zombiesRin AsukaSaayaMiu Nakamura
Uniform SurviGirl I
Also known as: Seifuku SurviGirl I
Medium: film
Year: 2008
Director: Hiroshi Kaneko
Writer: Takeki Akimoto, Hiroshi Kaneko
Actor: Mayuko Arisue, Rin Asuka, Mizuho Hata, Mao Kobayashi, Miu Nakamura, Saaya, Shinji Todo
Keywords: zombies, horror
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Format: 77 minutes
Url: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1332692/
Website category: J-zombies
Review date: 30 January 2025
Seifuku SurviGirl 1
Yes, there's also a Uniform SurviGirl II, released the same year. I'll happily watch that too.
Seven Japanese schoolgirls visit a theme park called Survival Land. You're given light guns and can shoot actors dressed as samurai and ninja. The park won't actually open for another three months, but the proprietor's happy to let the girls wander around and get a sneak preview. One of the seven is his niece. They'll be its first guests! Look at all these swords! They're the real thing, so be careful! (Yes, we can imagine what's coming.)
Unfortunately, GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS!!!! are being grown nearby. A samurai sees a creepy flower in the woods, so he cuts it with his sword (why?) and gets sprayed with green goo. Suddenly, he's attacking other people and vomiting goo on them too. Welcome to another zombie movie! ...well, ish.
THEY'RE ZOMBIES BECAUSE... if you're killed by them, you'll get up again and go looking for further victims. Your mental activity levels will fall and you might lose the power of speech.
THEY'RE NOT ZOMBIES BECAUSE... they've retained intelligence. They prefer to use weapons and they know where the back doors are. Some of them talk. Occasionally, they can even pass for normal. The film's at its most interesting when ripping off John Carpenter's The Thing, with our heroines wondering who's been infected and is secretly evil. (The giveaway is when someone's eyes glow green.) Should they shut the door on a friend of theirs and let the zombies catch her? Also, these zombies are plant-powered, so they'll start getting covered in vines and ivy. They look a bit like Krynoids.
I quite enjoyed this film, but it's cheap and sometimes unconvincing. GM crops don't cause a zombie apocalypse. Those vines grow too fast around that man. (It looks cool, yes, but honestly.) Also, that's a dainty neck injury for someone who's just had her throat cut.
Admittedly, the film I'd watched before this was Helldriver. Anything would look good after that, but even so this one's respectable. It's a simple, straightforward (but not scary) runaround with modestly likeable girls and a bit of characterisation. One of them was trying to pressurise her friends into doing her art schoolwork for her, then she vandalised our heroine's drawing. Personally, I'd have finished the drawing exactly as it was and then afterwards told the teacher "that's where Kanna drew a big cross on it".
It's not schlocky, silly or trashy. There's no nudity, for instance. Also, it has that sequel.