RATING: A

IFC Films and Shudder present a Flexibon Films/Creativity Capital production in association with Vanishing Angle and Star Mountain Pictures. Directed by Tina Romero. Produced by Natalie Metzger and Matthew Lee Miller. Written by Tina Romero and Erin Judge. Cinematography by Shannon Madden. Edited by Aden Hakimi.

Stars Katy O’Brien, Jaquel Spivey, Quincy Dunn-Baker, Tomas Matos, Nina West, Jack Haven, Riki Lindholme, with Dominique Jackson, and Margaret Cho. 

From the daughter of the icon behind NIght of the Living Dead comes this LGBTQ horror-comedy that is loads of fun and at times, gore-ific. 

Dre and Sam were once best friends. However, an incident destroys the bond and Sam, a former drag star queen, has changed careers to become a male nurse. As for Dre, she continues her work as a DJ and producer of drag performances. When Sam learns Dre’s wife Lizzy is pregnant via surrogacy, he keeps it a secret and gets invited to Dre’s latest show, he is reluctant at first. Ultimately, he decides to go and soon enough, it will be a night neither he or Dre will forget.

A zombie breakout has emerged in the city and Dre finds herself stuck in the warehouse where the party is being held along with Sam, Dre’s brother-in-law Barry, flamboyant Nico, drag performer Ginsey, and others. Dre is anticipating the arrival of Lizzy, but things start to go awry when the zombies are both inside and surround the warehouse. The ones who haven’t been turned or bitten must fight to survive the night before it’s too late. 

Hearing about this film and the fact that it’s directed by Tina Romero, the daughter of the legendary George A. Romero, should warrant a viewing alone based on that. The film also adds a LGBTQ-themed story involving drag performers, butch lesbians, and flamboyant gay men reveling in all their glory amidst a zombie outbreak. While the central story among the outbreak is the fractured bond between Dre and Sam, we see the others involved with their own issues as well. 

Katy O’Brien has been making quite an impact since her breakout role in Love Lies Bleeding. Here, she plays Dre, a DJ and drag producer who seems to not just love her job, but she has a good job and an upcoming show. However, it is her friendship with Samonce, or Sam for short, that is the missing piece to complete happiness as an incident fractured their strong bond. Jaquel Spivey is excellent in the role of Sam, who tries to get the past behind him and attempt to tell Dre that he is no longer the star performer he once was and feels like Dre needs to accept it at times. 

Major props have to go to Margaret Cho as “Pops”, Tomas Matos as Nico…or sorry, Scrumptiousl and Nina West as Ginsey, Sam’s “replacement” star for Dre’s shows. The zombie make-up and kills are quite nicely and are gory at times. However, they are not Dawn of the Dead or the original Day of the Dead level gore, but still hold its own quite well. The finale is out of this world and wild, and that’s saying it in a fun way!!!

Queens of the Dead is fun, wild, wacky, and zombirific! Tina Romero makes an excellent feature debut with this and her dad would be proud of her. This would be a perfect pairing with last year’s award-nominated Slay.