Film Review: Witness Infection

STUDIO: Freestyle Digital Media | DIRECTOR: Andy Palmer | CAST: Carlos Alazraqui, Tara Strong, Maurice LaMarche, Jill-Michele Melean, Robert Belushi, Bret Ernst
RELEASE DATE: March 30, 2021
SPECS: NR | 81 min. | Comedy horror

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie 

The new zombie comedy movie Witness Infection hits some generic notes but offers enough zany entertainment to make it a no-brainer.

Mr. Serrelli (Maurice LaMarche, Pinky and the Brain) has kept his son Carlo (a charming Robert Belushi of TV’s How I Met Your Mother) out of the “family business” until the Witness Protection Program unwittingly puts his brood in the same California city as the rival Miola family. To keep the peace, he arranges a marriage between Carlo and Don Miola’s daughter. Carlo, who has feelings for his pet grooming coworker Gina (Jill-Michele Melean, White/Latina), is none too happy about the arrangement, but the marriage becomes the least of his problems when he realizes the town has been overrun by flesh-eating zombies infected by rancid food truck sausages.

Written by co-stars Melean and Carlos Alazraqui (Rocko’s Modern Life), Witness Infection is stacked full of “been there, done that” Italian stereotypes and fart jokes. But there are just enough splashes of humor and clever homages to mob and horror films to keep it alive. Standout scenes include a pair of hit men bantering about how to best carry out a “send a message” order and a harried lesson regarding the best quotes from The Godfather.

Director Andy Palmer (who mined similar horror-comedy territory in 2015’s The Funhouse Massacre) runs nimbly and comfortably through B movie territory, making the most of what he’s got to work with. Production values for this zombie excursion don’t equal the level of The Walking Dead but, with the film’s farcical tone, they don’t have to. The makeup and effects are acceptably believable and gross and the cast seems game to go with the fun, never taking themselves, or the film, too seriously. Neither will viewers looking for a little undead fun.