Filmed in India, BETAAL is a zombie series with a terrific premise, heavy cliches presented so earnestly they kind of work, and plenty of ridiculous elements. The result is not quite serious, not quite camp, and I found it sort of overbaked but I just went with it and had some fun.

The show centers on an elite counter-insurgency military unit that has a reputation for brutality. While they are super patriotic and believe in the work they’re doing, their leader is corrupt, hiring out her unit to corporations to suppress resistance to development of natural resources. A businessman hires the unit to clear out the villagers living near a mountain so they can reopen a tunnel sealed since the Great Mutiny of 1857, which trapped a regiment of British East India Trading Company soldiers inside.

The villagers warn a great evil is trapped under the mountain that will come out, but of course they’re ignored, and the story quickly turns into one of survival horror as the soldiers and the businessman and his family try to last the night as the lost regiment emerges to claim the world.

The result was just fun enough to keep me watching despite the usual plot-pushing zombie cliches and odd elements like the British undead wearing military uniforms from the 1700s and not the Victorian era, complete with tri-horn hats, and an old abandoned British barracks that somehow got fluorescent lighting installed since 1857.

Check it out if you’re looking for something different in a familiar zombie package. (Streaming on Netflix)

Ten years after ZOMBIELAND, ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP hit the screens in 2019 with the same great cast of Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin, and Emma Stone and the same director (Ruben Fleischer) and writers (Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick). The result doesn’t have the same punch as the original and largely trades on the same jokes, and besides that the story simply isn’t as strong, but it’s a crowd-pleasing sequel, banking on the characters’ charm and the original’s fundamentals.

In DOUBLE TAP, our gang of four have roamed Zombieland for years and end up at the White House, where they set up a home. This “family” is content but suffering some growing pains as Wichita chafes at commitment with Columbus, and Little Rock has grown up, wants to find people her own age, and chafes at Tallahassee’s protective fathering. The ladies take off, and the boys pursue, having adventures and meeting new people along the way, while discovering a new and powerful type of zombie.

It all feels kind of recycled, the climax comes out of nowhere, and the story is pretty weak (especially Little Rock, who is treated as a plot device for the rest instead of a real character), but the cast has so much heart, charm, and chemistry that they pull it off, with the result being a compelling, fun, purely escapist ride.

HERE ALONE (2016) is another low-budget zombie flick, but its solid acting, able direction, and focus on story elevate it from the pack, making it a great watch.

The plot is fairly simple. Ann lives alone in upstate New York wilderness, having fled her home with her husband and baby during a raging epidemic that turns its victims into cannibalistic killers. She has developed the skills she needs to survive, though she’s struggling. When she comes across a man and his stepdaughter, she takes them in. On her own for so long and plagued by guilt, can she learn to live with others again, as she clearly needs to? And will her joining them produce new tensions that could threaten them all?

I got in a lot of trouble for liking WORLD WAR Z. It offered very little in the way of story, but it was the first zombie movie with a big budget and incredible effects, producing amazingly exciting set pieces even if I didn’t particularly care whether most of the characters lived or died. The thing is, most zombie movies at the time were lacking in telling a good story, telling stories about zombies with people instead of the other way around. A few gems were eventually produced that breathed new life into the genre, and HERE ALONE is one of them. The director ably keeps the zombies off screen most of the film, using the character’s terror and sound to produce a real sense of dread. Instead, he focuses on Ann, her slowly revealed backstory explaining her guilt and reluctance to become a part of a pack again, and her growing relationship with two other survivors, who bring their own baggage to the mix. The whole comes across as natural and convincing. While the ending doesn’t quite pay off all these elements, I enjoyed the film as something both familiar and new in zombie world.