Zombie for Sale

Lee Mn-Jae's 2019 film, "The Odd Family, Zombie on Sale" seems to be maybe South Korea 's first entry to the Zombie comedy genre. There's a lot of references to Millennial "Zom-Com" films such as "Shaun of the Dead", "Warm Bodies" and "Zombieland" but also straightforward Zombie films, like George E. Romero's 2005 "Land of the Dead".

It's story centers around the "Park" family owning a gas station that take a young man, Hyon-woo" (nicknamed later as "Jongbie, the Pet") who develops "zombie" characteristic behavior. The family consists of a married couple (with wife expecting), their father plus a young girl, "Hae-Gul" in which "Jongbie" develops a crush on. The obvious enemy here is an illegal pharmaceutical company called "Human Bio", doing experiments on humans... does this plot sound familiar to you?

Again, if you like these referenced films, Min-Jae's film is for you. Otherwise, he does not offer anything new or original here. But the quality of acting, set production and special effects are very good. In its Midwest premiere, Min-Jae stated that his wife co-wrote the script and that the fact "zombies" belong to Haitian Vodou. He further said that in fact, the idea of the "living dead" can be also found in Korean lore.

When asked if there will be a sequel, he said (in a joking manner) maybe when the baby character grows up to be 20 years old... he will pursue a sequel! If you are interested on an international perspective on how filmmakers have taken on the "zombie" genre, then "The Odd Family, Zombie on Sale" is for you!

I was given the chance to sit down and watch "The Odd Family: Zombie On Sale" (aka "Gimyohan Gajok"), and with it being a South Korean zombie movie, of course I jumped at the chance.

Initially I must admit that I wasn't overly impressed with the movie, as it was more of a zombie comedy, but really lacking that special zombie ingredient to make it worthwhile and outstanding. But then things started to speed up and the storyline changed for the better, and the movie suddenly became more enjoyable.

The storyline is a bit tedious at first, it was watchable for sure, but it wasn't an outstanding first half of the movie. Sure, there were moments here and there where the movie was shining, but it wasn't really a great zombie movie. But when things started to go awry in the little community, the movie just took a 180 turn for the better.

I must admit that the character gallery in the movie wasn't really that great, and I didn't really invest much into the characters. There was just something missing from the characters, as they had very little depth and flavor to them, and they could essentially be one and the same.

The zombie make-up was good and worked well in the feel of the movie. Don't go around expecting something grotesque and gory though.

The last half of the movie, however, now this is where the movie really came into play, and director Lee Min-jae managed to salvage an otherwise sliding storyline.

I am rating "The Odd Family: Zombie On Sale" a six out of ten stars. It turned out to become adequately entertaining, but this is hardly a movie that stands out in the zombie genre, and in comparison to "Train From Busan", then this was a children's movie. While it is watchable, it is hardly a movie that you'll watch more than once.

Grt movie funny and with soul It was a delight to watch

A fun zombie comedy that is more about the laughs than the scares Odd Family is solid proof that the horror-comedy genre continues to go from strength to strength and that Asian cinema, especially that of South Korean origin, is the best it has even been and we for one could not be happier. It's funny, heartwarming and gory to boot with terrific performances and chemistry between the family and will have audiences laughing out loud for its entire runtime HAVE A GOOD FUN

It was a sort of ok film, started off with promise but faded away. I think it was at least twenty minutes too long.

A solid 5/10.