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      The Zero Boys

      1986 1h 29m Horror List
      Reviews 43% 1,000+ Ratings Audience Score War games turn deadly for a group of young people whose celebratory camping trip leads them to an unoccupied house. Read More Read Less

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      The Zero Boys

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      Critics Reviews

      View All (3) Critics Reviews
      Richard Propes TheIndependentCritic.com An under-appreciated indie gem from 1986. Rated: 3.0/4.0 Sep 27, 2020 Full Review Gareth C. Evans Starburst It isn't until the latter half of the movie that the characters become aware of the danger and the movie doesn't truly hit its stride until the last 20-30 minutes. Rated: 6/10 May 5, 2016 Full Review Adam Lowes CineVue Add to this a generous lashing of unintentional humour and a young, inexperienced cast largely playing it straight and you have a gloriously awful B-picture. Rated: 3/5 Apr 25, 2016 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member A fun 80s slasher film that replaces the usual 'victims' with gun totting weekend warriors, and the usual lone slasher killer with a group of crazy madmen. Whilst the film does suffer from an ending that begs sequel (but a sequel that never happened) The Zero Boys is a fun film. One that also takes the tired notion of 'victim girls' and turns them into more of the 'hero girls' So thats a great move for a film in the mid 80s. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/15/23 Full Review Audience Member This is on a sliding scale of so bad it's good films. Definitely a cheesy 80s B-movie, but actually pretty fun and creepy. The acting is mostly terrible, it's cringe-inducingly sexist (although Kelli Maroney is a strong female lead), but it's goes so far off the bad spectrum it's winds up being pretty fun. It's a creepy slasher but it's not overly gory. The real problem is that the ending is too abrupt. I'm honestly surprised there was never a sequel. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Atmospheric, nice panning shots of the killers. Homage to Jason. Its a fun horror movie Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member So damn rad. Such great action exploitation. Love the addition of the backwoods slasher element. What do you do when your budget and resources are limited? You innovate. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member Three hotshot paintball stars face the ultimate test of survival with their dates after a poor decision to make themselves at home in a cabin owned by sickos who have a torture barn. Good action here. The Zero Boys mean business, they train for paintball with an arsenal of real weapons. Easy to see why they are the champs on the local circuit. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member No two genres have I appreciated more than the action and horror genres. These two were mixed together beautifully in 1988's Maniac Cop, and the Zero Boys is almost as good. It begins with a paintball shootout between the Zero Boys and a different group. It's chock-full of 80s cheesy goodness, and brings to mind one of the Rambo movies (there's even a picture of Rambo in it, so at least it recognizes where it comes from). Afterwards, they head off to the woods for a victory celebration. Here's where the horror comes in. The cheesiness disappears and is replaced by a rather creepy atmosphere filled with fog and deranged backwoods hillbillies standing in silhouette holding some sort of menacing object (a knife, machete, and even a crossbow). Without the atmosphere, The Zero Boys wouldn't scare at all. However, it manages to be a very effective and eerie slasher. The body count is really low, there's no gore to write home about, and no nudity, so people who are expecting the next Friday the 13th are in for a shock. However, if the thought of Joe Estevez playing a backwoods killer intrigues you, by all means check it out. If you enjoyed ALL the Rambos (yes, even III), you'll like it. If you thought the plot of Deliverance was great but felt it needed more action, this si definitely your movie. The acting holds up surprisingly well for a movie of its caliber, and I don't care who disagrees with me. The ending leaves room for a sequel (I get chills at the thought of a follow-up), but since their never was one, I wish it had some closure. If you're at your local used books and movie store and spot a DVD of The Zero Boys, don't hesitate to buy it. Both DVD versions of it are now OOP and are reaching some high prices on the internet. One thing I should mention is that I dislike the covers for all the releases of this. Every single one of them make it look like a straight action movie, when a majority of it is slasher goodness. Don't be misled, just watch it! Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      The Zero Boys

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis War games turn deadly for a group of young people whose celebratory camping trip leads them to an unoccupied house.
      Director
      Nico Mastorakis
      Production Co
      Omega Entertainment
      Genre
      Horror
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      May 14, 2017
      Runtime
      1h 29m
      Sound Mix
      Surround
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