In the 60s, surgeons experimented with split-brain surgeries to alleviate epileptic seizures.
In Naked Zombie Girl there’s a split brain surgery which has no therapeutic purpose and is done with a chainsaw. Is that where the phrase tree surgeon comes from? Who knows.
Anyway, we’re connoisseurs of a good head split! (and guess it could be said it cures a splitting headache if nothing else).
Three zombie outbreak escapees swerve through the California desert in a beater Caddy, one of whom paws at bite marks on his arm. The car pulls into a make-out point / Lovers’ Lane locale and the male passenger blows his brains out before he can become zombified and maybe the target demographic for Extra or The Insider.
His travel companions, which include a doe-eyed Russ Meyer-approved version of Zooey Deschanel (Barbara, played by Meghan Chadeayne) and a girl in the back seat (Jill, Ali Dougherty) are soon set upon and surrounded by rapacious zombies.
Barbara extricates herself from the vehicle and like the poor bastard whose robe is caught on the wrong side of a hotel door, she’s separated from her clothing (much to the delight of ourselves and um, we would guess, 100% of straight males). As the director said, nudity and chainsaws are definitely something that would be part of his ideal zombie flick. Amen.
Anyway, luckily there’s a desert shack nearby complete with a chainsaw as Barbara risks life, limb and tinnitus fighting her way through the hordes of the undead.
Naked Zombie Girl has the yellowing film stock and the faded scratchy reel you’d get from a 70s/80s grindhouse film, which due to limited prints were passed around from theater to theater like, well, the weakest girl in prison (movie examples of which are Savage Island and Escape from Hell).
This technique can be effective (the nouveau throwback appeal of something like Death Proof) but scratches and missing reels don’t add too much value here; at least, not in the way that say, reproducing the feel of a fun, faded zombie film like Shock Waves would (“something unforeseen and unspeakable lives below!”).
Still, there is lots to recommend. For a short, the effects are frankly dynamite. The pacing is on-point. It’s fun, violent and beautiful to look at, as is… well…kick-ass lead Meghan Chadeayne who gives a cheeky performance in both senses of the word.
***1/2 (out of 5)
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