Johnny Z 2023 Movie Review
The earth has changed beyond recognition as a violent zombie epidemic has almost completely wiped-out human life as we know it. A half-human, half-zombie creation called Johnny (Michael Merchant – SHE KILLS) has escaped from medical prison and driven by the knowledge that his blood may hold the key to a cure for the zombie outbreak, embarks on a mission to find a scientist capable of developing an antidote.
Johnny’s dangerous journey is driven by a desire for merciless revenge against his nefarious creators. Teaming up with Jonray (Felix Cortes – PLANE, DAREDEVIL), a martial arts Grandmaster, and his brother Crisanto (Jason Delgado), they embark on a treacherous violence fuelled-quest.
Knowing that director Jonathan (NIGHT OF SOMETHING STRANGE) Straiton’s JOHNNY Z centres around a half-human/half-zombie creation I found the offer to review it tantalising to refuse. Its Crowdfunding pitch promised that this would be mash-up of LAND OF THE DEAD and THE RAID and that’s not far off the mark even if it lacks the budget to be as fast and furious and relentless on the action front as the latter named movie.
There’s also a smidgeon of BLADE’s DNA in the mix here where instead of a half-human/half-vampire, we have a half-human/half-zombie and like BLADE this too is an action flick with splashes of horror to spice things up. It’s noisy, loud, colourful, and always moving, there’s never a dull moment with JOHNNY Z and fans of action-horror will lap up every second. Unfortunately, I was without subtitles for any of the Spanish dialogue parts but aside from that, this is undemanding six-pack entertainment.
