A diabolical pharmaceutical company has been experimenting on college kids and turning them into the shamblin’ dead. One such unfortunate is Jjong-Bi (Ga Ram Jung) who has went on the lam and found himself the houseguest of a wacky-ass family that owns a rural gas station (though most of their dough comes from scamming motorists).
Before long our undead hero bites the family patriarch, but instead of turning him into a flesh-eating ghoul, it fills the ol’ boy with vim and vigor! Ever the entrepreneurs, the family sells invigorating zombie bites to the geezers of the village for a profit.
Of course this plan goes tits up when the folks he’s bitten actually do pass on the zombie virus… which also results in the family having to fend of the fiends as well as the authorities all while saving their own bickering asses from the fire!
Let’s just get this out of the way; Zombie for Sale is mostly a comedy, albeit one with the living dead sprinkled in… but, don’t let that keep you horror hounds away as this funny fright flick is actually a highly-entertaining journey into ghoulish goodness!
Most of that success lies squarely on two contributing creative factors; solid direction from Lee Min-Jae, and a cast that is more than up for whatever lunacy the former sends their way!Min-Jae can pull of everything from crazy set-pieces to family relationships with equal aplomb… and the cast manages to be engaging and suitably hammy throughout the picture… both of which translate to an immense amount of fun for the viewer!
As you may guess, you shouldn’t really expect much in the way of the normal extensive zombie make-ups and gore you’d be privy to with most zombie films as things are kept mainly to simple make-ups for the majority of the film, but what is on screen gets the job done.
As for special features on the Blu-ray release from Arrow Video and MVD Entertainment, we are treated to: a Q&A sesh with the Min-Jae, a look at the social satire genre in Korean cinema courtesy of critic Pierce Conran, a making-of featurette, a glimpse behind-the-scenes of the film’s production, the film’s original theatrical trailer, and a lively and informative audio commentary track courtesy of filmmakers and critics Sam Ashurst and Dan Martin.
Also included are a reversible sleeve featuring original artwork by Mike Lee-Graham, and a collector’s booklet featuring new writing by festival programmer Josh Hurtado.
If you dig on on the ‘ha-ha’s’ along with your horror, then I strongly urge you to pick up Zombie for Sale; it’s funny, has a ton of heart, and is balls deep in zombies!
