JOHNNY Z *** USA 2022 Dir: Jonathan Straiton. 95 mins
After escaping from a government testing lab, Johnny (Michael Merchant) a half-human/half-zombie, seeks shelter with Jonray (Felix Cortes), who’s a friend of Crisanto (Jason Delgado), the person who helped him escape. Trying to help him adjust to the way of life around them, they decide to spend the time martial arts training at his compound on the outskirts of the dystopian society left behind. As their training continues, they realize that the head of the corporation that originally built him wants their property back and has stopped at nothing to do so forcing him to put his skills to the test to save his friends and stop the company from overrunning the area.
For the most part, “Johnny Z” was a big disappointment with a lot of factors holding it back. One of the main detriments on display is the wholly confusing and convoluted beginning that really makes it hard to get into since we’re dropped into this story involving a dystopian wasteland overrun by zombies and a government corporation experimenting on an individual to be able to develop a curse from his blood. As the lack of context without anything to set it up, the vagueness of what’s going on and not filling in the blanks are all a part of what helps to make this feel way too twisted and scattershot from what it could’ve been. It doesn’t help that this highlights the second real issue in that it’s way too ambitious for what is an obviously low-budget affair rife with the kind of flimsy effects and small-scale production despite being set after an apocalypse, that’s not even enough to overlook the convoluted storyline here that pulls off way too many aspects that it doesn’t need to, all of which end up lowering this one. When it works is the use of the Action and Horror elements being mixed together with a ton of impactful martial arts sequences which might not have the type of fancy choreography expected but the hard-hitting and continuous action here focusing on the training sessions, the interactions at the undergrounding fighting club with the other zombies, or the final half which is a massive series of hand-to-hand or weapons-filled battles provide a slew of high-energy scenes filled with cheesy gore and bloodshed. Alongside the fine zombie makeup for the creatures, these provide the positive points here.
Review by Don Anelli
JOHNNY Z is out now on UK Digital Platforms courtesy of Reel 2 Reel Films