Wyrmwood: Apocalypse  ★★★½

BACK 30 years or so Australia was quietly renowned for producing an unique brand of schlock horror films, most with a streak of quintessential humour.

I won’t rattle off all the titles here; just watch the great doco Not Quite Hollywood and you’ll get plenty of recommendations.

Occasionally a throwback to those times comes along, such as the 2014, high-octane zombie actioner Wyrmwood.

Set in the outback and costing a pittance to make, Wyrmwood was surprisingly well made and received by critics and fans of the genre.

Now, in 2022, the director of the original Kiah Roache-Turner and some of the surviving cast and characters have returned with a much anticipated sequel, Wyrmwood: Apocalypse.

While Apocalypse doesn’t quite top the original it’s an absolute thrill ride; a larrikin version of Mad Max 2 with zombies replacing crazed bikies.

The original film introduced some fun concepts to the zombie sub-genre, including the ability to use the undead’s breath as a fuel for vehicles.

The sequel takes this a step further with zombie breath and kinetic energy being used to run the small compound where our hero Rhys leads a solitary existence.

When he’s not training with a zombie sparring partner he is prowling the bush looking for hybrid creatures for the Surgeon-General who is meant to be seeking a cure.

The basic plot sees Rhys initially battling some renegades until he realises the government has been lying to him and he switches sides.

Not a lot of this matters though when your opening scene has blood spraying across the screen, there are VR zombies and suicide bomber zombies and the entire film moves at a pace so fast you sometimes wish it would slow down.

Actually, scrub that, this Aussie bloodfest is absolutely fine as it is.