Queens of the Dead Review – Drag Performers Slay on the Party Scene in Playful Zombie Comedy

The latest entry in the zombie apocalypse genre, Queens of the Dead, brings together a colorful cast of characters from the LGBTQ+ community to battle for survival in a post-apocalyptic party scene. On paper, this should be a recipe for fun: drag performers, witty banter, and plenty of splatter-filled action.

However, scratch beneath the surface, and you’ll find a film that struggles to break free from its own weighty legacy – or rather, the weighty legacies of its illustrious director’s family. Tina Romero, daughter of George A. Romero, co-founder of the modern zombie movie genre, has taken on the daunting task of rebooting her father’s iconic franchise.

While Queens of the Dead is not a bad film, it often feels like a footnote to the Night of the Living Dead saga rather than a bold new direction. The script attempts to acknowledge its debt to the original by reworking George Romero’s most famous quote as a cheeky aside – but this only serves to highlight the difficulties of creating something fresh when your family name is synonymous with the genre.

The cast, which includes charismatic performers like Katy M O’Brian and Cheyenne Jackson, is undoubtedly one of the film’s strongest assets. They bring a level of energy and enthusiasm to their roles that helps to elevate the material – but even they can’t elevate it to truly memorable heights.

In an era where horror movies are constantly trying to top each other in terms of gore, shock value, and sheer spectacle, Queens of the Dead stands out for its attempts to inject some much-needed humor into the genre. However, this lighthearted approach also feels like a cop-out, a way of sidestepping the more substantial themes that have driven horror movies since their inception.

The film’s attempts to inject humor into the zombie apocalypse genre raises questions about our collective psyche: what does it say about us when we’re more excited by the prospect of zombies in drag than by genuine innovation or risk-taking? Is this a commentary on our society’s increasing obsession with nostalgia and reboots, where we’d rather recycle familiar ideas than invest in something truly new?

Queens of the Dead is not an isolated incident – we’ve seen this same pattern play out time and again in the world of horror. Remember the ill-fated attempt to reboot The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, or the numerous sequels to A Nightmare on Elm Street? In each case, we’re faced with the same problem: how do you follow up something that’s been done to death (literally)?

Tina Romero acknowledges in interviews that she’s under pressure to deliver a film that lives up to her family name. But what does this say about our expectations of artists working within a legacy? Should they be expected to constantly innovate and push boundaries, or is it enough simply to honor their predecessors’ work?

Ultimately, Queens of the Dead raises more questions than it answers – but at least it’s not afraid to get its hands dirty in the process. As we continue to churn out zombie movies by the dozen, perhaps it’s time for us to ask ourselves: what does it mean to truly create something new and original in a genre that’s been done to death?