Following the opening credits (which depict, you guessed it, things going wrong at a top secret research lab), we open on a familiar scene. A large metropolitan area is abandoned and quiet. Clearly something catastrophic has transpired. A woman wanders around the street and then a supermarket. She finds a horde a hungry zombies snacking on some bodies.
Flashback to 108 hours earlier in District 108, a seedy part of town. A club full of naked women and large amounts of narcotics. A SWAT team surrounds the place before attempting to evacuate the uninfected. Before long they are engaged in a shootout with the gang inside the club. Each side quickly discovers that zombies dont take sides. They decide to band together in an effort to escape the area and the flesh eaters.
Meanwhile, in an off-putting side story, a disgusting pervert has been kidnapping young women and keeping them in his apartment. He keeps them locked up and tortures and rapes and murders them. As if barely managing to not fall victim to zombies wasnt enough, the young woman we first meet in the beginning, Linda (Yvonne Yao), ends up being captured by the sicko.
The action haphazardly shifts back and forth between the cops and gangs fighting zombies and the perverts apartment. Its a borderline incoherent mess. It feels like Chien wasnt working from a finished script and chose to make it up as he went along. Outside of random moments of graphic carnage, none of what he comes up with is remarkable.
Despite all of the chaos, it is extremely dull. The zombies are run of the mill. Theres no one to root for. Most characters become a zombie and are quickly dispatched. The screenplay is full of groaners like Would you rather do a crazy zombie chick or Meredith Viera? and (to a zombie) you cant have my number, bitch.
Apparently nearly 900 people gave money to Chien to fund Zombie 108. They did not get their moneys worth. When people say that zombies are played out, this is exactly what they are talking about. Occasional gore and a few moments of extreme nuttiness cant disguise the fact that its all been done before. If you find yourself in the mood for a zombie movie, watch the original Night of the Living Dead again.
