Zombies by Design (2006)

I have functional OCD and ADD, so when I found out that every Dave Wascavage movie is on Tubi, I ran hard and fast toward them all, drinking them in. Zombies by Design has one of his better concepts: what if a Trading Spaces show was airing a live marathon and a housewife plans on having her mad scientist husband’s lab be the room that gets fixed up? And what if that scientist was planning on unleashing zombies on the world?

This movie cost $17,000 and that’s about what the catering budget is for a half day of a Hollywood shoot. With that money, Wascavage fills the screen with plenty of gore and lots of that MS Paint-influenced CGI of his that I love so much. Seriously, it was disconcerting when i first saw it but now, after seeing all of his movies, I demand it.

The zombies have these little glowing antenna on the back of their heads that allows them to be controlled. There’s also a control noise that I swear made my dog more upset than anything since all of the nonstop screams of Alucarda.

There are also plenty of limbs being ripped clean off, which I demand from zombie films. I also like that Wascavage keeps using the same crew, like Juan Fernandez, and writes the movies with his wife Mary, making this a family affair.

There’s a near Fulci moment where a cameraman sees the zombies coming and does absolutely nothing, deer in the headlights until they toss him on a table and rip his arms off and eat his guts. By the end, the crew of the home renovation show is riding in a panel truck and just trying to escape a suburban bedroom community awash in blood, gore and piles of clothing also covered in more blood.

These days, zombie movies have become disposable and boring junk, a fact which makes me beyond sad. Wascavage gets tons of credit here, because he made a movie packed with fun that never gets old.

You can watch this on Tubi.

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