REVIEW: RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES

This is a microbudget zombie flick from Acrostar Productions that has some hits and misses. Directed by Steve Herman and Mia Katz, it's a sequel to 2023's ATTACK OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, this one picking up a few years later. Our story follows a group of survivors making their way to a supposed sanctuary called Homestead. Led by Kathleen (Cloe Lutz) Janice (Angel Nichole Bradford) and Theo (Hunter Redfern) this is your typical zombie film survivor group of disparate personalities.

Right out of the gate this starts with some zombie action, which I liked, but then we slow way down into a dimly lit drawn-out scene in a bathroom, which I liked a lot less. Without going into all of the details, the group eventually makes it to the Homestead sanctuary where they encounter cult-like leader Sean (David Paul) and two of his daughters who happen to be Janice's sisters, Maggie (Kelsey Ann Baker) and the creepily intense Betty (Mel Heflin). The entire Homestead sequence could have used a tighter cut to really amp up the tension, so as it is it plays out a little flat.

The film as a whole throws enough zombie action at you to keep it interesting, but the production design was a weak link in the chain. For a film supposed to be set in the 1960's a few years into a zombie apocalypse, everything feels too neat clean and lacks the polish (or rather lack of polish) needed to make it believable. It took me a while to realize that this was supposed to be a period piece, to be quite honest. The acting runs the typical indie gamut from poor to decent, some real positive standouts being Angel Nichole Bradford as Janice and Chloe Lutz as Kathleen.

From a technical standpoint, the cinematography and sound are adequate for a microbudget production, if not very exciting. Again, we're talking ultra low-budget cinema here, so adequate is in a lot of cases above the bar.

RETURN is a little less campy than the film that preceded it, and I think in this case hurts it a bit. It really needed stronger performances to convincingly pull off the drama, so I feel like they would have been better served to lean harder into the camp aspect instead. Still, for fans of the zombie genre, especially low-budget zombie films, there might be something here to sink their teeth into.