PLOT: Drag queens and club kids battle zombies craving brains during a zombie outbreak at their drag show in Brooklyn, putting personal conflicts aside to utilize their distinct abilities against the undead threat.
REVIEW: When you think of the word zombie, many of us horror fans think of the name George A Romero. He helped to create the genre and gave us three of the best zombie films out there. So it’s exciting that his daughter Tina is picking up the undead filmmaking mantle and trying her hand at making this style of film, with a biting social message. Very apropos for 2025, Queens of the Dead follows a group of people at a drag show and their partners, as a zombie outbreak happens in the heart of New York City. And rather than the stylings of her father, she takes a decidedly more comedic approach that mostly works.
One thing I need to get out of the way immediately is that Queens of the Dead is a comedy. I struggle to even pair it with horror, as this is really just going for laughs. The zombies are more just a means for putting these characters in an interesting situation, rather than actually giving us any scares. The zombies are treated very unseriously, with there even being glitter embedded in their skin/appearance. They are not a threat and provide more laughs than scares. So long as you go in with those expectations, I’d say it’s much more digestible.
The film has quite an ensemble, with Katy O’Brian, Riki Lindholme, Margaret Cho, Jack Haven, and Jacquel Spivey all getting a chance to shine. Even Tom Savini makes a great cameo at one point, as the mayor of New York. This is a very large cast, yet everyone feels fully formed and not simply caricatures.
Obviously, a film about drag queens is going to be very LGBTQ positive, and it feels appropriate for the times we live in. Like her father, Tina is able to have a social message, this time with the simple message of: “Hey, queer people are people too.” It helps that Queens of the Dead‘s greatest strength is its characters, who are infinitely entertaining and pop out of the screen. Tina is quite capable of handling the performances and dialogue, making everything feel natural in a way that independent cinema can sometimes struggle with.
As a drag movie with fun characters, Queens of the Dead is pretty entertaining. But once it enters zombie mode, it feels more like satire than anything related to horror. I think this would be fine if it weren’t coming from the daughter of George Romero. Obviously, that brings with it a lot of baggage, and it’s unfortunately a bit of a disappointment in that regard. Every character death feels like “this has to happen to get rid of characters” versus actually having a cause and effect. Had there been just a little more stakes, the overall product would have greatly benefited.
Ultimately, as much as I enjoyed the characters, Queens of the Dead was a bit too silly at times for me. It also ends very abruptly, without much of a third act. There could have easily been at least ten more minutes, and given us a little more of a climactic third act. Instead, there’s a lot of setup without a ton of payoff. Romero proves to have a lot of potential so this should still be considered a massive win for her, as she certainly has her father’s knack for social commentary. While this does feel rather niche overall, that niche is going to absolutely love this.
Queens of the Dead is Streaming on Shudder on October 24th, 2025.
