‘Don’t touch the glass’
Aquarium of the Dead is a 2021 American science-fiction horror film about a scientific accident that causes creatures to become zombies. It is the third film in Glenn Miller’s Zoombies trilogy that began with Zoombies (2016) and continued with Zoombies 2 (2019).
Directed by Glenn Miller (Santa Claws; The Coed and the Zombie Stoner; The Bell Witch Haunting) from a screenplay co-written by Marc Gottlieb and Michael Varrati.
The Atomic Blonde Entertainment production stars Vivica A. Fox, D.C. Douglas, Erica Duke and Eva Ceja.
Reviews:
” …it’s almost better to not see the animals too often considering how crude and flat the CGI looks. And on top of repeatedly shooting the actors’ reactions to something scary rather than showing what they’re seeing, the editing tends to be erratic […] Aquarium of the Dead still manages to wring out a smidge of perfunctory entertainment for avid B-movie fans.” Bloody Disgusting
“the film and everyone in it play everything completely seriously even as the tone approaches the wilful absurdity of The Asylum’s hit Sharknado (2013) in its better moments […] scenes where the people are trapped indoors and take on attacks by crabs, starfish and an alligator prove highly entertaining […] The Asylum’s in-house effects team turn in some quality effects that rise to an undeniably professional level.” Moria
” …there’s a neat gag riffing on the Sharknado franchise, some decent character banter, and a scene where one of our heroes rages “I ain’t dying today” before… well, dying today. The effects are as bargain basement as ever but they get the job done, although a sequence where characters are attacked by static, motionless starfish isn’t quite as terrifying as all the on-screen screaming and panic might suggest it is.” Starburst
Release date:
In the USA, The Asylum will release Aquarium of the Dead on May 21st 2021.
In the UK, High Fliers released the film on DVD on 28th June 2021.
Choice dialogue:
“Why would a shark be in a tornado?”
Cast and characters:
Vivica A. Fox … Clu
D.C. Douglas … Daniel
Erica Duke … Beth
Eva Ceja … Miranda
Anthony Jensen … Senator Blackburn
Anna Telfer … Christie
Jeffery Thomas Johnson … Smith
Rishi Arya … Price
Madeleine Falk … Doctor James
Torrey B. Lawrence … Joe
Ash Dadvand … Hyde
Brandon Lee W. … Skylar
Robert Contrado … Schuster
Trailer:
MOVIES and MANIA comment and rating:
If you didn’t mind the tongue-in-cheek humour and CGI of the Zoombies films then you might enjoy the self-mocking tone of Aquarium of the Dead. It’s more lightweight nonsense with a positive environmental message that’s not too overt.
However, the plot is threadbare and there are some irritating characters. Other weaknesses include having just two fire guys turn up to an emergency and there’s way too much walkie talkie filler. Worse, there’s just not enough fish-fighting action to satisfy most creature feature fans.
