While some may wait to start with the likes of the Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street franchises when they’re older, some kids look to get into horror at a younger age, and have always had a variety of options, whether it’s any version of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps or Laika’s ParaNorman. For those who fall somewhere in the middle, there’s now Night of the Zoopocalypse, which isn’t quite the terrifying ride older audiences might hope for, but is charming enough to pique younger viewers’ curiosity in the wider horror genre.

Based on the short story “Zoombies” by horror icon Clive Barker, Night of the Zoopocalypse centers on Gracie, a young timber wolf longing for a better life away from the zoo that is her home and her overbearing pack leaders. Shortly after the arrival of a gruff mountain lion named Dan, Gracie and the rest of the animals find themselves in a waking nightmare when a meteor crashes into the zoo and mutates many of them into gummi-like zombies, leading to a race against time to survive and find a cure for those affected.

Night Of The Zoopocalypse’s Story Is Less Predictable Than Most Kid’s Movies

You Never Truly Know Who’s Going To Get Bit

The concept of zombies is an easy enough one for all audiences to grasp, and thankfully, Night of the Zoopocalypse doesn’t spend a lot of time trying to explain or set up its alien virus and mutations by more or less getting right into its zany take on the horror subgenre. Writing duo James Kee and Steven Hoban take the right lesson from the likes of Night of the Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and The Walking ᴅᴇᴀᴅ by introducing our protagonist, Gracie, and then jumping right into the action, introducing characters along the way.

Unlike most other zombie movies, though, Night of the Zoopocalypse actually ends up being fairly unpredictable when it comes to who gets bit and turned across its 91-minute runtime. Characters either set up to be a sympathetic figure or skillful survivor find themselves bested by the surprisingly nimble and resilient mutants that bite and transform them into a monster. Similarly, while the movie may start off like a typical kid’s movie about a character longing for adventure beyond her family, it certainly progresses in generally fresh fashion.

That’s not to say that the movie is entirely unpredictable, though, as many Night of the Zoopocalypse arcs play out as straightforwardly as one would expect from the family-friendly genre. Gracie’s efforts to show Dan the importance of finding a family are a little too on-the-nose, even for delivering that message to younger viewers, while the cowardly characters eventually find their inner courage in time for the movie’s final act.

The Movie’s Animation Is Surprisingly Great

The Monster Designs, In Particular, Are Far More Creative Than I Expected

One of the areas of the film that proved the most welcome surprise for me was that of its animation, which jumped around production homes and had to find ways to cut costs, and yet it looks really good. From an American viewer’s perspective, some international animation studios have a vibe that makes those lower budgets feel more obvious to me, whether it’s a stiff motion in character movements, or minimal design for faces. The group of Mac Guff, L’Atelier Animation and House of Cool, on the other hand, prove to be the exception with their stylish choices for the film.

The biggest showcase for their skills is the mutants themselves in Night of the Zoopocalypse. Zombified versions of animals is certainly a rarely explored concept in film — likely due to the fact it’s a more depressing concept to think about than human zombies — and that gave the movie’s team plenty of creative room to run with their mutants, and they came up with some creative means to showcase them. The gummi nature of their texture and the way they can put themselves back together feels like something out of John Carpenter’s The Thing more so than any kid’s movie.

The Script Is Far Too Tame To Actually Get People Invested

Attempts At Everything From Meta Humor To Slapstick Don’t Land

Despite its fun concept and novel creature designs, Night of the Zoopocalypse ultimately finds itself weighed down by its lackluster script. Most of the movie’s attempts at comedy fail to elicit anything more than a chuckle, even those of a meta variety, which are typically my kryptonite, but feel like a subsтιтute for exposition more so than actual jokes. While I would quicker recommend the likes of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, ParaNorman or Coraline for those looking to get younger viewers into horror, there’s also certainly far worse you can do than this.