Frank's Movie Log

Grade: D-

Synopsis: A group of treasure hunters brave zombie sailors in their attempts to retrieve a chest of diamonds sunk off the coast of Africa.

Zombies of Mora Tau is a well-photographed zombie picture brought down by a script populated with inane and annoying characters. Seriously, by third act you’ll be rooting for the zombies -anything to kill off these hopelessly stupid people.

How stupid can they be, you ask? Well, first there’s the women who, when a zombie shuffles in, stand still and scream continuously, rather than running away. Also, note that these same women will then disbelieve the existence of the very zombie they just saw.

Only slightly less annoying are the men, who also refuse to believe in the zombies even after they’ve seen them. The men also inexplicably refuse to actually burn the zombies, even after they learn that fire is the only thing they fear. Rather, they wave torches in front of the zombies in an attempt to shoo them away. Yeah, that’s good thinking.

But nothing surpasses a plot twist involving one of the men’s wives turning into a zombie and none of the men or women believing it. Never mind that she’s clearly not breathing! And when she stabs another man to death in his sleep? Yeah, she must be hypnotized or something. All this foolery culminates in an ending so rife with plot holes it’s hard to believe the actors actually managed to keep straight faces.

Still, the film is well shot with decent production values, and there’s a hilarious scene where Joel Ashley slaps Allison Hayes so hard one of her berets goes flying, but pretty pictures and a good slap do not a movie make.

Bottom Line: Featuring some of the most inexplicably stupid characters ever put on film, Zombies of Mora Tau will have you rooting for the zombies in no time. Unfortunately, they don’t win.