Review: Yummy

Director: Lars Damoiseaux

Screenplay: Lars Damoiseaux and Eveline Hegenbeek

Year: 2020

Every year we are bombarded with dozens of zombie movies and I have to say that I am tired of this subgenre. However, Shudder has managed to change my perspective (only slightly) about this overused topic. A few weeks ago, it surprised everyone with the excellent “Blood Quantum” and now it does it again with the fun gore galore that is “Yummy”.

Michael accompanies his girlfriend Alison and his mother-in-law to a suspicious European hospital specialized in plastic surgery so that she can get a breast reduction. This hospital is also the host of the patient zero of an aggressive infection that turns people into rabid cannibals. Accidentally this patient is let loose and she starts a chain of infections and chaos through the hospital. 

On the way to the hospital, we get to know the protagonists Michael (Bart Hollanders; “Callboys”) and Alison (Maaike Neuville; “All of Us”) and the mother-in-law (Annick Christiaens; “Professor T.”), at the same time that the subtle comedy tone is established, which separates it from a purely campy horror-comedy. Once they reach the hospital a more sinister tone looms pushed by the suspicious appearance of the hospital and because we know this is a zombie movie, but several moments are still used to throw some comedy at us. 

Just by watching a few minutes of Lars Damoiseaux’s movie, which is his feature-length debut, it is clear that his intention is not to bring something new to the zombie genre story-wise, but rather to use what is already know in his favor to create a fun and bloody story. Once the chaos starts, the movie never loses intensity and rather accumulates gore, blood, and a few laughs in every ticking minute. The practical effects that take all this violence to the screen are spectacular and compensate for the creativity that is lacking from the story. 

By saying that the story lacks creativity I don’t want to say that it’s a bad story, just that it doesn’t offer anything that we haven’t seen before in the genre. The script from Lars Damoiseaux and Eveline Hegenbeek (“Undercover”) is well constructed, equilibrating the gory parts with some comedic relief, but without losing from perspective that this is mainly a horror movie. They also make a great job of keeping the story concise and the actions of their characters faithful to their personalities, not to mention the great and unexpected ending. 

“Yummy” does not try to reinvent the zombie genre, rather it uses what we already know in its favor to secret a fun gore galore. It has a few comedy moments but never loses from perspective that it is a horror movie most and foremost. Its interesting characters and great practical effects make “Yummy” a yummy movie for gorehounds.