Movie Review: AHOCKALYPSE (2018) - Nightmarish Conjurings

Wayne Harry Johnson Jr.’s AHOCKALYPSE is an extraordinarily fun tongue-in-cheek roller coaster ride through Minnesota with just the right amount of gore to still categorize it as a horror film. There’s beer, nudity, sex scandal, kung-fu and zombies. What more do you need?

As Jonesy (Jesse Rennicke), BJ (Squall Charlson) and their hockey mates attempt to win their championship game, a member of the opposing team comes down with an illness, presenting viewers with a glimpse of what’s to come. The game is won in overtime, but there is no time for celebration as a majority of the townsfolk are now zombies and start terrorizing the neighborhood.

To add to the chaos, Jonesy and his bitchy girlfriend Jenny (Kaylee Williams) are at odds, and finding out that her dad has succumbed to the disease doesn’t help matters. It does, however, give Jonesy the green light to continue seeing his friend’s widowed mom Mrs. Johnson (Gabrielle Arrowsmith), which becomes an integral part of the story line.

The film has undertones similar to other zombie apocalypse comedies you have seen (think Shaun of the Dead or Dead Bite – minus the hockey obviously, but AHOCKALYPSE is different in that the writing is truly original. There is so much political incorrectness that it is, a times, truly refreshing. There are also a large handful of pop culture references that made me physically laugh out loud, mostly written for Alex Gallick’s character Wave. He, in my opinion, is the strongest character. That’s saying a lot, because there isn’t a weak performance in the bunch.

One of my all-time favorite moments during the movie is that of the team’s mascot and his two spirit badass girls (Casandra Ha and Jess Johnson) Kung-Fu kicking and chopping their way through hordes of zombies to help keep the city safe.

The cast is everything you would want in a movie; young, flirty, brazen and edgy. And just darned fantastic. They seem to genuinely like each other, and that adds to the believability of this crazy story.

Look for ex-Los Angeles NFL Hockey coach Barry Melrose and NFL player turned broadcaster Kelly Chase who make beyond memorable cameos that bring the storyline one spark closer to genius. I actually squealed.

AHOCKALYPSE is released in select theaters and VOD this Friday, August 17th.