Zombi Child

2019 [FRENCH]

Action / Drama / Fantasy / Horror

12
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 85% · 82 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 52%
IMDb Rating 5.9/10 10 2757 2.8K

boarding school voodoo haiti zombie teenager

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Plot summary

Haiti, 1962: A man is brought back from the dead only to be sent to the living hell of the sugarcane fields. In Paris, 55 years later, at the prestigious Légion d’honneur boarding school, a Haitian girl confesses an old family secret to a group of new friends - never imagining that this strange tale will convince a heartbroken classmate to do the unthinkable.

Director

Bertrand Bonello Photo
Bertrand Bonello

Top cast

Raphaël Quenard Photo
Raphaël Quenard as Le professeur du Physique
Benjamin Crotty Photo
Benjamin Crotty as Membre du pensionnat
Clémentine Duzer Photo
Clémentine Duzer as Membre du pensionnat
Elise Douyère Photo
Elise Douyère as Membre du pensionnat
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU 720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
945.92 MB
1280*692
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 42 min
Seeds 1
1.9 GB
1920*1038
French 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 42 min
Seeds 5
945.37 MB
1280*694
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 42 min
Seeds ...
1.71 GB
1920*1040
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 42 min
Seeds ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by scrappybilly-88942 5 / 10

The most boring zombi movie you'll ever see

Zombi Child is told in two alternating timelines. In 1962, we see a man in Haiti named Clairvius (Mackenson Bijou) fall suddenly and some short time later is buried at a funeral. That evening he is dug up by some men who awaken him into a half-dead-half-alive zombi state. He and others are corralled like animals, led to a plantation, and used to perform laborious tasks as slaves. They moan in agony, their existence a curse.In modern-day France, Mélissa (Wislanda Louimat), who moved from Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, becomes friends with Fanny (Louise Labèque). The other kids think Mélissa is a bit odd, but Fanny likes her. She likes the way she dances. Unbeknownst to Fanny, Mélissa harbors a dark secret about her family that ties the two intersecting timelines together.Zombi Child is one of those frustrating movies that has such an intriguing premise, it's such a disappointment that it never comes together. Haitian culture and voodoo historically get a bad rap on film. Here, you have a movie that wants to present a bit more accuracy to zombis (making sure to drop the "e" at the end, because these supposed undead are not the same as George Romero's creatures), but it never does anything else beyond that. It believes that its premise is strong enough to float an entire movie that has no story.I've seen comparisons of Zombi Child made to Jacques Tourneur's I Walked with a Zombie, which is fair on a totally surface level because they both deal with the ritual of resurrection to enslave a victim in their own body, as opposed to the ghoulish figure we have in film now. But I Walked with a Zombie is a crash course in economic filmmaking. It boasts about four times as much story in a significantly shorter overall run time than Zombi Child. In Jacques Tourneur's film, we're introduced to a rich history, both to an island and its inhabitants, their rituals, but also a number of characters, their relationships to each other, and a story that takes twists and turns until it all leads to a shocking ending.Zombi Child director Bertrand Bonello could take a few lessons from Tourneur. His film has two parts, both of which commit the ultimate cinematic sin by being excruciating in their boredom. One half is the story of an escaped zombi aimlessly wandering scenic locations; the other half is a dull "girls at a boarding school" story that dedicates so much of its time to the tedium of actually being a student at this school. In most other films, when a teacher is giving the kids a lesson, it will either A) Be short and sweet to give us a passing understanding that, hey, these kids are in school and this is what their daily life is like. Or, B) Something the teacher says will be an ominous piece of foreshadowing. Here, it is neither. We simply have to sit through one agonizing lecture after another, as though we had enlisted in some virtual reality simulation where we are the student. Boredom is the emotion most effectively conveyed by this film.Worse yet, when the film finally discovers itself and takes a turn toward the interesting, the results are unintentionally hilarious. Since this reveal occurs in the final fifteen minutes, I don't want to give too much away, but there's a scene where an evil presence speaks through someone else, and the lip syncing doesn't work correctly. It's like those videos on TikTok with someone mouthing along to a movie quote and doing a really bad job of it. But that's the least of the film's problems. The evil voice, oh lord, the evil voice. Instead of some deep, booming, terrifying voice from another realm, it's this high-pitched, whining cackle, like Dave Chappelle doing his impression of Rick James.And then it all sort of unceremoniously ends without many crucial questions being answered. There are basic rules for filmmaking and storytelling that are made to be broken, but there's a caveat: You have to know what you're doing. If you're breaking these rules, it has to be for a reason. If you can pull it off, you're a rebel of cinema. You've rewritten these rules and showed what you're capable of. If you don't pull it off, it just looks like you never understood the craft to begin with.Zombi Child feels so half-assed. There are these momentary glimpses into a better film and what could have been, but it's all on autopilot. We never have any emotional attachment to the story or given a reason to care.
Reviewed by mjfhhh 5 / 10

It's a mess, but I still recommend it

In Haiti of 1962 a man is forced into slave labour. Modern days, a girl in an exclusive boarding school is trying to fit in. When she reveals the truth about her family origins a chain of events leads to a terrifying encounter that bring the past and the present together in a disturbing and dangerous way.

ZOMBI CHILD is a strange beast of static camera work and incomprehensible storytelling. But the most surprising thing about it is that the film works. By defying all the plot standards of modern film making it becomes unpredictable.

Switching between time frames, a disorderly Haiti of the past century and an orderly life of upper class French teenagers, it is hard to tell where the movie is going. And what is it trying to tell? Who are the real zombies? The ones under a voodoo curse who escape within an inch of their life, or the french youths confined in a jail-like school, forced to follow the traditions they don't believe in? Is it about the irrelevance of the past, no matter how important and treasured it seems? My guess is as good as yours.

Bottom line - ZOMBIE CHILD is a mess. It also makes it unique. And not a reason to skip it if you love French cinema!

Reviewed by drpunkrock 6 / 10

Mixed Feelings

It has a very good premise, this. I just somehow was underwhelmed by the end. It kind of fell flat for me even though the Voodoo-ritual scene was excellent. I like that the storytelling is a little slow with a lot of focus on cinematography. The movie is gorgeous to look at. I also like the editing a lot and the music (except "You never walk alone" at the end).

What turned me off is that they over-explain what is happening with her grandfather. They should have left that in the open. It would have added more mystery to it. Also, I did not like how easily Mambo was persuated to actually do the ritual. This teenage angst should not be reason enough. But most of all you could have done more with this than this very anticlimactic open end. This awesome setting of the boarding school could have been used for more than this, especially after the ritual. Still, Zombi Child is well made and interesting. They just unfortunately did not go all the way...

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