthew Downs) is an alien. In a way he is glad this infection has happened as a point of vindication. Favorite line: "Back the F-up, zombie trash."

Brad (Chip Joslin): He is the reason I FIVE starred this film. He is the "Jack Black" of zombie killers; a humorous over-the-top slightly overweight guy who has funny quips like "You don't take a sandwich to the beach." He lives to kill zombies. I wish he was in more scenes.

PARENTAL GUIDE: F-bomb, brief sex, nudity (Taylor Kowald whose shower is broke.) Not as good as "Zombieland", but then what is?

A really snappy and enjoyable zombie horror outing

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 2 July 2012]

Okay, we all know the drill by now: A motley assortment of desperate characters are forced to set aside their differences and work together in order to remain alive after a mysterious virus causes an outbreak of ferocious flesh-eating zombies. So far, so familiar. But fortunately director Brian T. Jaynes, who also co-wrote the clever and inspired script with Devan Sagliani, neatly pokes fun at the standard genre conventions by making the central protagonists a bunch smartaleck college students with above average survival instincts thanks to all the video games they've played concerning zombie infestations. Moreover, Jayne relates the lively and entertaining story at a constant brisk pace, stages the zombie attack scenes and action set pieces with tremendous rip-roaring brio, delivers a handy helping of graphic gore, develops a considerable amount of tension and a strong feeling of mounting dread, and tops it all off with a wickedly amusing sense of pitch-black humor. Better still, Jayne not only keeps everything at a poignant human level (several characters express dismay when their friends get killed), but also comes through with an admirably hard-edged take-no-prisoners attitude that stays savagely true to itself to the devastating bitter end. In addition, the enthusiastic cast have a ball with the wild material, with especially stand-out work from Madison Burge as sassy and sarcastic gamer babe Tommi, Melissa Campbell as the sweet and adorable Amanda, Frederic Doss as gung-ho paranoid conspiracy freak security guard Frank, Chip Joslin as rowdy and obnoxious hipster Brad, Jonah Priour as shy and awkward virginal geek Danny, and Jesse Ferraro as amiable hunky jock James. Francois Frazat's crisp cinematography boasts plenty of cool bird's eye view camera shots and gives the picture an impressive sharp look. Maigin Blank's dynamic throbbing score does the pulse-pounding trick. A total blast.

Outstanding.

[john-128-149912 · 10/10 · 20 April 2012]

Despite what some reviewers seem to be claiming, I found this movie very enjoyable all the way through. The direction was brilliant, this movie is well on par in both quality and entertainment with modern mainstream zombie movies. Its not resident evil, but that stopped being about zombies years ago anyway :P

I would suggest you watch the movie to the end and not just watch it to the first scene, like most of the negative reviewers must have. They come here moaning about how lame they thought the whole movie was despite not even watching it to the end.

For me this movie was well executed, kept you interested and the character development was brilliant. Lets face it we don't need to know about the rough childhood memories that a character may or may not have when they are supposed to be shooting the heads off zombies.