If you are looking to get you hands on a good zombie movie, but you don’t know what to see, do yourself a favor and pick yourself up a copy of Glenn Kay’s excellent book, Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide. In it, Glenn covers the wide expanse of zombie movies starting with the genre’s roots back with White Zombie and continues to review zombie movies until the book’s publication (2008).

Glenn pretty much covers everything even remotely zombie related such as movies that aren’t even technically “zombie movies” but might contain walking dead people. Well, thumbing through the book, I pulled up a review of a classic that I missed while in highschool. Had I known about this tour-de-force, I imagine I would be quoting this movie today.

Here’s what Glenn has to say:

Of all of the low-budget, direct-to-video, cheeseball efforts from Troma Entertainment, this one at least delivered what it promised audiences: some gore, midgets, and a lot of jokes in poor taste. The acting is bad, but everyone involved seems to be in on the joke, and as a result Chopper Chicks in Zombietown is easily Troma’s best effort in the zombie subgenre. At times, it even looks like a real movie.

The story follows the Cycle Sluts, a group of wild, sex-starved, free-living female bikers (one memeber eloquently describes their life: “We ride around … and ride around …”) who end up stranded in Zariah, a small desert town located near a radioactive, zombie-filled mine. The undead escape and head for town, but the citizens have plenty of time to react as the zombies slowly stimble across the desert and down the highway toward Zariah. Meanwhile, the biker chicks’ enormously permed lead Dede (Jamie Rose) must deal with the consequences of running into her estranged husband, played by a very unenthusiastic Billy Bob Thornton in an early role (he’s quickly offed). The film amusingly cuts back to the zombies every so often to remind audiences just how long a walk they have. Don’t worry zombie fans – they do eventually make it.

Naturally, the townspeople decide that they won’t shoot the zombies because many of them are deceased family members. One character even tells his elderly undead father, “Maybe if you don’t eat anybody, nobody will notice.” So its up to Rose and the other bikers to fight off the flesh-eaters and save a broken-down busload of sarcastic, blind orphans. (The kids are also tuneless vocalists, as musical number later proves.) There are decapitations, some action with chain saws, a decent explosion, and some zombies on fire. And Thorton isn’t the only recognizable face; others include Don Calfa (as a mad scientist), onetime MTV host Martha Quinn, and Lewis Arquette. All in all, Chopper Chicks in Zombietown is a surprisingly decent effort from Troma, one of its only titles worth seeing.

So what do you think? Was it in any good? For those of you not wanting to rent it, I found that a copy was uploaded on YouTube in parts. Watch at your own risk.

Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide (amazon.com <- new window)
Chopper Chicks in Zombietown (youtube.com <- new window)