Shudder Saturday: Queens Of The Dead (2025)

If you're going to wade into the overcrowded territory of zombie movies and think you can make your mark on the sub-genre then I guess it could be a huge help, or a huge hindrance, to be the child of George A. Romero AKA "the father of the zombie film". It also helps to put a different spin on things, even if that's just setting most of the movie in a club largely populated by drag queens, for instance.

Queens Of The Dead is just that, a club-set zombie movie directed and co-written by Tina Romero. There's supposed to be a big night happening, which would help club owner Dre (Katy O'Brian), but the plans are interrupted by an unexpected influx of hungry creatures. They're not the only ones who can seem fierce and fearless though. 

A debut feature for both Romero and Erin Judge (the other writer), Queens Of The Dead feels very much like a debut feature, yet it could have easily avoided the usual pitfalls. There are enough good performers, and enough familiar faces, to help it stand out from the crowd. There's a fun idea at the heart of it. And there's also a soundtrack with a few hit songs features (which, admittedly, may have taken up too much of the budget). 

O'Brian has been doing very well over the past few years, and she makes a great central character here. She's not the only one given a full journey to go on, but she has the ability to stand out from the others and feel like the actual lead. Jaquel Spivey, playing Sam, is the other person allowed to show growth and development during the escalating crisis, and does a very good job. There are smaller roles for both Margaret Cho and Riki Lindhome, two comics you may well recognise, and other core group members are played by Quincy Dunn-Baker, Tomás Matos, Nina West, Jack Haven, and Dominique Jackson. Most of them do well, but there's a very wide range of acting skill levels on display. And let's not forget a Tom Savini cameo that is neither clever nor amusing, but I guess it ticks a box when it comes to trying to appeal to fans of Romero's legacy.

It's a great shame that the screenplay isn't better, especially with the excellent potential of the premise. Some amusing insults are peppered throughout, but there's a disappointingly small amount of full-blooded snark and cutting comments. The character played by Dunn-Baker is shown to be a typical guy struggling to use the right terminology, but even he isn't used as well as he could be. And the fact that he's on his own ensures that tensions remain pretty low. Yes, that's the other big problem. There's no tension. The characters onscreen rarely accept the full seriousness of the situation, which makes it impossible for viewers to be truly concerned about the fate of anyone.

Tina Romero does just enough to keep this above the very worst of the worst zombie movies, thanks to the characters assembled and the spirit of "existence is resistance" that bonds so many of them during this horribly tough time in the real world around us, but she needs to spend more time on the writing and ways to cover up the low budget when she gets around to making whatever her next feature may be. I hope she moves away from zombies, or figures out how to mix in more horror and threat with the comedy.

5/10

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Adventures Of A Plumber's Mate (1978)

The last in the "Adventures" movie series, this ends up actually being a bit of a step up from the other two movies, in a number of ways. It's just a shame that Christopher Neil, while not being terrible in the lead performance, isn't quite up to the task of seeming worthy enough of the film being resting on his shoulders.

Neil plays a plumber named Sid, and Sid has some money worries. He has days to repay a lump sum to some heavies, or they are going to put him in hospital. He also gets himself in a spot of brother when he ends up doing a job for Janice (Prudence Drage), a woman who wants to seduce him, leading to a situation that grows more tense when handcuffs are used without the key close enough to hand, the gangster boyfriend of Janice is heading home, and a toilet seat is removed that is, unknown to our lead, actually a disguised chunk of gold. If he can stay alive long enough, maybe he can get things sorted AND enjoy some happiness with a woman named Daisy (Elaine Paige . . . yes, THAT Elaine Paige).

It's Stanley A. Long in the director's chair once again, and he continues to show a lack of interest in anything remotely resembling cinematic style or polish, but the script this time around is in the hands of Stephen D. Frances and Aubrey Cash, and these two actually manage to put together something that feels like it's plotted with a bit of care. You still get some amusing diversions here and there, but this film moves from start to finish more satisfyingly than either of the previous two instalments in the short series.

Neil is okay, as mentioned. He's just not quite as appealing as some other choices could have been, although he fares better here than he did last time. Paige makes a better impression, being a sweet and supportive woman, arguably a much better relationship prospect for the main character than he deserves. Arthur Mullard is a lot of fun as the main heavy, managing to be both slightly comedic and a genuine threat, and it's good to see a slightly bigger role for Willie Rushton (who was there and gone all too quickly in the previous Adventure, he's in a different role here). There aren't as many familiar faces in the supporting cast, but you get Anna Quayle (also returning in a different role), Christopher Biggins popping up, and a fun, small, role for Stephen Lewis (best known to British TV comedy fans as 'Blakey' from On The Buses).

There's still not enough to help this become an actual good movie, because it's not given quite enough care and attention when it comes to the technical side of things (everything is competent enough, nothing feels truly cared for though). All three "Adventures" movies are dated relics from the seventies, but I still find them fascinating to view in terms of where British cinema found great success as attitudes moved from cheeky sauciness to more explicit, lewd and lascivious, content. And why did I feel like Mary Whitehouse as I wrote "lewd and lascivious"? That was only meant to be a description, not necessarily a judgement.

4/10