Year of Release - 2004
Rating ? R
Director ? Taweewat Wantha
Running Time ? 95 Minutes
Distributor ? Discotek Media

Combine Peter Jackson?s Dead Alive with the rock-and-roll zombie Guitar Wolf vehicle Wild Zero, and throw in a bit (okay, more than a bit) of sexy nonsense comedy, and you?d likely wind up with this lunatic, low budget Thai horror-action-spoof, which manages to make films like Bloody Mallory and Plaga Zombie look like models of restraint.

Equally inspired by local comic book superhero stories and western zombie films, Sars Wars begins with an animated sequence showing the migration of an insect carrying the deadly, human-engineered SARS No. 4 viral strain from Africa to Thailand, where it bites an Anglo ex-pat. The victim begins to mutate ? becoming less a traditional zombie than something out of one of Lamberto Bava?s Demons movies ? and starts off the mayhem by devouring his neighbor?s cat.

Cut to a seemingly unrelated scene where sexy teen schoolgirl Liu is kidnapped by a group of gangsters, then held for ransom by crime kingpin Yai, who appears to have a little bit too much interest in womens? fashions. Liu?s father hires retired adventurer Master Thep to rescue her, and Thep brings in his top student, the bumbling Khun-Krabi, who is as skilled in combat as he is inexperienced in matters of love.

Khun storms a high-rise tower where Liu is being held, while at the same time the Anglo zombie is wreaking havoc in a dance club on a lower floor. Before you can say Demons 2 (again), the entire club is infected and rampaging throughout the building. Throw in a team of government commandos, a sexy research scientist named Dr. Diana, plus Master Thep himself, complete with magic sword, plus a time bomb ? and did I forget to mention the giant zombie python?

Watching Sars Wars is a bit like going through an especially demented friend?s import DVD collection and sampling a few minutes? each of a couple dozen movies from different genres, all in one sitting. It can be a bit disorienting, but it?s not without its own kind of fun and excitement. The film?s Thai heavy metal soundtrack keeps things lively, and the movie only sags or disgresses a couple of times in the middle for extended bits of comedy or romantic interludes. As in other genre-mashes, if you?re not being entertained at a particular moment, just wait a couple of minutes until the plot swings wildly in another direction and you?re back on track again. Director Taweewat Wantha explains in a short promotional featurette on the DVD that he?s an avid movie fan (of zombie movies in particular), and it shows in the finished film. You?ve got your requisite Matrix and Kill Bill spoofs, but also moments from the Star Wars films, of course, and Asian touchstones like Ichi the Killer. There are also a lot of uniquely local references, like a constant current of jokes about transsexualism, a prerequisite for Thai comedies.

Clearly a low-budget production, the movie is nevertheless very inventive with what resources it has, and the cast is extremely likable, particularly the two women playing Liu and Dr. Diana, who spend most of the film in a schoolgirl uniform and a skimpy pleather ensemble, respectively. Many of the most successful sequences in the film are born from its political incorrectness, however, so more sensitive viewers should be forewarned. Then again, if you?re already interested in watching a movie called Sars Wars, the prospect of seeing a zombie baby Caesarean birth shouldn?t offend you, right?

Discotek Media?s DVD edition features an acceptable, anamorphic transfer of the low-budget film, although a lot of sequences are overly dark because of the shooting conditions (low light) and locations (a lot of basements). The disc even includes a few extras, like a sizable group of deleted scenes (mainly rough-cut comedy sequences, although one where Khun-Krabi pretends to be a zombie by chewing on a severed forearm should have been left in the feature film). Also included are two Thai music videos, a couple of trailers for the film, and a six minute making-of promotional piece with short sound bites from the director and others involved in the production, apparently shot for Thai television or for similar use