Angriff der Lederhosenzombies
Director: Dominik Hartl
Writer: Armin Prediger, Dominik Hartl
Cast: Laurie Calvert, Gabriela Marcinková, Oscar Dyekjær Giese, Margarete Tiesel, Karl Fischer, Kari Rakkola, Martin Loos, Patricia Aulitzky
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 22.9.2016
[Review by cornholio.]

Plot:
Steve (Laurie Calvert) and Josh (Oscar Dyekjær Giese) are snowboarders who are shooting a video in the alps. It’s supposed to be daring and fun but things go awry and the two of them, plus their PR manager and Steve’s now ex Branka (Gabriela Marcinková) find themselves stranded in the ski resort on top of the mountain in a hut that’s preparing to party all night. What seems like simply a bad evening turns into a really bad night when the hut is being swarmed by zombies.

Since I loved Hartl’s short films, my expectations for Angriff der Lederhosenzombies were pretty high. The movie couldn’t quite match those expectations, even though it’s really entertaining.

The film is obviously geared toward a more international audience. Even though  Margarete Tiesel and Karl Fischer are well-known Austrian actors, they are limited to supporting roles (which both, but particularly Tiesel, rock, stealing the show in every second she’s on screen and in a few she isn’t), while the main cast is international and speaks English throughout the film. Unfortunately this made the dialogues sound a little stilted (maybe because there was only one native speaker among them). It wouldn’t have hurt the film if it had been entirely Austrian, I think. But at least it felt Austrian.

The bigger problem was that the film didn’t quite nail its timing. Often, there were jokes where I thought “I should be laughing now” but I wasn’t. A lot of those missed beats have to do with the soundtrack that was simply weak, proving how central a good soundtrack is to a film.

My last squabble with the film: Steve had to get his chance to rescue Branka from a completely ridiculous situation after she had handled herself perfectly in the fight until then, just so he could redeem himself, re-enacting a tired and sexist trope that was completely unnecessary.

But even though that may sound like I hated the film, I really didn’t. Yes, not everything worked as well as it should or could have, but it was still a highly entertaining film and a worthy new addition to the zombie genre with a few new twists to the story, while remaining faithful to the genre and it’s conventions, all sprinkled with heavy Austrian flavor. I had fun.

Summarizing: Worth seeing.