WYRMWOOD: APOCALYPSE (2021) Review
It’s time to take a hellish, high-octane return to the Aussie outback for some outlandish, blood-oozing rampaging zombie action in WYRMWOOD: APOCALYPSE, the highly anticipated sequel to cult-classic WYRMWOOD: ROAD OF THE DEAD.
Australian brothers Kiah and Tristan Roache-Turner have penned another gut-splattering sensation with this fantastically frenzied feature, which is set to thrill UK audiences – and sate horror fans’ thirst for bloody-bedlam – on its UK premiere at FrightFest Glasgow 2022 on 11 March and will follow on Blu-ray and digital from 101 Films.
In a zombie infested Australian wasteland, hard-edged soldier Rhys (Luke McKenzie) – who uses zombies as fuel for his barbie – dedicates his days to tracking down and capturing survivors of the Zombie apocalypse for the Surgeon (Nicholas Boshier) in hope of finding a cure for the zombie plague. But all is not as it seems, and Rhys’ moralistic misadventures are much more macabre than he knows…
After a wild and twisted sequence of events, Rhys joins forces with Maxi (Shantae Barnes-Cowan) with brother and sister-duo Brooke (Bianca Brady) and Barry (Jay Gallagher) in a race against the clock to save the one person who could be the key to ending the apocalypse…
It’s been a while since I watched the original WYRMWOOD, back in 2014 fact-fans, however I can still recall that I wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about it as many of my fellow critical clan and horror-film fan buddies were. Jump forward to this sequel and it’s got me thinking that perhaps I need to revisit the original as I found this to be fun, a whole lot of fun!
This comic-book-styled action-comedy-horror is slim on story but big on splatter, zombies and Mad Max-style road vehicle chases. There’s literally no breathing space as from the start it picks up straight from where the first film finished off and doesn’t let up the frenetic pace for one second. With a DEFINITE nod to EVIL DEAD 2: DEAD BY DAWN included along with subtler ones to Romero’s original DAY OF THE DEAD too, there’s enough here to qualify this as a must-watch for genre fans and, unlike most sequels to cult flicks, this one delivers the goods and leaves the door nicely open for another instalment.
Oh yeah, and a shout out to Luke McKenzie, great body mate!