ZombieCON vol. 1 (2025)

“Cosplay. Chaos. Zombies. And some sorta acid trip” 🧟‍♂️⚡🎭

Let’s start by showing y’all the trailer, shall we?

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⚠️ CONTENT WARNING — PLEASE READ

This film is vulgar, gory, violent, chaotic, and absolutely NOT for everyone.
Like… if you’re squeamish, easily offended, don’t like cussing, or don’t enjoy movies that operate on pure anime logic powered by Monster Energy drinks…
This might not be for you.


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⭐ Special Note Before We Begin

I would’ve NEVER gotten the chance to review this wild, unhinged, cosplay-powered zombie fever dream if the director himself hadn’t reached out to me and offered a private screener.

That has never happened to me before.
So seriously — THANK YOU.
That meant a lot. And because of that? I’m going all in.
Full review. Full chaos. Full love.
Even if this movie is insane in the best possible way.


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❤️ NON-SPOILER PLOT OVERVIEW

ZombieCON vol. 1 follows four best-friend cosplayers — Rocket (Manny Luke), Claire (Erin Áine), Punkie (Punkie Johnson), and Javier (Christian Casillas) — who live their lives dressing up as their favorite heroes and dealing with assholes who hate them for existing.
One night, after being bullied (again) and having their big cosplay win smashed apart, Claire wishes on a magical rock that “every douchebag on earth becomes a zombie.”

Guess what?
The rock says “bet.”

Suddenly all the jerks, bullies, and clout-chasing d-bags in Los Angeles turn into zombies…
while still being as big of assholes as they were in life.

So the group puts on their cosplay armor, grabs collectible katanas, and goes full anime-fight-scene across LA to save Claire’s mom, Mama Bear (Nichole McAuley).

It’s campy.
It’s stupid.
It’s low-budget.
It’s ABSURD.
And I loved every second of it.


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🎭 CHARACTER RUNDOWN

Rocket is chaotic rage-gremlin energy with a pulse. A total jerk, but he grows on you.
Claire is the emotional core — a sweet character stuck in a world full of idiots.
Punkie is hilarious, unfiltered, and exactly the type of friend who says the things you wish you could say.
Javier is the heart, the ride-or-die.
Zander Rulz (Carlo Mendez) is the most punchable bully ever created. His zombie form? Somehow even more punchable.
Mama Bear is exactly what her name says — the mom everyone deserves.

No one here is meant to be realistic.
They’re all meant to be BIG personalities.
And it works.


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🕘 PACING / FLOW

Shockingly?
Never boring.
It moves fast, hits hard, and even though the budget is tiny, the movie never drags its feet.
Every scene has something ridiculous happening — zombie hunting, screaming, stabbing, yelling, emotional beats, goofy anime-logic moments — and it somehow all fits together.


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💖 PROS

This movie is a blast.
Not “Oscar-worthy blast.”
Not “high-art blast.”
But “my brain should hate this but I’m having the time of my life” blast.

The characters are fun.
The zombies talk.
The kills feel like Mortal Kombat fatalities.
Cosplayers saving the world? Yes, thank you.
The movie knows it’s absurd and fully leans into it.

This is the kind of movie you play at 1 a.m. with friends and pizza and come out quoting it for days.


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🤦‍♂️ CONS

Okay. Let’s talk volume.
THE. VOLUME.
IS.
SO.
BROKEN.

Dialogue is whisper-quiet.
Action scenes are EAR-DESTROYING LOUD.
I watched this at volume 40 on my speaker and STILL couldn’t hear half the conversations.
Then an action scene hit and it felt like the speakers were trying to murder me.

This is the only thing holding the movie back from a 10/10 for me.
It’s THAT rough.

Also, if you want a “serious” zombie film… yeah, this ain’t it.
This is anime crack energy bottled into a movie.

Just a recommendation for y’all to fix when you work on the next film.

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🎤 FINAL THOUGHTS

ZombieCON vol. 1 is NOT a “good” movie in the traditional sense.
It’s not deep.
It’s not well-mixed sound-wise.
It’s not prestige drama.

But holy hell — it is FUN.
Ridiculously fun.
So stupid it loops back around to being genius.
It has STYLE. HEART. ENERGY. PERSONALITY.
It’s the exact kind of chaotic indie magic that makes you remember why movies don’t all have to be “perfect” to be great.

And the director?
You’re going places.
You’ve got a voice, a vision, and a style.
Keep going. I’ll be watching whatever you do next.

Plz go out and give this film a chance, go support this direcor. It’s available on dvd and a few services, here’s link to their website.

https://zombieconvol1.com/

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⭐ RATING: 9/10

(Docked only because the volume mixing nearly killed me.)


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⚠️ SPOILER WARNING — STOP HERE IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED IT

Everything below this point is full detail.
No bullet points.
Just pure chaos, plot, and carnage.


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💀 SPOILERS

The movie starts with Rocket, Claire, Punkie and Javier cosplaying Guardians of the Galaxy at a convention, winning an award, and immediately having it smashed to pieces by their bully Xander and his cheerleader cult. Rocket finally snaps and gets decked in one punch, spiraling him into a spiral of pure rage and misanthropy for the rest of the night.

They head home, and Rocket’s attitude gets worse. He snaps at homeless people, acts like the biggest jerk in the friend group, and Claire finally breaks down because her boyfriend is a jerk too and Rocket’s constant negativity is pushing her to her limits. She goes home crying, grabs the mystical wishing stone, and — out of trauma from losing her family to cruel people — wishes that every douchebag in the world becomes a zombie.

The wishing stone decides to take her literally.

Her boyfriend becomes Patient Zero, attacks her, and she kills him by stabbing him through the heart with a katana. In this universe zombies die by getting stabbed in the heart, which honestly? A cool twist. Fresh. Not every zombie virus needs to be “shoot head = done.”

The group realizes Mama Bear isn’t answering her phone and decide they need to rescue her. They suit up in their cosplay armor, grab their swords, and charge into the zombie apocalypse.
There’s an absolutely disgusting POV shot of zombie blood splattering across their faces like an anime splash panel.

Eventually the group gets swarmed in an underground tunnel. Javier sacrifices himself to lure away the zombies — only to pull the classic “I outran the plot” move and meet them back at the surface. They reach Mama Bear’s house, but zombie Zander and his zombie girlfriends (!!) show up. And here comes the twist that genuinely made the hairs on my arms stand up: the zombies can still talk. They remember who they were. They still insult you. They still act like trash people. They’re basically the same jerks, just hungrier and uglier.

Zander pins Rocket’s friends down while taunting them with his demonic voice and bites Rocket, turning him into a zombie. But through the power of anime, friendship, and maybe sheer stubbornness, Rocket manages to push the infection back and becomes human again for absolutely no reason other than emotional conviction. He gets literal electricity-powers out of nowhere and kills Zander’s zombie girls by ripping out their hearts like a Mortal Kombat finisher.

But Zander isn’t done. He grabs Mama Bear and bites into her neck, ripping out flesh in one of the nastiest scenes of the movie. The group jumps him, stabbing him repeatedly until he dies for good.

Mama Bear dies in Rocket’s arms, telling him she’s proud of him and his friends.
It’s emotional, unexpectedly sincere, and honestly? One of the better death scenes in a low-budget zombie movie.

This movie truly is one the most bat shit films in the best way possible ive ever seen.

The film ends with Rocket delivering a final monologue about not always getting everything you want in life, but surviving anyway — then he and his friends stand together as he says:

> “Since the world has gone to shit… let’s give them hell.”

What an ending, I can’t wait for the sequel. Plz bring on the sequel, dont leave us in the dark. Anyways I recommend yall go out ans check this film out, its available to rent or purchase on

Apple TV+

Amazon

YouTube

Fandango

Dish TV

Xfinity

Verizon

Hoopla

Google Play Store

Apple TV Canada

Amazon Canada

Anyways catch y’all next time