Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires is perhaps the single movie release I was most looking forward to in 2025. I love the Zombies movies, not because they’re masterpieces or even particularly coherent, but because they are enthusiastically, effervescently corny, with enough good, solid craft behind them to provide dazzling musical numbers and vibrant production design.

The now-sprawling franchise, which kicked off in 2018, has used zombies, werewolves, and aliens as (mildly confusing) metaphors for teaching lessons about the treatment of minority communities, all generously encrusted in a sugar-sweet coating of Disney Channel bubblegum pop. Vampires seemed like a natural fit, so I was very ready to explore what Zombies 4 had to offer.

It follows zombie Zed (School Spirits star Milo Manheim) and half-alien Addison (Meg Donnelly) trying hard to put their noses to the grindstone over the summer after their first year of college, hoping to rise in the ranks of football and cheerleading, respectively. However, a derailed road trip lands them in the middle of a brewing conflict between vampires and daywalkers over dwindling food supplies.

While Zed, Addison, and friends Willa (Chandler Kinney) and Eliza (Kylee Russell) become de facto camp counselors as they try and help the two factions resolve their differences and follow the clues to open the mysteriously locked gate of their life-giving orchard, daywalker Nova (Freya Skye) and vampire Victor (Malachi Barton) try to resist their blossoming forbidden love.

Zombies 4 Spends Too Much Time Away From Its Main Characters

Its Franchise Ambitions Get In The Way Of Its Story

I’d like to start with the element that left the worst taste in my mouth. And no, I’m not talking about the baffling lore of the new monsters (Vampires sleep at night and drink blood from fruit? Daywalkers are… peppy? That’s their only thing?). These Disney Channel original movies have many strengths, but worldbuilding has never been one of them.

The biggest demerit is Zombies 4‘s transparent effort to have Zed and Addison pᴀss the torch to a new generation. While Barton and Skye are both capable performers, Nova and Victor don’t have a lot of chemistry because the screenplay so transparently wants to force them together that it forgets to give them reasons to actually like each other.

Reducing the two characters to cardboard cutouts makes it much more frustrating that they take a significant amount of screentime away from Manheim and Donnelly, neither of whom have ever been better in their roles. Donnelly throws herself full-force into some surprisingly deep emotional moments, while Manheim has honed his “charismatic himbo” shtick into a precise, lethally hilarious point.

Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires Still Shines Where It Needs To

The Franchise’s Sound Continues To Evolve

While the movie’s transparent ambitions to spawn a Zombies 5 that reduces the presence of Zed and Addison even more might be challenging to those who love the original trilogy, Dawn of the Vampires never forgets the core tenet of the franchise, which is to wholeheartedly embrace the pleasures inherent to original movie musicals.

As far as the choreography goes, the dancing is clean, exciting, and well-filmed. That said, most of the musical numbers can’t quite match the franchise’s highs, conceptually speaking (the trampoline floor element of “BAMM” in the original and the Looney Tunes “Ain’t No Doubt About It” number in Zombies 3 come to mind).

However, a high-flying love ballad and a sequence with curved sticks that are used to form hoops do live up to the franchise’s standards of exuberant creativity. Additionally, the movie briefly busts out an exquisite tap dance number that might just be the loveliest (and most “classic musical”) sequence of the entire series.

Additionally, the music itself is the best the franchise has ever had. The Zombies soundtracks have constantly been evolving, with the rap-infused bubblegum of the original movie adding R&B flavors in the sequel and EDM influences in Zombies 3. Here, the soundtrack reaches a crescendo, pulling in elements from an exhilaratingly wide variety of musical genres.

Don’t misunderstand me, the bubblegum is still there in full force. For instance, Nova gets a solo number that would make High School Musical‘s Gabriella Montez proud.

However, other numbers incorporate elements including the thrilling harmonics of 21st Century Breakdown-era Green Day (in the group number “Possible,” which sounds so beautiful it overcomes having the weakest lyrics of the bunch) and the propulsive rap-rock emotionality of Tinie Tempah’s “Written in the Stars” (in “Kerosene,” which is the movie’s standout number and Manheim’s best-ever vocal performance as Zed).

Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires’ Biggest Strength Is Also Its Biggest Weakness

The Sequel Plays It Safer Than The Original Trilogy

The other big flaw of Zombies 4 isn’t even really a flaw at all. It’s the fact that the movie is generally a solid, competent made-for-TV movie. It’s less keen to take risks with its visuals and storytelling. This results in it making very few missteps, avoiding some of the calamitous lows of previous installments, but it similarly lacks their dizzying highs.

I recognize that saying “Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires is good at what it’s doing” hardly counts as a complaint. I would just personally prefer boldly uneven to generically good any day. Ultimately, this approach is something that makes me nervous about where the franchise might be headed rather than being an actual in-the-moment problem while watching the new installment.

Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires premieres on Disney Channel on July 10 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT and begins streaming on Disney+ on July 11.