Jordan Rubin’s ‘ZOMBEAVERS’ (2015) – Ten Years Later

Only the best minds get the grittiness of horror comedies like Jordan Rubin’s Zombeavers. To me, they’re the best of both worlds. I am not talking about parody movies; I mean those real-deal horror comedies. The ones that will have you asking yourself, “WTF is even going on here?”. I live for those movies. Like a back alley slasher movie from a bottle guy. The type of movie that irritates the snobby fans looking for the next “masterpiece.” These movies don’t just fly under the radar, they don’t even get to fly at the same level.

I say all of this, but I don’t mean any harm at all. Personally, I treasure them as iconic. I am a silly dude and also a morbid one sometimes; that’s how you know you are comfortable with yourself. Zombeavers hit every funny bone in my body with over-the-top laughter, even maybe when there shouldn’t be. Films like Zombeavers opened the floodgates to the movies we enjoy today, such as Cocaine Bear and Crackcoon. The hilarious movies just keep giving, never asking for anything in return. Who wants to be terrified by a movie they know they brag about not being scared of? Why can’t we just enjoy things?

The Rundown

Comedy horror had shown signs of existence even in the earliest days. What they tried to make scary became iconic instead. We can even find humor in the old Universal monster movies if we are interested. Zombeavers, however, lit a fire under the genre to make films about absolutely absurd ideas involving killer animals. We are a long way from Cujo, and Zombeavers proves that. What could be better than sex, drugs, and violence in a slasher movie? Zombie beavers who have an infatuation with eating our private parts. That is just one of the many reasons I love this film.

The film reminds me of an animal-led Return of the Living Dead, where once again, toxic chemicals are spilled into a water supply, only this time nature finds it. Once again, the survivors rely on drastic measures against something they can’t kill. All the elements the film used are hilarious in themselves. However, the entire film pays homage to Creepshow shorts and utilizes that 80’s vibe everyone loves so much and shot it full of steroids. Zombeavers is pretty non-stop between the gory kills and the ones that made you cringe.

In The End

The best part of the film is that it drops what you expect: A group of young people having sex and stripping in front of neighbors. As usual, they get what is coming to them and have to fight for survival. However, it doesn’t go the way most of us expect it to. The film makes its own rules and severs the ties that bind them to the expectation of killer animals being terrifying.

Zombeavers is the type of movie where you have to leave all rationalizations at the door. It’s slapstick and caters to all of us who love Troma films and cheap gore. I went for years saying that we needed more movies like this, and finally, the subgenre has lifted off. Movies like Zombeavers are supposed to be ridiculous and off the wall. Let’s face it: Animals are pretty scary in the wild. Though beautiful, we are always cautious, and nothing gave us a better reason than Zombeavers. In a world where horror movies are people getting chased around a luxury apartment by the spirit of traumas past.