Today’s horror digest starts with a new zombie movie from Thailand. I’ve seen some pretty harsh reviews about it, but I enjoyed it. It’s a simple movie, but sometimes simple is good. Take look below, and stick around for news and daily trivia!
Movie of the Day
Today’s movie is Ziam, which was released yesterday on Netflix. Ziam is an action-horror movie about a guy who uses his Muay Thai skills to fight his way through a hospital overrun with fast zombies. It’s a simple premise, and it delivers exactly what it promises: lots of fights and fun zombie horror.
The story is set in Bangkok, Thailand in a time when a worldwide climate crisis has resulted in food shortages. While most people rely on insect farming for food, a corporation has a new type of fish that it plans to make a fortune selling to a starving public. Or something like that. The specifics of the food situation isn’t terribly important. Strangely though, the fish part of the setup is important in a way that I won’t spoil here.
Living in this apocalyptic Bangkok are Singh and Rin. Singh is a former underground Muay Thai fighter who works a dangerous job as a courier. Singh’s girlfriend Rin is a doctor at a local hospital. One day, a man is brought into the hospital who became violently ill after eating the fish. He dies and comes back as a zombie, infecting others which quickly turns most of the people in the building into the fast and violent undead. Singh rushes to the hospital to find Rin, but she’s stuck on the tenth floor. Singh has no choice but to fight his way to her.
Look, I sat down to watch some Muay Thai zombie fighting, and that’s what I got. Punches, kicks, knees, and elbows. The art of eight limbs versus ten floors of zombies. I enjoyed the action thoroughly, even if fighting zombies barehanded doesn’t make the most sense when zombification passes from person to person like an infection. There’s definitely a fair amount of suspension of disbelief required when watching Ziam. But if you can do that, and you enjoy bloody action-horror, then you might like the movie as much as I did.
I will say, the story does lack drama. Singh and Rin are developed enough to care about their survival and reunion, but other characters are very thin. There’s a default villain established in the head of the fish company, but he’s more of a plot device than a character. There’s also a moment about halfway through the movie that is supposed to be sad, but we barely know one of the characters involved, so it falls flat. What I’m saying is, if you want a strong story and impactful drama, this might not be the movie for you. There’s some drama in the final few minutes, but that’s about it.
But if you just want some fun action and a fair amount of practical gore and makeup effects (along with the expected CGI), then give Ziam a watch. It’s streaming now on Netflix.
Related Movie Recommendation
The Sadness is a 2021 Taiwanese horror movie that features some themes that are similar to Ziam. A virus is loose in Taipei, turning infected people into extremely violent and malicious killers. In the midst of the outbreak, a young man fights his way through the city to reunite with his girlfriend. The Sadness is much gorier than Ziam, and the infected aren’t really zombies, but the two movies would make a good double feature. You can watch The Sadness on Shudder.
In the News
Fangoria announced its nominees for their annual Chainsaw Awards yesterday. You can take a look at all the nominees (their awards window is from July 2024 to June 2025) and vote for your favorites on Fangoria.com. Voting is open until July 20th, and the awards show will stream on Shudder in October.
Eli Roth says that his new indie horror production company, The Horror Section, will aim for four releases per year with theatrical releases being a major part of their business model. Jimmy and Stiggs, hitting theaters August 14th, will be The Horror Section’s first release. (Deadline)
Neon will hold a panel at the upcoming San Diego Comic-con titled “Next Wave of Horror.” Taking place on Friday, July 25th, the panel will feature directors and actors from Neon’s upcoming horror slate, including Osgood Perkins and Tatiana Maslany of Keeper; Michael Shanks, Allison Brie, and Dave Franco of Together; and Chris Stuckmann of Shelby Oaks. (Variety)
New trailers released yesterday include:
Birthdays
We begin today’s birthdays with Isabela Merced, born July 10th, 2001. Isabela costars in season two of The Last of Us as Dina. She also played Kay in Alien: Romulus, a character who has a very memorable scene that leads directly into the movie’s final confrontation.
Born on this day in 1986 is Wyatt Russell. His horror appearances include Night Swim and We Are What We Are, but his best horror movie is the WWII-set action-horror film Overlord.
Also born on July 10, in 1926, is Fred Gwynne. He was the original Herman Munster in The Munsters TV series, and the movies Munster Go Home (1966) and The Munsters’ Revenge (1981). Fred Gwynne also memorably played Jud Crandall in the 1989 movie adaptation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary.
Other July 10 birthdays include Gong Yoo (1979) who was the recruiter in Squid Game and the father of the little girl in Train to Busan, Mason Thames (2007) who is Finney in The Black Phone and its upcoming sequel, and Alba Baptista (1997) who stole every scene she was a part of in Borderline.
Events on This Day
The film Blood Diner was released in theaters on this day in 1987. The movie is about two brothers who resurrect their dead uncle as a brain in a jar. They continue their uncle’s plans to resurrect the goddess Sheetar with body parts from women, body parts which they also use as secret ingredients in the diner. You can stream Blood Diner on Tubi. It’s also available on Blu-ray as part of the Vestron Video Collector’s Series.
Found-footage movie The Gallows was also released on July 10th, in 2015. The story follows students who attempt to put on a school play twenty years after a someone died while performing in the same production. The movie isn’t great, but it could be fun enough for found footage enthusiasts. You can rent it on Prime Video.
That’ll do it for today. Thanks for reading, now go watch something horrifying!
