Night of the Zoopocalypse

Directed by Rodrigo Perez-Castro and Ricardo Curtis, Night of the Zoopocalypse follows a young timber wolf (Gabbi Kosmidis’ Gracie) and a grizzled mountain lion (David Harbour’s Dan) as they’re forced to team up after their zoo is overrun by zombie-like mutations. It’s a fun premise that is, by and large, employed to distressingly underwhelming effect by Perez-Castro and Curtis, as the filmmakers, working from James Kee and Steven Hoban’s screenplay, deliver an overly frenetic endeavor that’s clearly (and aggressively) been geared solely towards younger audiences – with the far-from-engrossing atmosphere compounded by lackluster animation and Dan Levy’s distractingly chintzy score. And while the picture admittedly does contain some fun nods to horror classics, which does make this a decent-enough entry into the genre for smaller viewers, Night of the Zoopocalypse builds towards a rather anticlimactic final stretch that ensures the whole thing concludes on a forgettable note – with the end result a disappointing misfire that feels like it could (and should) be better.

** out of ****