Reaction & Review | Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a horror movie from 2013. That movie is "Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies".

And the story behind this movie is that the movie was being worked on for about a year, but the people who worked on it, didn't have enough money to completely finish it. So it was then turned over to Kickstarter, where they needed about $30,000 to finish production. And thankfully, fans were gracious enough, as the movie was barely able to reach it's campaign goal by about $26. Which is probably one of the closest campaign goals I've seen in a long time.

Now, I know that this movie was put out by an indie film studio known as Troma. And Troma is well known for putting out films such as "The Toxic Avenger" series, "Troma's War", "Cannibal: The Musical", and a bunch of other films that are too many to count. I'll admit I haven't seen any of those movies. But tonight's movie is going to be my first exposure to them.

And I've always wanted to see this movie for quite a long time. Partially because, I am a wrestling fan. And I do know a few of the wrestlers that appear in this movie. I'm talking about wrestlers such as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Matt Hardy, Kurt Angle, Jim Duggan, and a couple of other wrestlers that were from WWE and TNA. So I know what they can do.

I'm not totally sure about everyone else, but I am certainly hoping for this movie to be good. And the only way I will find out, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm going to do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Pro Wrestlers vs. Zombies".

12 minutes later

So, guys...I just got a look at our first kill. And...that was pretty cool. Especially coming from a movie with a low budget. I'm really impressed, guys.

10 minutes later

OK, so I can say that Cody Knotts is probably one of the creepiest wrestling owners I have ever seen. And that's saying a lot when you, almost, outdo Vince McMahon in creepy shit, considering all the things that he has done in WWE for so many years. That's just...wow, that is just almost mind-blowing.

10 minutes later

So even after getting off the bus, Matt Hardy and his girlfriend are still making out. If this is the only thing that Hardy's going to do in this entire movie, then I hope he and his girlfriend end up getting killed by the zombies first.

6 minutes later

OK, that was a pretty cool way to make an exit. This guy just did a springboard 450 splash onto a pile of zombies before escaping. That was awesome.

9 minutes later

OK, that's new. I've never seen a zombie climbing along side the bars of a prison before. It's certainly different...oh, and Hardy just punched it off. Well, that zombie's momentum just ended. Wait.........OK. Hardy just killed it with a chain punch. That was certainly nasty.

2 minutes later

Well, I called it. Matt Hardy's now dead, and so is his girlfriend; Reby Sky. And you know what? I couldn't be fucking happier.

18 minutes later

You know, guys, I may have found a slight problem with this movie. And that is Shane Douglas's over-usage of the word 'fuck'. I swear, he can't go five minutes without saying 'fuck'. Mind you, this is coming from someone who swears a lot. But this shit is becoming too much, even for me.

The Review

All right, well, that was "Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies". That was interesting. Let me shut the movie off...OK. Well, I will start by saying this. Earlier, I mentioned that this movie is my first time viewing anything from Troma. And I, kinda, had a feeling I was going to like this because, as I said, I am a wrestling fan. And after watching this, I really feel like looking into more Troma films, because this movie was pretty good.

Where to start, though? Well, I guess I should start with the writing. I may as well start with the only real problem I have with this movie. And that is Shane Douglas cursing frequently in this entire movie. I already mentioned before the review that Shane Douglas, or "The Franchise", if you want to call him, has a really bad habit of either saying 'fuck', 'god-damn', or 'shit'. I totally understand that it's a horror movie, and that language is going to come into play into these sorts of movies, but Shane Douglas' dialogue, for about 85% of the movie, is nothing but him cursing up a storm. And every single curse word from him is so forced that, it makes his character come across as an immature child who grew up with a family that curses every single day.
Mind you, now. A number of the wrestlers in this movie mostly say either 'fuck' or 'shit', but nowhere near as much as Shane Douglas does. And most of that dialogue coming from him happens in the latter half of the movie, and it comes off as really lazy and, sorta, shit in the end.

Beyond that though, the writing is pretty good. Our story isn't the most complex, in terms of writing. Because it's mostly about the wrestlers in this movie being booked for a wrestling event held in a penitentiary. And the reason being is because, during the beginning of the movie, Shane Douglas ends up killing the brother of our villain for this movie, Angus, after botching a tombstone piledriver during a match, thus he is out for revenge. Now that's partially the reason why. And as for the zombies, well, Angus ends up killing this one chick after putting a knife to her chest. He pulls her heart out and ends up eating it, thus that's how these zombies are born. Though if I had to nitpick, it's that if your heart is eaten, how are you a zombie after that? I would assume you're just dead, after that. You know, it's details like those that can throw you off a bit.

As for our characters, they aren't really the most developed, thus most of them will end up being a bit shallow. However, with the exception of a few characters, most of them at least have some sort of a personality and end up being kinda likable. In fact, that's something that I wish "Zombies vs. Strippers" would've benefit from is that if any of them had some kind of character or interesting personality, but they all ended up being shallow and lifeless. At least here, we have a few that end up being sorta likable. And, even though I didn't care for Shane Douglas' excessive use of language, at least he has some sort of character to work with, albeit kinda shallow. And I'm giving most of the lack of depth a pass, mainly because of my bias as a wrestling fan, and I've seen most of their work throughout their career, so I kinda knew what to expect.

Which, I guess leads me to talking about acting. Because our cast is mostly filled with wrestlers, most of them end up playing as themselves, with the two exceptions being Sarah and Angus. As for the wrestlers, most of them turn in a halfway decent showing. And if I had to pick any one wrestler that absolutely shined in this movie, it's "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. And that's partially because Piper is doing what he does best, and that is become as much of a badass as he can. And it's not really surprising that he does, because I remember one other film that he starred in, where he also shined brightly. That film being "They Live" from John Carpenter. Which, by the way, if you have never seen "They Live", I would highly recommend checking it out. That's just me, though. But anyway, most of the wrestler's turn in halfway decent showings. Including Kurt Angle, for about the 3 or 4 minutes he's in the movie. He also turns in a pretty good showing. Now if I had to pick a wrestler who sorta phoned in their lines, it would have to be Shane Douglas. And I'm not just talking about him saying 'fuck' or 'shit', I mean there are moments in the latter half of the movie where he comes across his family, who are turned into zombies. And when he has to end up killing them, he cannot express an emotion other than forced anger. When he attempts to express any other kind of emotion, it comes off as really forced and lazy. Which, I don't know if that's how he did his promo's back then, but he cannot express an emotion to save his own soul. Besides him, though, the acting is pretty good. None of it is great, but certainly decent, when you're working with a cast that consists of, mostly, professional wrestlers.

Now let's talk about the fight choreography. Because we have a cast of wrestlers, you would expect the fight choreography to be pretty good. And it is. Granted, we don't see a ton of wrestling moves being used, however the select few who do end up performing them are actually really good. One of them I mentioned earlier during the reaction portion of the movie where we see one of the wrestlers doing a springboard 450 splash. Or with Kurt Angle's short appearance in this movie, he's also able to turn in a few of his moves in. Including his signature moves, both being the Ankle Lock and the Angle Slam. And yes, I am that much of a nerd to remember what these moves are called. Granted, there might be those who don't watch wrestling, will end up reading this review, and will probably have no idea what the fuck I'm talking about. But...trust me, these are what the moves are called. And if you want to see them for yourself, just look up any Kurt Angle match on YouTube.

Special effects in this movie are actually really good. Both in terms of practical blood and the make-up effects on our zombies. There was one noticeable effect, in terms of blood, that I saw which looked rather fake. And the scene I'm talking about is when Matt Hardy does a jumping fist drop onto one of the zombies and you can see that the blood is just really noticeable tomato sauce. But honestly, most people are not going to notice that or even care. However, I did, so take it for what you will.

Camerawork is pretty good. Though, there is one oddity when it comes to editing. And that is during one scene when the wrestlers are running away from the ring where the zombies have all gathered. As the wrestlers are running through the hoard of zombies, they push away this one zombie in a referee shirt, and, for whatever reason, they show this shot of this referee being shoved about 3 times from slightly different angles. I haven't seen this done before, since I watched any fight scene from an episode "Walker, Texas Ranger". Seriously, the editing during those fight scenes in that show are just god awful. Aside from that minor hiccup, the camerawork is pretty good.

The lighting is well lit. Granted, a good portion of this movie is filmed in the dark, however, they were still able to make lighting work enough to where you can see most things really well. Our soundtrack is just mostly rock music. And the rock music in this movie is a rather mixed bag. There are some songs that are pretty good, while other songs are just there and are completely forgettable. Our score is decent. Sound-mix, on other hand, is a little bit shit. Because, we'll have some scenes in complete silence while some of the wrestlers are talking. It's especially noticeable during the latter portion of the movie, where whenever we see the movie being filmed outside in the dark. Because we see Piper and Sarah exchanging words, but the lack of crickets chirping in the background is completely gone for whatever reason. Now I don't know if that was a technical issue on my end, or if it was the version of the movie I watched on YouTube, but it was really noticeable, and it did take me out of the film slightly. However, once they got past all of that, the sound-mix was better afterwards. As was most of the movie.

So, with all that said and done, can I recommend "Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies"? Um...yeah, I can recommend it. Especially if you are a wrestling fan, and you are a fan of zombies, then you're probably going to adore this movie. However, if you're not a fan of either one of those things, then you may want to avoid this movie. However, I would still recommend it to everyone else who likes cheesy B movies. And even though I'm sick and tired of zombies being overused, this was a pleasant surprise. And I'm happy to say that, especially after wanting to watch this movie for so long.

Anyway, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.