Wrestling and zombies, two words that I didn’t expect to come out of a zombie movie. The Manson Brothers: Midnight Zombie Massacre, takes us on the journey of the two fighting brothers who signed up for a new game after being relegated. But they didn’t know that they needed to stay in an arena to fight zombies.  

The movie starts off slow, with a family reading a comic about the two brother’s wrestling adventures, which then cuts to the brothers a few hours before a wrestling match. The two main characters, Skull and Stone, played by Chris Margetis and Mike Carey are absolutely hilarious together. Their chemistry is absolutely astounding and spot on, while the supporting cast make it even more believable by playing off each other, making the Manson Brothers look great as a result. The showcasing of the backstage scenes along with the matches themselves are great and well captured.

The film really captured the essence of a creepy zombie film through great cinematography and sound effects. With lights flickering off due to a power outage, screaming in the background, and no cell service, the main characters find themselves trapped in the building, having to fight their way through a crowd of former wrestlers and management turned into now, flesh eating zombies. This makes things even more terrifying with the now former wrestlers super human strength and running ability. The music changing throughout the zombie sequence gives the watcher an intense feeling, while keeping them on the edge of their seats. The film’s use of opera music during the zombie sequence when one of the main characters has to kill a zombie for the first time, makes the scene more fun and witty than it actually is.

Zombies?

As someone who is a big fan of zombie movies and has even written a zombie book, I enjoyed the undead scenes. When the humans turn into zombies due to a Chinese growth hormone, there is vomiting as the virus goes through their veins and changes color. Their eye color changes due to the virus and then they become aggressive. It’s a simple turning and not as complicated as many of the other zombie movies I have seen. But the turning process takes a lot longer than intended, while most take nearly a few minutes. The gore effects and zombies themselves are definitely creepy, adding to the tone of the movie. The movie is less serious than many other undead movies where characters are trying to survive, get to safety, or find their loved ones before the zombies find them.