Stacy (2001)

Just before The Trendy Zombie Movie Deluge of the 21st Century began and George Romero rip-offs rained on us like frogs, this shot-on-video Japanese oddball came out. It holds up as weirdly charming today. What other country would produce a zombie tale in which the undead flesh-eaters are all winsome schoolgirls in uniforms? The zombie virus in this story’s weird world ONLY effects girls age 15 to 16. At some point at that age they all drop dead—after a giggle-crazy pre-death euphoria—and then wake up to bite your face off. It brings gore by the gallon, up to and including intestine-spilling, skull-smashing and head-severing (complete with attached spinal column). The geeks will also get a kick out of the Romero and Sam Raimi homages. The script gets sentimental by the end. There are TWO subplots in this movie’s eighty minutes about guys who are in love with doomed young girls. Things get corny real quick, but the micro-budget and all the carnage save this one. Just don’t think about it too much. In fact, I’m gonna stop thinking about it right now.