Zombie Fight Club

Zombie flicks are a horror staple on both the big and small screen, so something especially fresh is required to quicken the pulse. Unfortunately, director Joe Chien - in his feeble follow-up to Zombie 108 (2012), in which Taipei is decimated by virus-spawned flesh-gobblers - resorts to filleting Gladiator, The Thing, The Raid and the canon of George A Romero for inspiration. The action here is confined to an apartment block where residents, partygoers, drug dealers and a SWAT team are soon fighting to survive death or consumption. There's plenty of guts and gore, but the effects are drab and the gratuitous display of female flesh appears to be there for no good reason but the obvious. The abrupt leap from survival-of-the-fittest scenario to futuristic fight club run by timid teacher-turned-tyrant Jack Kao is also a bit of a puzzle. Though the fact libidinous, leather-clad dominatrices do his dirty work explains a lot.