by Linda Kay
Directed by: Christopher Landon
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: Teenage Boy Scouts Ben (Tye Sheridan), Carter (Logan Miller) and Augie (Joey Morgan) have more to worry about than earning badges when their town is suddenly overrun with zombies.
Cat Cattle Call: Carter’s neighbor is the cantankerous Miss Fielder (Cloris Leachman) who owns countless cats, as observed by Ben as they sit in his car outside the house.
With the zombie apocalypse well underway, the boys sneak past the living dead into Carter’s house to retrieve his sister’s diary in hopes of uncovering the secret senior party location so they can rescue the party goers. With them is cocktail waitress Denise (Sarah Dumont) who has proved herself to be a badass. What they don’t know is Miss Fielder, now zombified, is watching them from her window with the ominous sounds of cats growling and even a Poor Cat Screech.
Faux Cat: Miss Fielder and other zombies break into Carter’s home and the quartet flee to Miss Fielder’s home where they hear scary sounds in the dark. They are shocked when white furry paws suddenly appear on Augie’s shoulder. A white Persian zombie cat (a hilarious puppet, actually) hovers on Augie’s shoulder before hissing. Augie spins around and Denise knocks the zombie cat across the room with a frying pan.
When numerous zombie cat eyes glow at them from the dark (a rather scary moment, actually!) they run to the garage.
The zombie cats’ paws reach for them under the door before they can escape in Miss Fielder’s car.
During the end credits a zombie cat paw is seen swiping on a phone with a photo of Miss Fielder and a selfie of Augie with the zombie Persian appears during Joey Morgan’s credit. The animal trainer on the film was Sarah Clifford.
The zombie Persian was also featured on the movie’s poster.
Final Mewsings: Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of a crazy cat puppet for laughs.
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