Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Zombeavers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 4, 2021

Here's a textbook definition of it is what it is. Take it or leave it. You get what you pay for. Et cetera et cetera. When a movie is called Zombeavers there's neither ample room for doubt as to what the movie has in store, nor is there ample room for high art. The film, from Comedian Jordan Rubin, delivers on its promise of zombified beavers chewing up some teenage flesh. It's a competent little film that knows it's not on the short list for any Oscars but has a lot of fun running with its inane premise. It doesn't wear out its welcome and it certainly doesn't stray from formula. It delivers exactly what fans would expect, maybe with a little less oomph in the digital effects department but, overall, genre fans should find it a delightful diversion.

Zombeavers celebrates cliché and goes about its business cheerfully but without much hope for originality. The film begins with a standard scene depicting a toxic waste container spilling into a river and, surprise, it contaminates a nearby beaver dam and zombifies the furry and otherwise cute-and-cuddly little creatures that built it. Meanwhile, three young ladies -- Mary (Rachel Melvin), Jenn (Lexi Atkins), and Zoe (Cortney Palm) -- celebrate their escape from their boyfriends and the business of their lives at a quaint little out-of-the-way retreat. Their plans are for freedom from cell phones and the freedom to go skinny dipping in the nearby lake, should they so choose. But later that evening their boyfriends -- Sam (Hutch Dano), Tommy (Jake Weary), and Buck (Peter Gilroy) -- crash the party. While Jenn and Sam work on their fractured relationship, the others retreat for sex. But they are soon confronted by several zombified beavers hungry for human flesh.

What follows is a mad dash gory trip through a night of bucktooth terror as the creatures attack the sex-crazed teenagers. The film does introduce some outside the box scenes and ends with a fun little return to where it all began (and stay during the credits for some outtakes and all the way to the end for a sneak peek at the sequel, Zombees). But in the middle is a basic film that gleefully hits low and pretends the high road doesn't even exist. It delivers fully on every expectation, from gruesome kills to bare breasts, and never shows any remorse for being mindlessly silly and beholden to genre basics. It's not intelligent in the least but genre fans seeking an enthusiastically made and more or less aesthetically satisfying (for its budget) movie could do much worse.

Zombeavers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Zombeavers' Blu-ray surely won't win any video quality awards but what is here is perfectly proficient within the source's confines and construct. The picture is agreeably firm. Captured on digital, it easily reveals skin details, clothing elements, landscapes, and the zombie beaver puppets with fine-to-meticulous attention to detail. The picture's innate clarity allows for even distant elements to maintain sharpness as the camera settings and focal point allow. Gore is plentiful and all of the ooey-gooey sinewy bits and pieces are all visible for the Horror geek to feast their eyes upon, though the 1080p resolution does betray some of the special effects limitations, such as when one character loses a foot and it's easy to spot the digital seams as he's writhing in pain on a pier. Color reproduction is fine. This is a very neutral-oriented presentation where there's no push to warmth or desaturation or anything similar. Colors are right down the middle authentic, particularly red blood and natural greens. Skin tones are pleasantly accurate and black levels as seen during some nighttime and low light scenes fare well, too. Source noise is not particularly bothersome and there are no significant encode artifacts to deal with, either. The lower budget photography and finishing processes leave the movie looking a little flat but this Blu-ray seems faithful to the source.

Zombeavers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Zombeavers bites onto Blu-ray with a perfectly capable DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The track isn't one of finely tuned audio delights and Hollywood razzle dazzle (no doubt many films spend more on sound design than this picture spent on the whole shebang) but everything is nevertheless in good working order. Essentials like music and dialogue are delivered with pleasing accuracy. The former plays with commendable width and occasionally modest surround integration while the latter is clearly defined and delivered and firmly planted in the center. Ambient exterior sounds are hardly robust in terms of full and faithful spatial awareness but the odd here-or-there natural cue plays with good placement and integration. The track amplifies some action elements with several fun examples of discrete surround sound that brings vivid life to several action scenes. Generally during action there's an effective fullness and pleasing clarity to the various sounds -- beaver shrieks and scampers, human screams and footfalls, baseball bats bearing down on furry beaver flesh, and so on and so forth -- that make up the bloody confrontations. Most listeners will be more than satisfied with this sound mix, particularly if expectations are set to "modest."

Zombeavers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Zombeavers includes a dozen extras including an audio commentary track. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

• Audio Commentary: Jordan Rubin is joined by a revolving door of cast and crew. That's good because with so many speaking it might have created more of a festive atmosphere rather than a somewhat more serious, if not still fun and also anecdotally insightful, track. Listeners will gain solid foundational insight while also enjoying the lighter moments as well.
• Behind the Cameos Feat. Stephen Merchant, Bill Burr and John Mayer (1080p, 3:44): A short and funny mock-serious interview about why Sharknado is dumb and this is not. They also briefly discuss their roles in the film and what drew them to the project.
• Behind the Scenes (1080p, 1:03): A super brief, shotgun-style amalgamation of random making-of footage.
• Building a Beaver (1080p, 1:53): A quick and close exploration of the practical beaver models used in the film.
• Deleted Scene (1080p, 0:36): The scene is actually extended and titled "You Seriously Like this Music?"
• Man Becomes Monster (1080p, 1:02): Applying gory zombie makeup to a human.
• Auditions (1080p, 5:53): All of the main cast audition, followed by the corresponding clips from the finished film.
• Storyboards (1080p): Hand-drawn images which must be auto-advanced. There is no accompanying music.
• Behind the Scenes Stills (1080p, 2:35): Auto-advancing photographs from the set. There is no accompanying music.
• "For Your Consideration" Trailer (1080p, 1:02).
• International Trailer (1080p, 1:38).
• US Trailer (1080p, 1:45).

Zombeavers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Zombeavers lives up to its promise by sinking its teeth deep into the welcoming flesh of familiar genre fodder. It has a blast just expressing itself in all of the premise's silly possibilities and potential. The movie does little to distinguish itself beyond the species of its furry and four legged antagonists, but that's OK. With a premise as goofy as this, with a runtime that's lean enough to overextend itself, and the plainly jovial tone that pulses through the movie, some of the deeper shortcomings can be dismissed because this movie is rightly focused on the superficial. The Blu-ray delivers perfectly fine video and audio presentations and also brings with it a nice assortment of bonus content. Recommended, particularly for B-grade Horror junkies.